This year I found myself with a new class level. I had a class of the eldest Year 1s and the youngest year 2 children. I had previously taught the elder year 2 level for many years.
This meant that my class would all be turning 6 within terms 1 and 2 of this year, and consequently would all be screened with the 6 Year Observational Survey (Literacy Nett) and a JAM (Junior Assessment of Mathematics).
Whilst these screens have always taken place, the information gleaned from them had not previously been formally shared with the students and their whānau. Instead the children from this year group would be part of our schools normal reporting system, namely a family picnic in February, a set of formal 10 minute 3 way conferences in late March and then written reports at the end of terms 2 and 4.
Although there was opportunity to have the written reports presented in a conference setting at the request of either the teacher or the whānau, this would often only happen for families of ELL students or students with learning concerns.
So a new opportunity arose!
Therefore this change in class level afforded me an opportunity to try something different with my class' reporting process this year, so I approached my principal with the idea of having a longer 3 way anniversary conference just after the child's anniversary testing instead of the normal end of term 2 report. She agreed along with team leader and so the process for the After One Year at School Anniversary Trial began.
1. First I prepared a plan. (Evidence C1a)
2015 goal: After One Year at School Interview Trial
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE - To trial a different reporting to parents system for children after one year at school, utalising the 6 Year Net testing and JAM after one year at school observation.
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Teachers involved : Judith Van Kooten
Goal
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Outcome
What it will look like
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Target
How I/we know I/we have got there
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Possible resources or budget required
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Date planned
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Achieved
Comment
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1.To have an anniversary conference with all whānau of children in the trial class in the month after their anniversary testing.
2 To inform whānau of their child’s current skills and together set next learning goals.
3. To help children know, express and understand their learning goals.
4. To develop strong working relationships with whānau.
5. To get whānau to complete an online survey assessing the value of this trial system |
1.Interviews will be arranged at times mutually agreeable to whānau and the teacher, to ensure full participation in the trial process.
2. Whānau will leave the conference knowing what their child has mastered and some current goals that they are working on.
3.Whānau will leave feeling empowered that they can help their child, with some practical learning activities to support their child’s learning.
4. Whānau will have an increased understanding of what skills will be required by their child’s after 2 years anniversary.
5.Children will be able to talk about their current learning goals to their whānau.
6.Whānau will feel comfortable talking to the classroom teacher about their child’s learning, both in the conference and also in future follow up discussions.
7.Whanau will complete the online survey and add personal comments reflecting their thoughts of the process |
1. Interviews will occur for all Room 5 children, with full whānau participation.
2. Whānau will leave the interview with a written report that clearly outlines in plain terms what their child can currently do and what their next goals will be.
3. Whānau will help students practice learning goals at home.
4. Whānau can identify some after 2 years at school targets for their children.
5.Children will be able to share their learning goals both at the conference and later on at home.
6.There will be an increase in open communication- emails/ conversations/ phone calls etc about children’s learning between home and school.
7.Whānau will have completed the online survey, and left their thoughts about the trial. |
Time to create a new reporting form
Time to create an on-line survey via Survey Monkey to ascertain the thoughts of the participants in the trial.
Time to have 24 anniversary interviews of about 30-40 mins duration
Time to analyse the results and the effectiveness of the programme and make recommendations for the future. |
Term 2 and the first 3 weeks of Term 3 2015 |
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2. Then I informed the whānau of the children in my class about the trial. (Evidence C1b)
This was the newsletter that I sent home on the 26/3/15.
Central School
Special News for Room 5 Families
This year I plan to trial a different way of reporting to families for the children working in room 5.
When a child has been at school for one year of tuition we undertake a series of formal assessments to gauge how your child is progressing.
These anniversary assessments take a large amount of time and we think the information gleaned from them is very valuable. Therefore instead of writing a mid year report Mrs VK will organise a 30 minute student achievement conference with whanau within the month after your child’s 1 year school anniversary. For the children that have begun from the Montessori School, or an overseas school we will have an interview in the month after their birthday.
It is expected that your child will also attend this conference as we will be discussing their learning and their next steps.
As the classes are based on birth dates there are naturally times when I will have a large number of anniversary children in one month, so I may have to organise a few interview session dates.
The first round of these interviews will take place in week 2 of next term.
