From the Management Team
Our Partnership Matters
You are the first and most important educators in your child’s life.
From you, children learn values and attitudes that shape them for life. That matters.
How you support your child’s learning in the formal setting of school also matters.
Together, schools and parents share the most important job in the world: to support the development and wellbeing of young people, and to provide them with opportunities to thrive.
As educators, our relationship with you is central to the success of every child at Endeavour. When we work in partnership, we see increased academic achievements and wellbeing, which leads to better lifelong outcomes for students.
One of the ways we can work together is to have structured conversations about what is working well and what is not working so well in the students’ learning lives. Learning Conversations occur at the start of Terms 2 and 4. This kind of conversation carries high value in supporting student growth and the topic is subject specific; skills, knowledge and understanding are in focus and the adults direct the dialogue.
Teachers may request a Learning Conversation, and this is our way of signaling that the teacher would like specifically to discuss your child’s growth. Even without a formal request, all parents are warmly invited to book in.
Towards the end of Terms 1 and 3, we invite parents and students to Care Group Connection Evening. These conversations are a little different but are equally as powerful at supporting the growth and success of your child. Planned for and led by the students, not the adults, the topic of these conversations sharpens the focus on the personal and social capabilities that span the learning and pastoral domains. These capabilities, once called ‘soft skills’, are vital both at school and in the world of work where people must collaborate to create, innovate and solve complex problems.
Care Group Connection Evening powerfully positions our students to lead robust and carefully structured conversations with you about their personal and social capabilities. At Endeavour, we capture these capabilities in the Vision for Learners, where key skills, characteristics and dispositions are defined. This is student agency in action. ‘Student agency is thus defined as the capacity to set a goal, reflect and act responsibly to effect change. It is about acting rather than being acted upon; shaping rather than being shaped; and making responsible decisions and choices rather than accepting those determined by others.’ (OECD Learning Compass 2030)
The global research Endeavour College has engaged in since 2019 has shown us that a high level of agency leads to increased motivation, self-efficacy and a sense of hope. We all want our young people to thrive and flourish at school and in their communities. To participate in society in a way that advantages them as well as society, they will need agency.
We have a responsibility to work together so that your child can grow and thrive. When your invitation for Learning Conversations and Care Group Connection Evening lands in your inbox, we very much hope you jump at the opportunity to engage in both activities.
Psalm 127:3
“Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.”
Louisa Mulligan
Director of Middle Years