An open house (also known as open day, at-home day, or parents night) is an event held at an institution where its doors are open to the family of students to allow people to look around the institution and learn about it. These are often held at schools and universities to attract prospective students, familiarize them (and their parents) with the facilities, allow new students to become familiar with facilities and meet others, or to open informal communication channels between school staff and the students and their parents. [2]
School open houses are about two hours long, the length of a good movie or show ... a well-executed event sets the stage for a successful school year. The face-to-face meetings with families help build relationships, increase the visibility of the parent group, and develop a sense of community at school. [3]
Contrary to what its name might seem to imply, an open house at the average school is not intended for general members of the public, but rather, specifically, for the parents and family members of the students who either attend or are considering attending a school. In the overwhelming majority of schools in the United States, open house is held once a year, typically in the first month or first quarter of the school year. It is common for open houses to be held in the evenings or weekends, to allow for parents who work during the standard the work-week hours to attend, but holding open house in the daytime is not unusual, especially at elementary schools.
In elementary schools, open houses often have no schedule; parents come and go during the scheduled hours as they please, and some teachers may be willing to discuss individual students' progress with their parents. Some schools may schedule displays of school activities, such as a performance by a student choir.
In secondary schools—divided into middle schools (also called junior high schools) and high schools (also called senior high schools)—the single most important purpose of the open house is to allow parents and teachers meet each other face-to-face. In many middle schools and high schools, parents are given a schedule, often the same schedule their child follows during the school day. The parents go from one class to another, in the sequence that their child attends them, usually in the very same classrooms. Typically in such open houses the parents have only 5–15 minutes with their child's teacher, which provides time for the teacher to explain their class expectations, but not enough time to look around, actually know classmates, and have a good bond with them.
A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools. The names for these schools vary by country but generally include primary school for young children and secondary school for teenagers who have completed primary education. An institution where higher education is taught is commonly called a university college or university.
A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now extend across many countries, their functioning, codes of conduct and ethos vary greatly. Children in boarding schools study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers or administrators. Some boarding schools also have day students who attend the institution by day and return off-campus to their families in the evenings.
Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th century in Germany, Bavaria and Alsace to serve children whose parents both worked outside home. The term was coined by German pedagogue Friedrich Fröbel, whose approach globally influenced early-years education. Today, the term is used in many countries to describe a variety of educational institutions and learning spaces for children ranging from 2 to 6 years of age, based on a variety of teaching methods.
A promenade dance, commonly called a prom in American English, is a dance party for high school students. It may be offered in semi-formal black tie or informal suit for boys, and evening gowns for girls. This event is typically held near the end of the school year. There may be individual junior and senior proms or they may be combined.
Secondary education is the last six or seven years of statutory formal education in the United States, including grade 6 or grade 7, which vary by states and sometimes by district,) through grade 12.
Child care, otherwise known as day care, is the care and supervision of a child or multiple children at a time, whose ages range from two weeks of age to 18 years. Although most parents spend a significant amount of time caring for their child(ren), child care typically refers to the care provided by caregivers that are not the child's parents. Child care is a broad topic that covers a wide spectrum of professionals, institutions, contexts, activities, and social and cultural conventions. Early child care is an equally important and often overlooked component of child's developments.
A parent–teacher association/organization (PTA/PTO), parent-teacher-friend association (PTFA), or parent–teacher–student association (PTSA) is a formal organization composed of parents, teachers and staff that is intended to facilitate parental participation in a school.
A cram school, informally called crammer and colloquially also referred to as test-prep or exam factory, is a specialized school that trains its students to achieve particular goals, most commonly to pass the entrance examinations of high schools or universities. The English name is derived from the slang term cramming, meaning to study hard or to study a large amount of material in a short period of time.
Gebhart v. Belton, 33 Del. Ch. 144, 87 A.2d 862, aff'd, 91 A.2d 137, was a case decided by the Delaware Court of Chancery in 1952 and affirmed by the Delaware Supreme Court in the same year. Gebhart was one of the five cases combined into Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 decision of the United States Supreme Court which found unconstitutional racial segregation in United States public schools.
