The air is filled with so much excitement.. you can almost feel the festivity that is about to begin.
That is exactly how I felt when we entered the gate of PAREF Woodrose at Ayala Alabang Village. We were invited to join and watch Woodrose Family Day SY 2011-2012 as well as take a look around the school. The school ground where filled with students in different but color coordinated costumes. There were those wearing red, green, blue and yellow. Later we learned, it’s like the houses of Hogwarts, 4 houses/ teams competes during family day. A student as they enroll were assigned a color, yup, just like Hogwarts, but sorting is done randomly. Of course sisters goes on the same color. Here are some of the photos I took during their cheer dancing competition:
Mommy bloggers who covered the PAREF Woodrose Family Day.. Miss Janette Toral and yes my fellow ranchers*
Oh, I said SISTERS a while ago.. well because PAREF Woodrose is an exclusive school for girls. After the cheer dancing competition, we went ahead to to their flea market area and got to see some of the items that parents donated for the said activity. There were clothes, household items, books, toys and a lot more.
PAREF Woodrose, I learned, is the first school established by PAREF, a non-stock, non-profit organizations of parents. The school is centered on Christian education based on Catholic faith. Here’s a short overview of PAREF Woodrose presented to us:
PAREF Woodrose has a mentoring system where in each students were assigned a mentor. Mrs Sharon Fernandez (a mom of 8 kids with 2 daughters in Woodrose) said that to them, parents, to chat with the mentor is a benefit. Mentors act like a friend to the students.
Karina Jalandoni, a Gold team member and third year student shared that even though PAREF Woodrose is an all girls school they had the chance to meet and interact with opposite sex through varsity and socio-civic activities.
Ms. Delia S. Udani, PAREF Woodrose Executive Director (photo courtesy of Miss Janette Toral)
Ms. Delia S. Udani, PAREF Woodrose Executive Director shared with us that the their Family Day started in 1983. She also mentioned that in mentoring system, a staff usually mentors 13 students (based on the number of students they have and the number of mentors).
If you think PAREF Woodrose is the school for your kids, here’s PAREF Woodrose 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
To know more about Activities in PAREF Woodrose, click here and learn how they train their students. For PAREF Woodrose Curriculum overview, please visit this link.
From what we have seen, from the cheer dancing competition to the short discussion we had, I can say that PAREF Woodrose is a very tight community. You can see from the students how close they are and the parents knows each other well. Aside from that, the students that was with us from the discussion were very smart and answers all our question with confidence.
More details about PAREF Woodrose:
*Ranchers is a group of mommies who loves lunching out while ranting about our every day lives. We usually spend Saturday afternnoon eating and chatting while the kids play in the playhouse.