Mr. Holland's Letter

Partnering with Parents

“Providence Academy partners with parents...” This small phrase is the beginning of our mission statement as a school, but it truly sets the stage of what we seek to do every day. We sincerely believe that the primary responsibility of raising, educating, and discipling children lies with parents, as can be seen in passages like Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Ephesians 4, and Proverbs 22:6, and it is our responsibility as a school to come alongside parents in this process.

Not only is this Biblical, but educational research further shows the importance of parent involvement in the success of students in academics (Hara & Burke, 1998; Hill & Craft, 2003; Marcon, 1999; Stevenson & Baker, 1987). Considering what both the Bible and academic research has to say about the development of young people, one can see the immense impact that parents can have on a child’s walk with the Lord, their relationships with others, and how they treat those around them. While Providence Academy can clearly never replace the importance of a parent’s involvement in a child’s life and education, we do seek to complement parents in our goal of seeing students develop spiritual maturity and achieve academic excellence.

A portion of our partnering with parents is accomplished through offering tools that assist you in raising your children. That is why we developed our Student Services Department. You will continue to see more resources like our Birds and the Bees conference, Axis, and Right Now Media being made available to you. We want to help you to develop skills from how to help with homework to what to do about technology in the life of your student. All these things are so important to tackle, and parenting is never easy, but rest assured, God is at work in the life of your child, and we are here to help. Thank you for letting Providence Academy partner with you as we assist you in your high calling of parenting.

In Christ,

Ben Holland

Head of School

SOURCES

-Hara SR, Burke DJ. Parent involvement: The key to improved student achievement. The School Community Journal. 1998;8:9–19.

-Hill NE, Craft SA. Parent-school involvement and school performance: Mediated pathways among socioeconomically comparable African American and Euro-American families. Journal of Educational Psychology. 2003;96:74–83.

-Marcon RA. Positive relationships between parent school involvement and public school inner-city preschoolers’ development and academic performance. School Psychology Review. 1999;28:395–412.

-Mol SE, Bus AG. To read or not to read: a meta-analysis of print exposure from infancy to early adulthood. Psychol Bull. 2011 Mar;137(2):267-96. doi: 10.1037/a0021890. PMID: 21219054.

-Stevenson DL, Baker DP. The family-school relation and the child's school performance. Child Development. 1987;58:1348–1357.