The benefits for students and parents;

A Learner conference is a meeting with the student, parents and teacher. It is led by the student, they share samples of work, discuss what they have learned, identify progress they have made and may undertake some activities with their parents to show their learning. The main purpose of student-led conferences is to celebrate the child’s learning, show their growth, and provide parents with an insight and understanding of how their child learns.

Student-led conferences differ from a traditional model whereby the teacher leads the discussion and are normally based on testing and achievement data. Research by Hattie (2009) listed the most effective influence on student achievement was the student self-reporting being the most significant indicator. In addition, student-led conferences align with these purposes and reflect the intent of the New Zealand Curriculum. Having students actively involved in their learning and reporting process is consistent with effective assessment characteristics of the New Zealand Curriculum.

There are many benefits when the students lead the meeting:

• allows students, parents and the teacher to be active participants in the learning conference

• encourages students to be self-managing

• encourages students to feel proud and gain great satisfaction out of sharing their work with parents

• celebrates student learning

• provides an authentic opportunity for children to talk about their learning

• an increase in parent attendance

• allow parents to understand aspects of their child’s learning more clearly

Learner conferences support our commitment to increasing learner ownership and are a natural step in this process. If we want our students to drive their own learning, they need to be fully involved in reporting to parents. Teachers support their students in understanding themselves as learners, knowing where they are at with their learning and what they need to do next. Students are the best people to share this with their parents.

Placing the student at the centre of their learning is a critical factor of teaching and learning at Stanley Bay. Creating and promoting student agency is vital when empowering our learners to explore and create new ideas and knowledge.

We hope you enjoy the time you spend celebrating their learning and welcome your feedback on this process. Please see below for when our conferences will be happening next term.

Scott Boniface

Hattie, J. (2009). Visible Learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. New York: Routledge.

On Wednesday 4th August (2:00-5:00pm) and Thursday 5th August (3:30-6:00pm) we will be hosting Learner Conferences.

To book a conference time please click here

or go to www.schoolinterviews.co.nz and enter code 9b7t6

Please note that as teachers will be involved in conferences from 2:00 until 5:00 on Wednesday 4th August, school will close at 1:30pm. 

We request that you collect your child/ren from school, if you require childcare from 1:30pm please contact Kelly Club to make a booking.

https://www.kellyclub.co.nz/stanley-bay