Kinderpedia is bridging the gap between active learning and parental involvement at Raiz International School
It all started as a dream of becoming not just a school, but a second home where learners felt engaged with their education. Starting with only 13 students, Raiz International Active Learning School has now evolved into a renowned institute that uses Kinderpedia to streamline all of its activities and communication with parents.
The school places great emphasis on keeping parents informed about all aspects of their children's education. To achieve this, they recognise the need for open communication channels between families and staff.
In the past, the school faced challenges as they relied on five different tools that failed to communicate with each other to connect with parents. This created a lot of unnecessary complexity and confusion.
“Before, we used to send our weekly newsletter through MailChimp and organise presentations online through Google Slides. We also used to send updates to a news feed and with Class Dojo’s messages. Besides this, we also sent messages through the class email and we kept our webpage always up to date.”
By adopting Kinderpedia, the school improved its communication channels, organised information better, and increased parental engagement.
The adoption of Kinderpedia brought a significant improvement in communication for the entire Raiz community. With the use of a single app, they were able to efficiently exchange all necessary information. Parents and students alike welcomed this positive change.
“Our students are always asking us to send pictures to their parents, whether they're about school projects or something they did during their breaks. Sometimes when we have students celebrating their birthdays and parents cannot be present, we take pictures of the moments and send them to parents through Kinderpedia. We can quickly and easily announce all parents when we're going on field trips telling them we have arrived and how the trip went” , reports teacher Andréa Martins.
The staff and members of the Raiz community found that having all the essential information centralised on Kinderpedia made their daily tasks easier. They no longer had to waste time searching through different platforms to find what they needed, resulting in increased efficiency and productivity.
“Another great advantage of Kinderpedia is the possibility of having all children's information in the same app in one place. We can find important information such as date of birth, contact, details of parents, permission to leave school, and many other relevant details about students”
Over time, Raiz International School became a proficient user of Kinderpedia's newsletter feature. They now send out a weekly newsletter to parents that contains updates, information about events and summer camps, enrolment forms, and more. It's a one-stop-shop for all the important school news that parents need to know.
“Our weekly newsletter is a fundamental part of Raiz's life,” says executive director Joaquim Vítor.
An app that supports the school’s vision and learning model
Margarida Rodrigues is the school’s Co-Founder and a strong advocate of the active learning approach. According to her, there are five key ingredients to this methodology: the child's language and thinking, the support of the adult, the materials, manipulation, and choice.
However, this innovative and student-centered approach was not always easy for parents to understand. Fortunately, Kinderpedia helped bridge this gap by providing a stronger communication network and allowing parents to visually see what was being done in class. As a result, parents gained a better understanding of the approach and were better able to support their children's learning at home.
“Kinderpedia has proven to be a great partner in sharing the vision of our school to our families,” added Margarida Rodrigues, Co-Founder and Director of High Scope Portugal.
Better monitoring of children’s progress
Another improvement Kinderpedia brought to this community was a closer monitoring of each student’s development. Kinderpedia’s reports, and newsfeed allowed teachers to make regular posts about classroom activities and student progress. This kept all members of the community informed and up-to-date on the latest school activities and student progres.
“With Kinderpedia’s daily updates, parents get a better idea of their children's experiences and learning,” states Andrea Martins.
Raiz International Active Learning School is raising emotionally-healthy students
“Raíz is an active learning school. Our name is Raíz International Active Learning School, and we work by doing our kids have a social emotional learning process and they can learn what they want when they want.
Our Socioemotional Learning Program has been extremely important in each of our lives, and not only in our own, but also in our children's and families' lives, and what we feel makes a day more motivating. A day where each one of us has a greater concern for understanding their emotions, for understanding what is in our hearts and how this can influence our day-to-day interactions. This is a point that seems fundamental to me, the interaction between children, adults, and families,” happily shared Margarida Rodrigues, when asked to tell us more about the school.
