Parents taking family values into education

Fia Lui says the family atmosphere at St Leonard's Rd helps everyone bond. Photo / Natalie Slade

When Fia Lui walks into the Kelston school her youngest two children attend, she feels she is part of the "family".

"It's like that bonding between the children and teachers, and between teachers and parents, so it's a real family atmosphere," she says.

"It's got to have that so parents can actually come in and approach the staff without that feeling of hesitance."

St Leonard's Rd School, where Mrs Lui is on the board of trustees and involved with netball and other sports, is one of seven members of a cluster called "Excellent Kelston Schools", which is praised in the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs report for raising the achievements by their combined 1620 Pasifika students.

Mrs Peta Si'ulepa, who was the project's first co-ordinator, says it aimed to take "a whole village approach" extending from preschool to the district's three primary schools, one intermediate, boys' and girls' colleges and the Kelston Deaf Education Centre.

"We had a whole bunch of early childhood education centres that were going out of business because they couldn't get any funding and were closing down right before our very eyes," she says.

She got families involved by working with those already active.

"I asked all the principals, 'When you have your parent interviews, who are the parents that turn up?"' she says.

"Those are the ones we lock into an organised structure. We work with them, and we get them to work outwards into their churches and their communities."

They formed a Kelston Community Trust, which built a preschool centre in St Leonards Rd. It also took on a contract for the Home Interaction Programme for Parents and Youngsters (Hippy), which trains parents to help their 4- and 5-year-old children with their learning.

Mrs Lui, who joined Hippy as a parent in 2003 and later became a tutor for other parents, says it taught her "things that I knew but never implemented with my children".

"Just simple things, just getting engaged with my child instead of turning the PlayStation on or turning the TV on," she says.