Kia ora koutou,

Next week we are holding our Student-Led Conferences. The Student-Led Conferences are a highlight for our tamariki, as they get special time and attention with their whaanau, focusing on them and their learning. There will be learning samples in the Learning Journals, and by looking at these alongside the students' books, you can talk with your child about their learning and gain further insight into the type of learning taking place and how your child is progressing. 

We are encouraging our students to lead these learning conversations and be able to talk about what they were learning, why they were learning it, how they are going and possible next steps. Students being able to talk about their learning in this way gives them ownership and responsibility for their learning. The child’s age, stage and maturation impact their ability to articulate and respond to this, so you may like to prompt your child during these sessions with questions such as…

• Tell us about what you were learning about here.
• How do you feel you went with that learning?
• How do you know?
• What do you think the next step could be for you?
• How are you feeling about how you worked towards the goal for this activity?
• What are you feeling proud of?

All children deserve to celebrate their efforts and progress with their whaanau and to see their whaanau being proud of them as learners. This can positively affect your child’s motivation to keep working hard and support self-efficacy and positive learning attitudes. If you have some aspects you wish to talk to your child’s teacher about but do not want to negatively affect your child's efficacy by discussing this in front of them, you can organise a meeting with the teachers for another time.

The Powerful Learning Reports will come home tomorrow. This report includes a Powerful Learning comment and Curriculum Achievement graphs for Reading, Writing and Mathematics. Most of our Year 1- 8 children will receive one of these reports, except some Year 1 students who have recently had a developmental report. When looking at the achievement dots on the graphs, it’s helpful to know that if your child’s dot is placed anywhere in the blue band, this tells you they are tracking within the New Zealand Curriculum Expectations. It’s also normal for a dot to stay at the same level over a year or more, for example, as the Curriculum Sub Levels typically take more than one year to achieve. 

E1 represents Early Level 1, and so on. 

Enjoy the rest of your week, and we look forward to seeing you at the Student-Led Conferences. 

Ngaa mihi nui,

Nyree Olliver