Dads Pack Learning Punch

Newcastle Herald

Tuesday May 1, 2007

By TYLER WILLIAMS and EMMA HEATON

GLENDORE PS recently hosted a morning where fathers and father figures cooked and ate breakfast with their children.

The fathers' breakfast included a sausage sizzle where more than 200 sausages and a fair number of egg-and-bacon rolls were consumed, along with many litres of tea, coffee, orange and apple juice.

Two hundred fathers and father figures visited the school and engaged with their children in classroom activities.

The fathers and father figures attended literacy classes where they listened to their children read and helped them complete activity sheets.

"This was an excellent opportunity for fathers to see and encourage their children at school," said Glendore principal Les Corrigan.

Glendore Involving Fathers and Father Figures Totally (G.I.F.F.F.T) is a program now operating that utilises the strengths of the staff, fathers and father figures to enhance student abilities and outcomes, focusing especially on literacy skills.

It is hoped that more involvement by fathers and father figures as role models in children's lives will improve learning and motivate children to do their best at school.

The fathers told the children about their own experiences as students and what school was like when they were young.

The literacy class experience was described as an uplifting and positive experience for the fathers and their children.

There were more than a dozen fathers and father figures in some classrooms and those students without a visiting dad shared with their friends.

"It was one of the most magical days this school has ever experienced," said year 6 student Emma Heaton.

"The long-term goal for Glendore Public School is to continue to build upon more dads doing more things in more ways in the classroom," said Chris Chappell, a staff member and exchange teacher from England.

"It has been proven that engaging fathers in their child's education can make a significant difference to the child and father well beyond the years of school-based learning."

The staff and students all look forward to more encouragement and visits from fathers in the near future.

© 2007 Newcastle Herald

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