Holyoke High School will be hosting six socio-emotional workshops for the parents and the guardians of the school community starting on Wednesday, September 28th. Last year, Holyoke High was awarded a national innovation grant to do these workshops. The whole idea behind the workshops is to advise parents how to help their kids achieve higher in school.

“It is important that Holyoke High helps parents be the best that they can be,” said HHS biology teacher Kerrita Mayfield, organizer of the workshops. “Parents should really take advantage of this cool opportunity.”

There are three primary goals for the workshops: to build stronger school-home relationships by supporting parents’ and guardians’ skills, to share the school success knowledge of teachers and community members with parents and guardians so they can in turn keep supporting our young people, and to build and support the socio-emotional capacity of our community members.

The first workshop is entitled “Family Calendars” and it will be run by Mrs. Steele. It will run from 4:30-6:30 pm in the Holyoke High cafeteria on September 28th. There will also be meetings on October 27th (run by Dr. Fefer from UMass), November 9th (run by Ms. Mayfield), and there will be three more meeting dates to come.

All workshops will be on campus. There will be free babysitting, dinner, and Spanish translators.

“The format is very interactive and parents will get to bring home some cool supplies,” said Mayfield.

The information gathered from these workshops will be presented at a national conference and could become part of a national model for improving school-family relationships. Holyoke High School parents and guardians should take advantage of the great opportunities provided through these workshops.