Program Archives

The Parents Council of Washington hosted its Fall Orientation on October 4, 2011 at the National Cathedral School.  The event featured Katherine Koestner, the Executive Director of Campus Outreach Services, as the Kick-Off Speaker. 

Molly LaRochelle, President of the Parents Council of Washington, welcomed all of the Parents Council of Washington Representatives to this year’s Spring Forum.  She presented an overview of the various events that the PCW has sponsored during the 2010-2011 school year and thanked the Representatives for their participation and support. 

Molly LaRochelle, President of the Parents Council of Washington, welcomed all of the Parents Council of Washington Parents Association Presidents to this year’s Panel Presentation on the topic of “Effective Leadership in Challenging Times.”  She presented an overview of the many events that the PCW has sponsored during the 2010-2011 school year and thanked the Parents Association Presidents, both incoming and outgoing, for their participation and continued support. 

Summary of the PCW Fall Representatives Roundtable – November 4, 2010

Download Dr. Stixrud's notes from the presentation, available in PDF and RTF formats.

Parents Council of Washington Summary of Dr. William Stixrud Presentation

“Stretching Kids Without Breaking Them: Stress Free Ways of Promoting Development”

Introduction: Parents sometimes confuse their children’s happiness with self esteem. Parents try to create happy children all the time and this does not serve them well in the long run.

The Spring Rep Roundtable focused on briefing the parent reps about the high school Student Leader Breakfast and the Middle School Student Leader Forum. After an initial briefing reps broke into groups two groups, one focused on high school and one on middle school issues.

The Parents Council of Washington piloted the first ever Middle School Student Leader Breakfast at The Potomac School on April 14, 2010. It was modeled after our extremely popular Student Leader Breakfast for high school student leaders.  Forty-four students (7th graders) from twenty-two middle schools engaged in an active discussion of issues ranging from peers and cliques; self-confidence and appearance; teacher relationships; and matters surrounding Facebook, texting, and the Internet. Based on the students' written evaluations, they appreciated the opportunity to hear about the challenges facing other middle school students and to benefit from the advice of peers. Several commented that this made them aware that many students are facing similar issues.

Welcome by Kate Morin, Head of Upper School at Stone Ridge
Welcome and Calendar Review – Betsy Mandel, President, PCW

TOPIC: PARENT NETWORKING
Presentations and discussion of the ways that schools provide for parents to participate in their school communities and to connect and communicate with each other.

Teens & Us – We are in this together!

Robin G. Sawyer, Ph.D.
University of Maryland School of Public Health

Dr. Sawyer teaches courses in human sexuality and adolescent health and is the author of the book Beyond the Birds and the Bees – How parents can discuss sexuality with their children. Dr. Sawyer is the father of four girls.

The first Parents Council of Washington (PCW) meeting of the 2009/2010 school year was held at the Holton-Arms School on Wednesday, September 30th from 9am-12pm.

The meeting was an opportunity for the PCW board and each member school’s representatives to go over the program calendar for the year and review the duties of a PCW representative: To Give, To Receive and To Share Information back to your school.

The Parents Council welcomed outgoing representatives from member schools to a Thank You Coffee and information session about the results from the Student Leadership Breakfast and the Dean’s Luncheon (See summaries of the events for results.)

This resulted in a lively discussion among the reps on the subjects most talked about at the two gatherings – camera phones and academic integrity.

"Students and Stress: Causes and Solutions"

Over forty Representatives from 23 member schools attended the PCW’s annual Best Practices program last month. The topic was “Students and Stress.” Three school counselors representing lower, middle and upper school gave presentations on identifying and alleviating stress at the various grade levels.

Online Social Networking

Fred Haller from Georgetown Visitation gave a very entertaining but sobering talk about online social networks. He noted that most people don’t realize that when a person accepts Facebook’s terms and conditions, they give Facebook ownership of everything they post – every word, picture or idea.