Pushy...Pushy..ha ha ha. There are around 487 students which amounts to about 260 families, we are a K-6 school. If I had to estimate I would say we get probably around 350-400 people, just trying to compare it to an event that I know the count on. I know last year we had 30 pies cut into 10 pieces each and that was gone by the end of the night. Of course not everyone ate PIE!
Our Open House is usually like three weeks after school starts, we have a block party in the quad the first week! Open house consists of children being able to give their parents a tour of the whole school , and stop into meet their new teacher.There is no assembly or anything like that, our principal talks at the block party and we also have a set up there. Our group will hold our fall book fair open house night and also serve refreshments (last year we served pie.Parent Involvement in Education). We also have a table on hand and have alot of info for parents, as well as our scrapbook sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.Attendance wise we get a pretty good size crowd at both events! I do speak at Kindergarten orientation...busy busy!
Our school (Elementary Pre-K thru 5th) has a Kindergarten Roundup where just those kids come and meet the teachers, see the rooms, and take a tour of the school. I think that's the week before school starts. (2 hours max, in the evening)
The evening before school starts, grades 1-5 have a "Meet the Teacher". (5-8pm) The teacher lists are posted, parents/kids go to their classroom, you can drop off school supplies, the teacher has sign up lists, etc. (There's no general assembly, just visiting in the classrooms and hallways. Principal and other key staff on hand to greet people as they come into the school.)
Then our school usually has an "Open House" about 2 or 3 weeks into the school year. We have a quick general PTO meeting to approve the budget, the Principal makes some opening remarks, THEN everyone visits their children's teachers, discusses how things are proceeding, signs up for parent/teacher conferences, etc.
All are VERY well attended. For each event, our PTO sells T-shirts & school supplie paks and staffs a table with membership and volunteer forms. PTO Board members wear namebadges and help out as needed.
My mind is working overdrive this week. Lots of questions. Here's another one for you. Feel free to answer this one now or to wait til your Open House is held this year:
Basically, I'm looking details on Open Houses. Does your school have one? How well-attended is it? How many weeks after first day of school is it held? What's your PTO's role in it? (runs it? is allowed to speak at it? has a table at it? etc.)
