Family Matters@School

We want to praise God for giving us the opportunity to start the Family Matters@School(FMS) in the school. FMS was launched on 2 April, 2010 and its centre is in operation in the current AGAPE room which is now known as the SFE Centre.

FMS is one of the recommendations of Family Matters Singapore(FMS), previously known as Public Education Committee on Family (PEC).

FMS adopts a holistic family learning model – equipping parents with effective parenting skills and training them to be parent facilitators, helping the staff of the school to enhance their family life, and providing students with life skills training.

The parent-child relationship has much impact on the child’s academic achievements and positive attitudes/behaviour, regardless of socio-economic status, ethnic/racial background or parents’ education level.

With support from North West, South East and South West CDCs, and Fei Yue Counselling Centre, FMS was piloted in Nanyang and Temasek Primary Schools, and Bartley and Commonwealth Secondary Schools in January 2002. FMS was launched by Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, then Acting Minister for Community Development and Sports on 15 April 2002.

FMS has been well received by parents and participating schools. Since 2002, it has reached close to 2 million people. As at 2010, there are 227 schools in the FMS programme.

Objectives

The FMS aims to help bond families and individuals (namely, parents, students and staff) through programmes and activities approved by MCYS.

The FMS hopes to enhance the quality of family life and indirectly also impact the positive growth of the children in the school. Therefore, we hope to have your full support and participation on the SFE programmes and activities.

Features

1. Family Learning

A family that learns together grows together. Therefore, FMS Programmes are designed and planned to promote better parent-child understanding through talks, workshops and activities.

2. Training Parents to be Facilitators

Under FMS, parents volunteers are trained to become parent facilitators. They will provide guidance to other parents and help to facilitate workshops and support groups that aim to impart positive parenting skills.

3. School Staff’s Family Wellness

The school staff are also members of families. FMS will provide them with programme to help them better manage their work and family life. Enhanced family life will translate into higher productivity for the school.

4. Students’ Programme

FMS empowers students with positive values to empower them in their relationships with others, and thereby facilitate their growth into responsible adults.

Benefits

The programmes and activities under FMS are of high quality and evaluation from participants showed that they experienced considerable improvements in their family life after attending SFE programmes.

For Parents

• Better understanding of their children
  

• Better parent-child (family) relationships
  

• An opportunity to be an FLE advocate and to participate in parent support groups
  

For Students

• Developmet into socially adept individuals equipped with positive life skills.
  

For School Staff

Better equipped and hence better performance as their personal needs are taken care of.

For School

• An ideal environment for learning and working
  

• Better parent-school relationship
  

• Happier staff
  

For Community

• Benefit from a value-added image as an ideal place to raise a family
  

• Increase community bonding and pride