At Amesbury School we report on student learning and progress every term. In 'normal' years we hold student conferences in Terms 1 and 3, where students discuss their learning with their parents and one of their teachers, and discuss learning goals. In Terms 2 and 4 we send home a learning report through our ALF software, reporting on recent assessments, learning progress and learning behaviours.
However, 2020 has been anything but 'normal'! As such, we have needed to alter the reporting structure. We postponed our Term 1 conferences due to the nationwide lockdown, and we then held connection conferences in mid term 2, to allow teachers and parents to reconnect about the learning your children had been doing.
We will hold another round of conferences again this term, this time run as student conferences, where students are much more involved in the process at an age appropriate level. In Term 4 we will complete written reports on ALF (our online learning system).
Please find booking information below, including the teacher each student needs to book a conference time with.
When the conferences are running - all teachers will be holding conferences in the evening (3.30 - 7:30pm) of Wednesday 23rd and Thursday 24th September.
School interview website - we use the 'School Interviews' website to enable parents to book conferences online. Please follow this link to go to the website, or go to the site at this address: www.schoolinterviews.co.nz.
The school code for this round of conferences is 97aue. Enter this code on the home page of the website and it will take you to the booking process for this round of conferences.
Who to book with - we ask all parents to book a conference time with a specific hub teacher. Please click on this link: Student Conference Groups, which shows the teacher each child should book with. All teachers will be able to discuss your child's learning in all areas of the curriculum, even if they don't necessarily teach them for all learning areas. In the case of Year 3-6 students your child will be doing a lot of the talking about their own learning. The teacher will be there to guide where necessary and answer any questions whānau or students may have.
Who attends the conferences - for Year 3-6 students we ask that students attend the conferences as well as parents. They will be encouraged to participate in the conference as much as possible, where appropriate. For Year 1-2 students we encourage students to attend the conferences where possible, so that they can be part of the process. However, we do appreciate that the time of the conference may be a little late for some students.
Online or face to face conferences - the conferences will be running as face to face meetings at this point, and will be held at school. We will have a sign in register and sanitiser at each conference. However, if the alert level changes and onsite meetings are not possible, we will run these conferences online in the same way we held the connnection conferences last term. If you would prefer to meet with your child's teacher online, please make a booking in the usual way via the booking site, and then contact the teacher and arrange an online video meeting with them instead, rather than a face-to-face meeting. They will send you an online link using the 'Whereby' conferencing app.
Multiple bookings/timing - if you are booking conferences with more than one teacher we do not recommend you make back-to-back bookings. The conferences tend to be tight on time, as there is a lot to get through in 20 minutes. The schedule needs to be very closely adhered to in order to ensure that all students get their requisite period of time with their teacher. If you are late or coming from another conference this will reduce the amount of time you have for the conference; teachers will still need to end each conference at the scheduled time, as other people will be disadvantaged if we go over time.
When the conference bookings are closed - Conference bookings will be closed at 8am on the morning of the first day of conferences - Wednesday 23rd September. This allows teachers to be prepared for the conferences they have scheduled. Last minute surprise bookings can mean teachers are not able to be fully prepared for a conference, so conference bookings are closed on the morning that conferences begin.
If you have any further questions regarding student conferences please don't hesitate to contact your child's whānau teacher.
Ngā mihi,
The Amesbury Team
