The main building block of school culture is relationships. And one of those relation-
ships that is important is the relationship between the students involved in Leadership
and Student Council and the staff of the school they serve. One way many schools build
that relationship is by capitalizing on special occasions like holidays or exams to share
physical tokens of appreciation with staff, like Candy Hearts, or Smarties, or U Rocks.
Many staff need relationships built between them as well.
At Waterloo-Oxford DSS another way we have found to expand on the notion of staff ap-
preciation and allow our students to interact with staff and their families is through our
annual Fam Jam - Staff Appreciation Family Fun Night. Every year in late April we invite
our staff, and their entire families, to a family fun night at the school featuring free food,
fun, and interactive activities and games led by our leadership students.
After all staff are invited and have RSVP’d weeks ahead of the evening, we have nametags
and loot bags (like at a birthday party) ready for all our guests. After signing in, families
can play one of the guessing games and kids can get their face painted prior to pizza
supper in the cafeteria. The last number of years we have done a common activity in the
cafeteria (like a local reptile show, petting zoo, birds of prey etc.) This gives all the staff,
their kids, and our students a chance to interact and have fun together.
This is followed by 45 minutes of open house style elective games throughout the school.
Making crafts, karaoke, Dance Dance Revolution, video games, open gym, and guided
gym games are all popular at this time. Once again, all these different stations in different
locations are staffed by students. There is nothing like playing with a staff member’s child
to cement a positive relationship between staff and students!
Jeff Gerber
The evening is a great way to show appreciation for staff for all the ways they help make
our school special – and it also lets our staff understand that our leadership students are
learning about servant leadership and care about them as well.