As soon as a new family expresses interest in joining Viewpoint School (CA), we welcome them into the school community with the understanding that children are not the only students who will be learning and engaging on our campus. Parents find that they too will be learning as they go—about the school, their child’s development, and much more—demonstrating a commitment to lifelong learning and active involvement in a community of like-minded families.
Our school has long been supported by our volunteer Viewpoint School Service Association (VSSA), which provides many opportunities for parents, guardians, and grandparents to engage in school events that enhance the student and staff experience. The VSSA has 64 committee positions, such as those for school spirit, community service, hot lunch manager, book fair chair, grade-level parents, and parent education, among others.
To create even more opportunities for campus engagement and learning, over the past five years, Viewpoint School’s employees and parents have developed a slate of adult learning programs that harness families’ positive energy, inviting parents to grow as guardians and as school community members.
Diversity and Inclusion
Viewpoint is committed to supporting a more inclusive school where everyone thrives and belongs, and parents are an integral part of this work. Passionate parent volunteers help build community by enhancing cultural awareness and promoting understanding and compassion throughout our community. Led by Patricia Jackson, Viewpoint’s director of diversity, inclusion, and community life, Parent Partnership for Diversity and Inclusion welcomes new parents and guardians to the school, plans cultural celebrations, celebrates graduates, and organizes parent affinity groups. During the 2023–2024 school year, Viewpoint launched the Parent/Guardian Diversity Council, where attendees learned about diversity and inclusion work at school, embraced each other’s different cultures and lived experiences, and discussed topics important to them and the school. Special events from this past year included a Healing Through Music program, an art exhibit, and an international potluck.
Wellness Programming
The world is rapidly changing, and as a school, we want to help our families navigate what they need to know through the lens of health and well-being. Over the past two years, Rebecca Heller, director of student wellness, coordinated talks by authors Jennifer Breheny Wallace (Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic—and What We Can Do About It), Lisa Damour (The Emotional Lives of Teenagers: Raising Connected, Capable, and Compassionate Adolescents), Devorah Heitner (Growing Up in Public: Coming of Age in a Digital World), Cara Natterson and Vanessa Kroll Bennett (This Is So Awkward: Modern Puberty Explained), and many others in the field of child and adolescent wellness. These events were often hosted on Zoom, allowing us to distribute recorded sessions to families who were not able to attend. Viewpoint also partners with other Los Angeles-based independent schools to highlight and share with the greater community topics focused on student well-being.
Parent Education Circle
We’ve also created a space for parent-to-parent conversations around the broad definition of “success,” going beyond the idea of traditional academic achievement. Led by Chief Innovation Officer Anneke Emerson and facilitated by Viewpoint staff, Viewpoint’s Parent Education Circle is rooted in Denise Pope’s Challenge Success program, which is designed to foster healthy and engaged students and to examine the relationship between rigor and stress. The group members share experiences, seek and offer advice, and find solace knowing they are not alone in their parenting journey. Open to all Viewpoint parents, the group meets on Zoom a handful of times over the school year to discuss topics such as “Sleep and Screens,” “Cyber Safety,” and “Parenting in the Digital Age.”
Book Chats
Viewpoint’s two campus libraries are the heart of community life on campus and serve as the location for more than 150 parent and student meetings and gatherings during the school year. Our professional librarians promote the joy of reading across the grade levels, and when students and parents could not come to campus in 2020, I offered “parent book chats” on Zoom. They’ve been going strong ever since, with five or six meetings during the school year, and we now meet in the evening on campus. These librarian-led chats, focused on literary fiction, are well-publicized and open to any Viewpoint parent or alumni parent, giving our parents the opportunity to connect with other families at different divisional grade levels. The library offers an updated community reading guide that features parent and faculty book choices, as well as faculty professional summer reading.
As we’ve built our programming, we are mindful that while many of our families are local, others live as far as 25 miles away. Therefore, a hybrid, collaborative, and well-planned approach to parent education and engagement has been integral to the success of our parent programming—from which we’ll continue to develop, evolve, and grow.