December was a busy month for the Parents’ Community. Parents joined the group meetings, and the December meeting involved a lecture by Dr. Natalie Levy. Levy did her doctoral research on mixed schools, comparing schools like the WASNS primary school, where the mixing is by choice, to those schools where different populations mix from necessity. She found there were differences, for example, in the ease with which children form friendships, when the school is mixed intentionally. While not surprising, her findings gave the parents new insight into the foundations of the primary school and why it is so successful.
“It was so relevant, I wanted to jump right to the conversation while she was talking,” said Tamar Zohar-Shemesh, Jewish coordinator of the Parents Community. “Fortunately, we had time after her talk for a really good discussion.”
The Parents’ Community dialogue group has continued to meet, and its numbers grow from meeting to meeting. The parents participating in the group have become a core support group for the school, inspiring others to become more involved in the school and its message of peaceful shared life.
The HannuChristmas market is already a tradition, and the Parents’ Community took part in organizing and hosting the market. Families, staff and village members all came to enjoy food, crafts and entertainment.
The “holidays of light” are also the time when the parents are active in their children’s classrooms, coming to teach about the holidays, helping with parties and more.
In January, there was an excellent turnout for the lecture on sex education, a subject that interests quite a few parents.
The spring holiday evening was cancelled due to the situation, but in May, the lecture on Internet safety was also well attended. May also saw the beginning of a course in Arabic organized by the Parents Community coordinators and offered to parents.
June is coming up, and the coordinators and parents are already planning the end-of-the-year parties for their children’s classes, as well as a pool party for the entire community.
