Student Led Conferences

As you would have heard already, this Tuesday 15th March is our Parent/Teacher/Student conference day. Some members of our community have been asking why we made the decision to include students in the interviews this year, when in the past this is not an approach that we have consistently implemented. 

In preparation for Tuesday, teachers have been guiding students through a reflection of their academic, personal and social learning and growth, and encouraging students to articulate how they think they are going in these areas, why they think they have made the growth that they have made, as well as what they see as the next steps for their learning during 2022. At the conferences on Tuesday, students will lead and guide the discussion, sharing their thoughts and feelings and following the processes that they have been practising with their teachers. 

Through this sharing, students are able to see that their learning has ‘come from somewhere’ and celebrate their growth, and as a result can also see some of the aspirational steps ahead. Including student voice and opinion in our goal setting and assessment processes was identified as a next step at our school review last year, and is a practice we are hoping to continue into the future. 

Please note that there is only space for each family to have one appointment with their classroom teacher. Teachers are only able to make space for more than one appointment if there is a court order in place.  

Although not classified as a "student-free day", parent-teacher-student conference day on Tuesday, 15th March 2022 is considered an "alternate to school day" and normal classes will not be running. Teachers will be unable to supervise children, as they will be participating in conferences. If your child requires the OSHC services, full-day OSHC places are available, and children can attend their parent-teacher interviews either from home, or from OSHC.  OSHC staff will facilitate this in collaboration with the school.

We appreciate and acknowledge that these coming conferences will be a very different experience to those that we have had in the past. The decision to run these interviews in one day, rather than across two evenings means that teachers can focus their attention fully on the conferences for this day, and are not stretching their attention between two full days of teaching and two full evenings of conferences.

If you have any questions about Conferences, please contact your child's classroom teacher via the Sentral "Messages" tab, or the front office directly via: brunswick.nw.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au or 93864624.

As active participants in the conferences, parents and carers might also like to ready themselves for their contribution to the student-led discussion. Below are a list of sentence starters and questioning tools that might help parents/carers to find out more information from the students, but will also help to guide the conversation and keep it flowing. Feel free to have these beside you during the conference; you never know when you might need a prompt! 

Question and statement stems; 

• Can you tell me more about…?
• Why do you think you are learning about this?
• Is there anything you want to tell me or your teacher, while we are all here together?

Enjoyment & Effort; 

• Did you achieve your goal? Why? Why not?
• Do you think you try your best in class?
• Does this work show your best effort?
• What makes you a great learner? What could make you a better learner?

Strengths;

• What are you most proud of?
• What do you find easy?
• What can you do now that you couldn’t do last year?

Goals;

• What would you like to learn more about?
• What did you find challenging in this task?
• What might you do differently the next time you learn about this?
• What do you think you need to work on next? Why?

Supports;

• How can we help you with your goals when we are at home?
• What does your teacher do to help you learn?
• How do your friends and classmates help you learn?

Feedback

• I can see that you have improved on…
• I notice that you… and wonder about…
• I really like how you have…