Assistant Principal's Report

Celebrating a Semester of Learning with Student Led Conferences.

One of the most important elements of successful learning is a quality known as Self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is a belief in yourself that you can achieve something, in schools it is a belief that you can learn. There are many words, strategies and ideas that link to self-efficacy, with some being more popular than others. Growth Mindset is very popular in the media at the moment, as it should be, and self-regulated learning being a very popular idea in education circles.  Essentially, a self-regulated learner knows why they learn, knows how to learn and has the will and skill to ensure that they remain in charge of their learning.  A teacher can bring all the best Learning Intentions, Success Criteria and tasks to the classroom but if a student doesn’t want to learn, they most likely won’t. 

All of our Whole School Approaches are based on a breadth of research and best practice in education and they are all designed to help our student develop self-regulated learning. The consistent language of learning, goal setting, conferencing, The Learning Pit, CAFÉ, VOICES, SURF, YCDI, Learning Intentions and Success Criteria are all designed to help our learners understand and talk about their learning deeply.  They build a deep understanding of WHAT they are learning, HOW they are learning and WHY they are learning.

Our Student Led Conferences are our opportunity to celebrate the wonderful, self-regulated learning that happened within these walls every day of the school year.  It is an opportunity for our learners to share their learning, challenges and goals for the rest of the year.  When they are successful and can reflect on how they have impacted their own learning, they build self-efficacy. 

Thank you to everyone who made the time to attend and share in this important celebration and opportunity to build self-efficacy in our wonderful learners.  Below are some reflections from students across the school.

Amelia Year 4

“I was standing behind the screen and I was feeling nervous, I didn’t know what would happen but soon I could see that it was just a small interview to do a little report on what I have done in the last term, to summarise for my parents.

What I felt after was a certain relief to have finally shown my learning.  At the end I felt relieved about how I did it because there were separate things that I felt nervous about.  Sometimes you feel excitement and happiness when you complete something hard for you and go through the learning pit.”  

Reyansh Year 5

“Before I started the conferences I felt quite nervous but after I finished I felt happy with how it went. Because before I thought I might do or say something wrong.  After I did it, I felt like it went well because I was able to talk to the teacher and my parents without stuttering.”

Ranveer Year 5

“Something that went well for me was that I could share my learning with my parents and I could also reflect on my learning throughout the term.  I discovered how I made progress in my learning; one example is in my persuasion. At the start I didn’t have clear main ideas in my paragraphs and then when I shared my learning with my parents, from a recent persuasive, I could see how clearly I placed the main ideas in my persuasion.”

Arunn Year 2

“Student Led Conferences were good.  I showed my mum my Maths and what I have been learning in multiplication, addition and subtraction.  My favourite thing to share was my writing about my holiday.  Mum was happy, she loved it.”

Marvika Year 1

“It was good when my sister and my mum got to see how much I learn at school.  I was proud to show my Maths because my mother said she was proud of me.”

Johfrit Year 3

“I like Student Led Conferences because I can show my learning to my family.  I’m really proud of my Cultural Diversity Day learning because I showed it to the whole school.”

Vethum Year 3

“I talked to Mr Mark and my mum and when I was done I was very proud.  I was nervous but I got through it.  Mum was really proud of my maths and when I put the length of my jump in a bar graph.  Now I know how to put information into a bar graph.”