Online Conferences Term 1, 2022

By: Urs Cunningham | Posted Wednesday March 16, 2022

At Amesbury School we report on student learning and progress every term.

In Terms 1 and 3 each year we hold student conferences. Generally, students discuss their learning with their parents and one of their teachers, and set learning goals. We are currently in term 1, and as such we are due to hold student conferences this term.

For Terms 2 and 4 we publish a learning comment through our LINC-ED Hero software. This is in addition to the learning information that is always available on Hero about progress and goals in the key learning areas of Communication Arts (literacy), maths, and social and emotional development.

Due to the current Covid-19 outbreak, we will be holding this first set of conferences as online connection conferences. This means all conferences will be held via video conference, and the meeting will be between parents / caregivers and their child's whānau teacher, as a chance for them to connect. We would also like tamariki to attend these online meetings where possible.  It gives parents and caregivers, tamariki and kaiako (teachers) the chance to discuss their child's progress, their learning levels and social development.

Please find booking information below, including how the online conference will work, and who you need to book a conference time with.

- When the conferences are running: All teachers will be running conferences from 3:30pm onwards on Wednesday 6th and Thursday 7th April - the second to last week of the school term. 

- School interview website: We use the 'School Interviews' website to allow parents to book conferences online. Please follow this link to the website.

- The school code for this round of conferences is b4khx. Enter this code on the booking page of the website and it will take you to the booking process for this round of conferences.

- Who to book with: We are asking parents in all hubs to book a conference time with their child's whānau teacher. Please click on this link: Student Conference Groups, which shows the whānau groups for each team - this tells you who to book a conference with. Please note that in Pōhutukawa, there is a small group of ākonga who will have their conferences with Lisa, rather than their whānau teacher. Whānau 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. 

- How the online conferences work: We use a conferencing app called ‘Whereby’. It works in a similar way to Zoom and other conferencing apps, except parents do not need to sign up or have a login. When you book a conference, you will receive a link to the teacher’s online conference space, which is a called a 'room'. Approximately 1-2 mins before your scheduled conference, click on the link and this will mean you ‘knock on the door’ of the teacher’s online room. They will see you ‘knocking’, and when the previous parent has left their conference, the teacher will let you into the ‘room’ to have your conference. Parents will not be able to see each others’ names on the screen, and only one set of parents will be online with the teacher at any time. You may need to wait for a minute or so until the teacher is free to meet with you; please do not worry if you are not let in to the meeting straight away.

- What if I don't have a suitable device for an online conference? Our information is that all families at Amesbury School currently have an internet connection. If this is not the case for you, please let us know as soon as possible. If you do not have a suitable device for an online conference, please make a conference time anyway. Then contact your child's teacher and let them know, and they will arrange for a phone call conference in the same time slot instead.

- Who attends the conferences - for 'normal' student conferences we encourage students to attend their conferences, and older students do much of the talking and presenting in their conference. However, for these online connection conferences, the meeting is generally expected to be more of a conversation between the whānau teacher and the parents or caregivers, with tamariki involved where possible. Please feel free to have your child on the video conference with you, where possible, so they can be involved in the discussion. 

- What will the conferences cover - all conferences will generally cover areas around the following areas:

*How your child has managed during the first term at school, and during the current Covid outbreak

*Social behaviours generally - how they interact with others at school and how they have settled in (if they are in a new hub or with new teachers)

*Current learning levels in all main learning areas

*How you are managing to access learning information on HERO

*Transition to Amesbury (for five year olds who have started school recently and for any students who have transferred from another school)

- When the conference bookings are closed - Conference bookings will be closed at 8am on the morning of the first day of conferences - Wednesday 6th April. 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 the day that the first conference begins.

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

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