Thank you for volunteering as Room Parent to support your classroom! As a Room Parent, you are the teacher liaison, in charge of parent communications, and the coordinator of teacher/classroom needs and opportunities for involvement. You will also work with the other PA grade-level roles in supporting your grade.
Within the first two weeks of the school year, let the teacher know that you will be the Room Parent and serve as the primary point of contact. Your teacher will provide you with parent email addresses.
If you have questions regarding your role as Room Parent, please feel free to contact Stephanie Glassburn, PA Communications Lead, at stephanie.glassburn@gmail.com.
Tips for Communicating
Here are some things to think about as you get started as a Room Parent:
- Each grade and classroom is different – tailor your communications to what works best for their needs. There is no right or wrong way to do this!
- Determine how you will work with the other Room Parent in your grade. Figure out what works best for you and your classrooms. There may be some big ways you can streamline the work you are both doing. Here’s some ideas that might increase efficiency:
- Use the same general email and add anything classroom specific
- Alternate weeks drafting communications for both classes
- Ask your teacher how you can support them. Ask if they would like to be cc’ed on communications. Check in with your teacher on a regular basis to see if they have specific needs they would like communicated to parents.
- Think about the cadence of email communications to your classroom. This could be weekly, biweekly, or just-in-time when there is relevant information to be passed along to parents.
- Check in with your grade-level PA team periodically to see if they have anything that needs to be communicated to parents. They will likely reach out to you with requested communications as well.
- Use NewsViews, What’s Going On – Weekly PA Communication (sent by Stephanie Glassburn), teacher emails, PA meeting notes, activity/event specific communications (e.g., Jog-a-thon, Auction) for content relevant to your classroom. Think about what is important to parents. You do not need to recreate NewsViews! At the same time, you are likely helping someone who missed something the first time by emphasizing things of importance.
- Include links to relevant sites, making it easy for parents to navigate to more information.
- Highlight important dates like school/XDC closures, dress uniform days, other special dress days (free dress, spirit week), parish events, etc.
- Feel free to leverage PA meeting notes available on the PA website – copy and paste or tailor to fit your need.
Room Parent Email Templates and Sample Emails
Click the links below to access email templates and sample emails to help with your communications to parents. Feel free to tailor them to your needs.