A school is a community whose key stakeholders are not only its management, teachers and students, but parents as well. In ACS Jakarta, we are very fortunate to have a super proactive Parents’ Support Group (PSG) which works tirelessly in partnership with the school to enrich and add value to their children’s learning journey.

The PSG’s involvement can be seen in almost every event and activity the school organises. For example, they have professionals flown in from Singapore to conduct life skills training for our students and hired experts to teach our Grade 12 students how to write effective personal essays. The PSG is ever ready to lend a hand in school festive activities like the English Literacy Week and Children’s Day; at the recent Indonesian Independence Day celebrations, they organised the Primary school’s traditional games competitions and provided a feast of ‘tumpeng’ for all students. To build a better community spirit and to help instil values in our students, the PSG organises and involves our students in serving the community who live in poverty under the bridges in Ancol by providing health checks and doing art and craft activities with the underprivileged children who live in the slum. To build a better community spirit, they also organise two ACS Aquathlon and Carnivals which were both very impressive events!

Our PSG also cares for the health of the students and they organise and pay for medical professionals to conduct health checks for all students. In addition, they contribute to the school cafeteria by providing healthy food in school. I spoke to the children of these parents and below are what they shared:

“My mother, Mrs Shinta Septirymen, is a nutrition coach, was inspired to provide a delicious range of healthy salads daily as she believes it is one of the best all-round food that combines vegetables and protein into one filling meal. It is very popular dish in the cafeteria and I am very pleased to see it sold out by snack time!” – Michael Septirymen, 10T

“Children spend a lot of time in school and my parents, who own Heavenly Kitchen & Bakery, wanted to introduce healthy food in school. The food they provide does not have any harmful preservatives or chemicals, and are healthy alternatives to junk food such as fried or instant food which children love.” – Nicole Kwik, 10T

“My mother’s stall, K-Zone, aims to provide healthy Korean meals and snacks at reasonable prices. We wanted to share with the students and teachers a little about the Korean culture which we are proud of, by giving them a taste of authentic Korean cuisine. My mother also wanted to ensure that my friends enjoyed a balanced diet while trying something new!“ – Kim Jee You, 11R

I spoke with Ibu Ellijawati Djendrono, our PSG Chairwoman, and in her sharing I understand that the key to our successful partnership is the belief system our PSG upholds – that children need a balanced and holistic support system from both school and home to help them build a positive attitude towards life and learning. Academic excellence is not enough and a child needs to build character, especially at home; and parents working in synergy with the school’s values and system is what makes the difference in the lives of our children.

To learn more about the ACS Jakarta PSG, check them out on Instagram @psgacsjakarta.

Ms Annabella Ong
Head of English (Secondary)