I’ve never seen a school that gives so much importance to activities that involve kids and their respective parents. They call it Family Day at PAREF Woodrose, a school for girls in Ayala Alabang Village, Muntinlupa City.

A yearly affair at Woodrose

Family Day is not just picnic day at Woodrose. Both kids and their parents look forward to cheering competition, one of the highlights of the program. At least four teams, the Red, Blue, Green and Gold team vie for the best performance title.

Competition proper

According to a proud mom of four, kids don’t actually expect to get a big prize after the competition because the kids are just having fun and its all for the love of teamwork. The kids, from elementary to high school, perform to the delight of the cheering crowd.

Perfecting their moves

Mini cheer leaders posing before the camera

Family Day is where you get to meet the friends of your kids and their doting parents as well. It also elicits support and strengthen camaraderie among parents.

Profits go to cause-oriented projects

Family Day at Woodrose also means helping out other people. Every year, parents hold flea market and silent auction. Donations vary from books, toys, and office and kitchen stuff from parents themselves. The profits go to various outreach projects of the school including education for poor children, feeding program and catechism activities in the outskirts of Woodrose.

The School

Woodrose School Overview

Established in 1977 by Parents for Education Foundation (PAREF), Woodrose is geared towards promoting academic excellence and character formation to students. This is evident in its Singapore Math and Science curriculum; high ratings in the National Admissions Test; and highly competent teachers.

“Teaching Singaporean Math and Science involve a lot of activities and experiments that are easy to understand,” Ms. Delia S. Udani, Woodrose Executive Director said.

Ms. Udani stressed that students are not just taught to memorize, but to be analytical. They let students share what they grasp or learn about their lesson.

Mentoring System

At Woodrose, they engage parents to be part of their kids’ education through home-school collaboration. They (Woodrose) assigned a tutor, who is also a member of the school staff, to each student. Each tutor also serves as mentor, a life coach, and a mature friend to a child – the ones who provide direction to the girls’ self-development. These mentors are the ones who collaborate with the parents, setting a meeting with them on a regular basis about their kids’ development, both academic and character.

Woodrose Lesson

During the media and bloggers round-table discussion with parents, teachers and students (representing each color team), I was able to learn about the kind of school every parents dream of sending their children to. “It’s a school that is also a home,” said one of the proud parents.

Photo credit: Ms. Janette Toral

Parents beamed with pride as they share how lucky they are to entrust their kids to Woodrose because their kids are guided properly. “Kids are taught to become better persons, more assertive,” another mom said. I’ve observed this by the way they answer questions thrown at them during the round-table discussion.

I also learned that these kids despite their being young are already responsible in putting up a school-based socio-civic organization called Puso, which supports kids from poor families by sending them to school and enroll them in a feeding program in an area in Muntinlupa.

If you are interested to know more about Woodrose and the quality of education they offer, check out their site through the links provided here. I’m sure your kids will enjoy all the school activities at Woodrose.

By the way, the school also accepts non-Catholic students.

After you have decided to be a part of Woodrose, you can complete the following basic requirements for admission.

The Admission Procedure
1. Submission of all required documents
• Accomplished Parents’ Information Sheet
• NSO Certified Parents’ Marriage Contract *
• NSO Certified Student’s Birth Certificate *
• Original and photocopy of Student’s Baptismal Certificate
• Report Card
• 2 x 2 pictures (2 copies)
• Recommendation form accomplished by the Guidance and Testing Office of the previous school
• Recommendation form accomplished by the Class Adviser and Registrar of the previous school
* For foreign documents, Original and Photocopy of the Marriage Contract of the Parents / Original and Photocopy of the Student’s Birth Certificate. Original Documents will be returned to the Parents.

2. Parental Attendance at the Orientation for Parents

3. Interviews and Testing
• Parents are interviewed by a PAREF representative
• Student takes an assessment test
• Student is interviewed by the Level Coordinator

4. It is following this procedure that a Letter of Notice is prepared and mailed to the parents

For more information, please contact the School Registrar, Mrs. Rose Dumlao at 850-6380 to 83 local 111.