Parents For Education

Parents For Education

Parents for Education (PARED) manages several schools in Sydney, Australia through the PARED Foundation. PARED was established in 1982 by Opus Dei as an initiative of parents and educators to operate schools and other educational projects which assist parents in their task as the primary educators of their children. Pastoral care at the schools is led by Opus Dei.

The founders of the PARED Schools have introduced into Australia an individualised system of education implemented in many schools throughout the world. This system of education was developed in Europe in the 1950s for the parents to exercise greater responsibility in the education of their children. There are now more than a hundred such schools in operation on the five continents. PARED maintains professional contact with many of these schools.

PARED founded Tangara School for Girls in 1982. Since then several other schools and campuses have been established throughout Sydney's metropolitan region: in Cherrybrook, Dural, Wahroonga, Belfield, Orchard Hills and Werrington.

PARED Schools are characterised by many features. Prominent among these are:

• The system of education is personalised, seeking to integrate the pursuit of academic excellence, the acquisition of skills and the development of the student's character.
• PARED Schools are family schools, where the educational rights of the family effectively come first. The schools have the dual role to provide for the overall development of the students as well as to assist parents to be more effective educators of their children.
• The Personalised Tutorial System, pioneered in Australia by PARED, ensures that each child is helped to be the best person he or she can be. It facilitates the partnership between parents and school: the only way to ensure the children receive a holistic and efficacious education.

One of the main means of parent/teacher/student communication is through the tutorial system. Each student is alloted a tutor ( a teacher ) who meets the student regularly (ideally fortnightly) to check on the student's advancement academically, socially, spiritually etc. The tutor meets with the student's teachers regurlarly and with the student's parents about every term. If the parent has anything particular to say to the tutor they may request a meeting at any time. Key Parent Functions (or KPFs) are another means of allowing the parents to become more involved in the student's education.