Student-led conferences

09/07/17 - STUDENT-LED CONFERENCES

What is happening and why?

The children all blew me away by how confidently they could speak about their learning. This was the first year since starting at Paparoa Street I felt the children had a really clear understanding of how to share their learning and goals with other adults. I think this may be a reflection on our collaborative practice. Our children are now used to working with multiple adults and discussing their learning with different people all the time. Also as we move to a more child-driven approach, I think the children are really seeing how learning can be built and put together.

What is not happening and why?

15 minutes was quite challenging to really share learning and key competencies in depth. We often ran overtime with the children sharing and then parents asking questions and 3 teachers having input to answer the question. How could we change the format of these conferences? More time would mean a longer conference schedule for everyone (not suggesting that!!).

What am I going to do to influence what is not happening and why?

I think our conference format could become less formal in the future. I'm not sure what this would look like as parents and children enjoy having one-on-one time to share learning and I think this is important. Perhaps we could look at moving towards more of an open learning celebration format where parents can come in be shown learning by their child a few times a year. Similar to what the juniors did this term but with all learning areas not just inquiry?? Teachers would be available for parents to ask questions if needed. As we dive further into using Linc-Ed as a 'real time' reporting tool are formal 3-way conferences becoming outdated? How could we encourage reluctant parents into the school without a formal meeting time? Or would this scoop up those parents as a learning celebration is less daunting to attend than a conference with the teacher? Lots of wonderings!