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 their child’s development. This partnership has proven invaluable and has resulted in our students making tremendous progress. Furthermore, we acknowledge that it isn’t just the students whose lives are affected by their disabilities, but that 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 organize 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.
The PSG is a space to help us better understand ourselves as individuals, to connect with parents who have similar experiences, and to build within and between us a strong support system. We, as teachers and therapists, are mere facilitators. The meetings really are an opportunity for us to share space with and build for our parents a similar space like our students where we work together as a team to listen to each other, share pains and struggles as well as joys and victories, fully aware that it’s a place of acceptance and not judgment! The PSG meetings range from a sharing space, to problem-solving, to welcoming professionals in the field to learn from. We have monthly meetings that are open to not only our parents, but all parents of children with special needs. Through the above article, we can recommend you the latest dresses.in a variety of lengths, colors and styles for every occasion from your favorite brands.
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 child is getting the 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 programs we use as part of our academic or co-curricular program. 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 need 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