Wildwood School is an independent progressive K–12 school located in Los Angeles. Wildwood was founded as an elementary school in 1971, by a group of parents led by a young lawyer named Belle Mason. The secondary campus opened in 2000. The elementary campus is located in Los Angeles and the middle and upper school campus is located in West Los Angeles. There are approximately 300 students in grades K-5, the elementary campus, and 400 in grades 6–12 at the middle and upper school campus.
A classroom or schoolroom is a learning space in which both children and adults learn. Classrooms are found in educational institutions of all kinds, ranging from preschools to universities, and may also be found in other places where education or training is provided, such as corporations and religious and humanitarian organizations. The classroom provides a space where learning can take place uninterrupted by outside distractions.
The Poudre School District (R-1) is a K–12 public school district in Larimer County in northern Colorado. The district operates and manages the public schools in the city of Fort Collins, as well as in the towns of Wellington, Timnath, Loveland and Windsor, and unincorporated communities of Larimer County including Laporte and Livermore. The district is one of the fastest growing in Northern Colorado, adding 400-500 students — about the size of an elementary school — each year.
Upper Dublin School District is located in Upper Dublin Township, Montgomery County, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
A homeroom, tutor group, form class, or form is a brief administrative period that occurs in a classroom assigned to a student in primary school and in secondary school. Within a homeroom period or classroom, administrative documents are distributed, attendance is marked, announcements are made, and students are given the opportunity to plan for the day. Such periods also act as a form of Pastoral care, where teachers and administrators provide personal, social or health advice. Homerooms differ in their nature, depending on the country and the specific school.
John Oliver Secondary School is a public secondary school located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, at East 41st Avenue and Fraser Street. It is named after John Oliver, the Premier of British Columbia from 1918 to 1927. The school is composed of four main segments: the main building containing the bulk of the learning areas, including the Auditorium and Learning Commons; a wooden building affectionately nicknamed "The Barn", due to its appearance, which is closed but was previously used by the mini school and Digital Immersion students; a Drama Studio which allows for several theatre and acting courses; and a concrete building — the engineering building — bisected by a breezeway, with automotive, metal, and wood shops.
A parent–teacher conference, parent–teacher interview, parent–teacher night or parents' evening, is a short meeting or conference between the parents and teachers of students to discuss a child's progress at school and find solutions to academic or behavioral problems. Parent–teacher conferences supplement the information conveyed by report cards by focusing on students' specific strengths and weaknesses in individual subjects and generalizing the level of inter-curricular skills and competences.
The German School of Guayaquil is a multilingual school in Guayaquil, Ecuador. It was founded in 1957 by Renate Lemke to meet the necessities of the German immigrants in the city.
Working class education is the education of working-class people.
Korea International School, Jeju Campus (KISJ) is South Korea's first international boarding school. The school is a sister campus to Korea International School and an affiliate of YBM, a pioneering publishing and English-language education services company. Founded in 2010 and first opened in 2011 as part of the Jeju Global Education City, the school's first senior class of 52 students matriculated in May 2016. KISJ is a proprietary, nonsectarian school offering an internationalized American college preparatory curriculum from Junior Kindergarten through Grade 12, with a boarding program starting in Grade 6. The high school began its AP Capstone™ in 2017–18, one of seven schools to offer it in South Korea.
Education in Kosovo is carried out in public and private institutions. Starting from 1999, education in Kosovo was subject to reforms at all levels: from preschool education up to university level. These reforms aimed at adjusting the education in Kosovo according to European and global contemporary standards. As a first step of this new system is considered the establishment of the Department of Education and Science (DES), which is followed with the creation of legal and professional infrastructure, which should facilitate the fundamental reformation of the education, and the establishment of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) in March 2002. During this period the private education system began to develop.
For examples of open houses as informative events, see the following: