At The Gateway School of Mumbai, we understand and value the expertise parents bring to the table. We work closely with our parents to support the learner’s development. This partnership has proven invaluable and has resulted in our learners making tremendous progress. Furthermore, we acknowledge that it isn’t just the learners whose lives are affected by their disabilities, but their families too are equally – although in a different way – affected.
Our parent initiatives include the following:
Parent-teacher association
Every year, we create an executive parent-teacher team which represents the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA). The executive team includes a classroom representative for each homeroom, along with 2-3 school leaders. The PTA meets regularly to discuss and brainstorm on relevant topics and to organise events for our students, parents, and team. Our PTA actively and enthusiastically supports us with all events, along with being our advocates and champions in the community.
Support Group
Our Parent Support Group (PSG) initiative came when Indira, our founder, shared about her experience of attending support groups in the United States and how they helped her. We wanted to extend this experience and opportunity to our wonderful parents here at The Gateway School of Mumbai. Over the past 12 years, the PSG at Gateway has become a platform for sharing and has aided in building networks of support for all. The PSG is a space to help us better understand ourselves as individuals and to connect with parents who have similar experiences, while building a strong support system. Therapists are mere facilitators. The meetings really are an opportunity for the parents and caregivers to come together to listen to each other and to share joys and victories as well as pains and struggles, fully aware that it’s a place of acceptance and not judgement.
If you would like to attend a PSG or learn more about it, please reach out to us at info@gatewayschoolmumbai.org
Workshops/knowledge sharing
In order to ensure the learner is getting optimal support, we conduct workshops for family members, sharing with them the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of practices being used by the school on a variety of topics ranging from foundational areas such as sensory motor or behaviour support to specific strategies and programmes we use as part of our academic or curricular programmes. We also use this space to introduce our parents to professionals such as nutritionists, optometrists, and our mentors who can further help us develop expertise to support the students.
We identify topics for these workshops based on the needs of our parents and schedule them as and when needed.
If you would like to get updates about our workshops, please contact us at workshop@gatewayschoolmumbai.org