Reporting to Parents - Whanau Engagement - Richmond Road School

Reporting to Parents - Whanau Engagement

Having an effective partnership with parents/whanau is important to us because we believe that together we can have a greater impact on our children's academic, social, cultural and emotional development, than we could by working separately.

Most of this communication will happen as parents/whanau drop off and pick up children from school, and through the weekly school newsletter. However we also regularly report to parents/whanau about their children's progress and achievement.

While parents/whanau can informally speak with staff about their child's progress and achievement at any time during the term. Parents are encouraged to make use of the informal time before 8:50am and after 3pm to talk to teachers about their child’s progress and achievement, or to make an appointment, if more specific or detailed information is needed.

Our formal programme for 2012 is as follows:

REPORTING TO PARENTS SCHEDULE

Term 1

School picnic & games, followed by parent hui - Week 3, Wednesday 22nd February 2012
Goal Setting Hui - Week 9, Wednesday 4th & Thursday 5th April

Term 2

Celebration Day, Wednesday 27th June, 9-5:30pm.

Term 3

Goal Review Hui, Wed 25 & Thurs 26 July, 3:10-5/6:30pm
Celebration Day, Wednesday 26th September, 9-5:30pm.

Term 4

Goal Review Hui (optional) - by request of teacher or parent
End of Year Report and Goal Review Sheet, Friday 14th December.

In 2012 we will be continuing with the goal setting/review sheet as our main written report, and blank graphs for maths, reading and writing are attached below so that parents and children can monitor their progress over time. Progress and achievement will also be shown through children's work books.

Results from the July 2010 survey about the Term 2 Celebration Day

At the Celebration Day (Student-Led Conferences) we talked mostly about learning – 84% (Agree & Highly Agree).
The Celebration Day (Student-Led Conferences) helped me understand my child’s current achievement compared with the expected level for his /her age – 71% (Agree & Highly Agree).
The Celebration Day (Student-Led Conferences) identified my child's strengths and next steps to work on – 60% (Agree & Highly Agree).
The next steps to take were clear - 46% (Agree & Highly Agree).

We are very happy with this feedback, and we will be working to make the Celebration Days even more effective in Term 4. At this stage the main way of communicating strengths, next steps and how you can support your child is through the Goal Setting / Review document, and face-to-face contact with your child’s teacher.

Booking a Time for Celebration Day

Please book a time to come and hear what you child has to say about their learning at our Celebration Day on Wednesday 27th June 2012. Book at www.schoolinterviews.co.nz, and follow the instructions. The school code - the code will be provided once bookings are open.

Celebration Days

While the Celebration Days are only part of our Reporting to Parents process, they are an important part because:

They provide an authentic opportunity for children to talk about their learning – if they are able to communicate what they know clearly to you, then they probably do have a good understanding of what they have learnt and what they will be focusing on next.
You get to see their book work, and other things they have been learning, that you wouldn’t get to see in the 10 minute parent interview.
The children get great satisfaction out of celebrating and sharing their work with you. It was great to see the joy and pride on the children’s faces during the last Celebration Day. Children who are enthusiastic about learning, and have interested and supportive whānau, are mostlikely to make the most progress.
We think that it is important to attend because this opportunity:
-     is another way to reinforce with your child that you value their efforts and achievements at school;
-     gives your child another reason to take pride in what they do at school, as they have you as their audience;
-     provides you with time to see their work, in the context of the classroom programme, and to discuss their progress in achieving their goals; and
- provides you with additional information about your child’s progress and achievement prior to the parent interviews.

As your children show you their work and talk about their learning,

you may want to ask the following questions:
• What have you been learning about in ...
• What were the steps you went through to learn this / make this?
• What helped you to learn this? (Was it the teacher / having good information /

knowing what it looked like / working with a group / knowing what to do? etc)
• What are you the most pleased with?
* What was the trickiest part? • What is the best part of this work? This unit of work?
• What would you do differently if you were going to do this again?
• What do you think you need to work on next in this subject?
• What could we do together to help you with your learning in this area?

How to read the Goal Review Sheet

We have divided each curriculum level (1 – 4) into 3 sub-levels Basic,

Proficient and Advanced. We would like to have all Year 6s achieving at 3A by the end of Year 6, but the National Standard states they Year 6s should be ‘achieving at level 3’, so 3B, 3P & 3A are all appropriate.

Research shows that children in bilingual programmes usually achieve

age appropriately in both languages after 8 years of instruction.

Therefore we aspire that our bilingual Year 6s achieve at 3B by the end of their 6 years of instruction at our school.

Is this realistic?

There has been a lot of discussion in education circles and the media

about the pros and cons of National Standards. While there may be

many political agenda, the overall aim must be to make a positive

difference for children, particularly those for whom the system is ‘failing’ or for those who find learning in our system the most difficult. We all know that children learn at different rates, and that it is not always easy to attribute the ‘cause’ of why a child may be achieving not only below, but at or above the ‘standard’. The table above, which was developed in relation to the ‘National Standards’, is a guide to help us all talk about children’s progress and achievement; not to label them. Our whole ‘reporting’ package should provide staff, students and their whanau with good information about each child’s progress, strengths and next learning steps, so we can work together to achieve our mission: “to inspire children to reach their full potential”. If your child is not achieving at the standard, they are not failing or a failure, but it may be an indication that we haven’t found the best way to support them yet. To ensure that our children continue to “develop a life-long love of learning” we need to find ways to use the information about each child’s progress and achievement to motivate them.