Please note: Registration will open Monday, March 15th, 2021. Our apologies for the error in the message sent Friday. The Speakers list was sent in advance in order for School Councils to have time to review the options available prior to registration opening on Monday.
Application Process (Revised)
On Monday, March 15th, School Councils will receive an email with the registration links for the sessions. As sessions are selected by a school council, dates will be eliminated from the application form. The successful applicants will be notified shortly after registration is complete.
Parents Reaching Out Grant
The OCDSB is launching School Council Virtual Speaker Nights. With some careful planning, this series makes it easier than ever for school councils to host a parent information night on a topic of interest to their school community.
How Does it Work?
We’ve developed a list of topics and booked local experts to speak on these topics. School councils can review the list of topics and available dates and identify their preferred session. School Councils will have the opportunity to register for one Virtual Speaker Night only. A total of 72 Virtual Speaker Nights are available. Speakers have already been booked for52 sessions on specific dates.
The list of topics includes a “School Council Choice” for those councils who wish to select and run their own virtual speaker’s night. In these cases, the OCDSB will fund up to $650 of the cost of a speaker selected by the council. School councils are required to submit a short one page summary of their event. A google form will be provided to school councils to facilitate reporting. Sessions are limited and as such will be on a first come first serve basis.
What are the topics?
Working with the Parent Involvement Committee, a list of workshop topics was developed. Speakers for these sessions have been pre-booked on the following topics:
TECHNOLOGY (15 sessions)
Exploring Digital Parenting (Media Smarts)
Raising Ethical Kids For a Networked World (Media Smarts)
The Parent Network: Social Media and Your Kids (Media Smarts)
Social Networking Safety (Paul Davis)
EQUITY (4 sessions)
Understanding Equity in Education (Parents for Diversity)
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING AND MATHEMATICS (STEM)
(15 sessions)
Virtual Family Science Nights (Scientists in Schools)
MENTAL HEALTH AND WELL-BEING (18 sessions)
Mental Health and Addiction (Rideauwood Addiction and Family Services)
Self-Regulation in Children and Adolescents (OCDSB Learning Support Services Staff)
The Parent-Child Connection (OCDSB Learning Support Services Staff)
SCHOOL COUNCIL CHOICE (20 sessions)
The school council chooses a topic, finds and books a speaker and runs the event. The District provides up to $650 towards the speaker cost.
We encourage school councils to work with another school council on their application for a single Speaker Night.
Please note, this does not apply to “Scientists in School” Virtual Family Nights. These sessions can accommodate only one school council on the dates offered.
Why Are We Doing This?
Parent Involvement is important. This initiative helps school councils to get parents engaged with the school community. Funding has been provided from the Ministry of Education - Parents Reaching Out (PRO) funding which is intended to support the identification of barriers to parent engagement in their school communities and find solutions to help more parents get involved in their children’s education. Working with the OCDSB Parent Involvement Committee, we worked to develop an allocation model of PRO grants that provides parents more control over PRO funds while transferring the administrative work associated with reporting to the Ministry of Education to central staff.
Application Process
On Friday, March 15th, School Councils will receive an email with the registration links for the sessions. As sessions are selected by a school council, dates will be eliminated from the application form. The successful applicants will be notified shortly after registration is complete.
The successful applicants will be responsible for:
- Promotion and advertising of their Speaker Nights within their local communities.
- Managing the registration of families for the Speaker Night.
- Liaising with the speaker to sort out the logistics of the Night.
- Moderation of the Speaker Night should they wish to engage a speaker of their own choice.
- Distribution and completion of post-event feedback from the Speaker Night Participants. A google form will be provided to facilitate the collection.
The District is providing the following support to the successful school councils:
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A toolkit to help school councils prepare for and promote and moderate their Virtual Speaker Night.
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School councils will receive a google form to be completed in order to fulfil the reporting requirements to the Ministry on Monday, March 15th.
