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A child's first learning happens solely because of its parents. Their input is the most important learning influence of all: what the young child absorbs from its parents will have a lasting affect throughout its life.

It is nature's intention that parents embed the necessary life-skills in their young. Doesn't the mother cat teach her kittens how to catch mice, how to groom their fur, how to bury their droppings, how to become independent and move out into new territory?

The child's early learning within the family, under its parents' influence, constitutes the time when values and attitudes, thinking and tolerance, resilience and creativity are first modelled and practised. Once the child experiences these competencies, a strong framework for the future is firmly in place.

On starting school, the child arrives with a package of all that has happened in its first five years. Whether or not the ethics and values that are embedded deep within the child's thinking correlate with those of the school, they are, nevertheless, going to influence enormously its behaviour and responses within the learning environment.

Appropriate then, that the child/parent partnership should be developed into a three-way learning experience. In this, the child, parent and school starts out on a journey that provides the type of education that facilitates the development of a happy, productive and responsible future citizen.

Parents must feel comfortable and welcomed within the school, while understanding and supporting its policies. They need to be able to view it as a positive and essential contributor to their child's future. Parents' impressions and opinions of the school will affect the child's thinking. If a parent is enthusiastic and interested in the learning situation, then the child will reflect these attitudes. If the child prepares for school each morning knowing that the parent is excited about the opportunities and experiences available there, this optimistic and constructive approach will provide a platform for successful achievement during that day.

From the school's point of view, keeping parents "onside" is a positive approach. This can be done in a variety of friendly, tactful and encouraging ways. Frequent opportunities to visit the school and the child's class (at strictly designated times, of course) must be offered. Assemblies, special days, presentations and displays allow parents to see their children operating and progressing within the school situation. Demonstrating

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