by Anita Philip with Father Bernard Fernandes for BISMumbai

The online Parent Teacher Meeting for the 1^st Assessment at Don Bosco High School [DBHS] Matunga was conducted online via Google Meet on Saturday 29 August 2020. The Open Day was well chalked out and properly executed, by the collective efforts of the school management and staff.

A circular with the basic instructions for the Parent-Teacher was prepared by the section heads and forwarded to the class teachers The class teachers then planned the meet scheduled by dividing the students into batches based on their performance –

Category 1 –students securing above 75%, Category 2- 60%up to 75%, Category 3 – 45% up to 60%, and the last category included the poor performing students, students with low attendance, and the special cases. This last category of students was attended to individually by the class teacher. For the special cases, the supervisor and the counselor were also present along with the class teacher. Each batch had a maximum of seven to eight students.

The teachers shared the meet link and the well-planned schedule in their respective class groups for the students to follow. The timing for the Parent-Teacher meet was from 9.15am to 3 pm.

In the meet, the class teachers shared the marks scored by the students. Further,the observations of the teacher on the child’s online learning outcomes, need for improvement coaching (for poor performers), Meet class discipline, attendance and punctuality were communicated to the parents.

In the Primary section, each class teacher welcomed the parents to the online virtual meeting in different groups consisting of 10 parents each. Some of the teachers did welcome them with a PowerPoint presentation, a welcome poster, and also gave them a few tips on how to set a benchmark for their kids at home. Teachers also guided a few parents and students individually, and briefed them on how to help their child convalesce in their academics. Parents also praised the efforts taken by the management and teachers, they were very happy with the online classes and assessment conducted for the students and also gave their feedback. They felt they were blessed that their kids belonged to Don Bosco High School.

In the KinderGarten section, the attendance was 100%. Both parents attended the meet. They expressed that the sessions were well planned and systematic while appreciating the efforts of the in preparing the power point presentations, activities and celebrations. Parents were told what and how the lessons are taught. Submitting homework at the stipulated time was a concern for parents working in hospitals and on shift duties.

It was observed that the parent-student-teacher interaction was very fruitful and satisfying. Here the student-parent could confide all they wanted to the teacher as they were all alone, unlike the normal classroom open days. This was evident in the many feedbacks received from parents. A parent who was concerned about her child's interaction with other students requested if we could provide some time for the children to interact with each other which would help them deal with their emotional wellbeing during the lockdown period.

The attendance across all sections was nearly 100 percent. The few that were unable to attend were mainly due to network issues.