Please see below for the first round of interview possibilities. I will send a new list out for the remaining children later next term.
| After one year Student Achievement Conferences |
| Month |
Children involved |
Expected date of interview. |
| April |
M
R
T
L
F |
Week 2 of the term
Tuesday 28th April after school
or Lunch times
12.35- 1.05 Tues 28th ,Wed 29th or Thursday 30th
|
| May |
C
X
M
N
|
Week 3 of the term
Thursday 7th May
or lunch times
12.35- 1.05 Tuesday 5th May, Wed 6th May or Thursday 7th May
|
| May |
R
V
W |
Week 5 of the term
Monday 18th May
or lunchtimes
12.35- 1.05 Tues 19th May, Wed 20th May or Thursday 21st May |
Therefore the reporting to parents of children in room 5 2015 schedule will be as follows.
Room 5 reporting to parents schedule 2015
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| February 19th |
Meet the teacher meeting and picnic |
Already completed
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| March 25th and 26th |
Student / Parent and Teacher conferences
To discuss goals in learning and key competencies |
|
Individual student anniversary conferences
April- July |
Student / Parent and Teacher conferences
To discuss anniversary testing trends and to set next goals |
|
| Term 4 |
Central School - Formal written report |
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As this is a trial for 2015- I will also be asking parents to complete a small survey after the interview to assess the value of the conference versus written report.
Kind Regards
Judith Van Kooten ( Room 5 teacher)
3. Next I created a new Reporting Form
I had to consider what would be required in a new reporting form that would cater for my goals. I wanted to be able to show progress and still talk holistically about the student.
Also I wanted to show how the students were progressing towards our school values- PRIDE ( Personal Excellence, Respect, Integrity, Diversity and Equity). Therefore I elected to include a Key Competencies checklist for Managing Self, Thinking and Relating to Others, because talking to this allowed me to talk about how the student reflected the school values.
I included an Essential Learning Area table for achievement and effort, because this allowed me to talk about the other aspects of the curriculum, particularly when a child excelled in the arts or sciences as opposed to reading writing and maths. (At Central School we believe that the Arts, Te Reo and ICT are interwoven throughout the curriculum, and consequently these aspects of learning also required attention in a discussion about children's learning.)
I needed to meet the NAG 2A guidelines of formal National Standards Reporting for Reading, Numeracy and Writing, so elected to represent these as a mastery scale, as used in our school's traditional reporting system. I did however remove the instructions as to how to interpret this information as I would be talking to it.
Finally I decided that I would like to include some photos of the student at school in a variety of activities as this would reflect the type of programme they were experiencing and also show who they tended to work with. This, along with our Room 5 class blog at (www.central.school.nz) would also allow those working families to have an insight to their child's school day.
The resulting form looked like this: (Evidence C1c)
4. Then I created the special Anniversary Data Reporting Page.
This second internal sheet for the report needed to explain the children's current skills and their next mathematics and literacy learning goals.
I decided to use a set of visual charts. ( Reference: Ministry of Education (2008). The Number Framework- Book1. Created by Julie Roberts, 2011), to clearly show skills mastered and progress in mathematics. I also use these charts in my classroom to explain goal setting, so the children could hopefully make a connection. These visuals allowed me an opportunity to talk to the whānau about the strategy their children used (how they solved) and their knowledge (what they knew and could recall) in a clear sequential chart. The chart also showed what was required after 1 year and what would be required after 2 years of schooling. During the interview I expected to tick the appropriate sections mastered which would show whānau the knowledge already mastered and the knowledge which was still requiring work. I also included a summary box which identified the mathematical skills mastered and the next set of goals that I would be working on in class. The idea was that by sharing this information, whānau would be able to see where I was heading next and support their child with this learning at home. I also tried to include some practical ideas that they could try at home- like playing dice games, cutting toast in halves and quarters etc.
The next portion of the report included a summary of the 6 Year Nett Literacy results( Observational Survey). I chose to include raw data scores which was more readily understood by whānau. This part of the report included skills mastered and things to work on.
Finally at the end of the Observational Survey I wrote a brief comment about written language skills and reading- once again offering skills mastered and next goals.
The resulting form looked like this. (Evidence C1d)
5. Next I organised an on-line feedback survey
Following the creation of the reporting form, I then had to consider how I would receive feedback about the interview process. I decided that the best way to gather feedback was to create an on-line survey, which I would ask each whānau to complete after the conference. I also did not want them to do this straight away as, I wanted the families to have time post conference to see if the goals remained an ongoing focus for their child. Therefore I planned to only send an invitation to the survey a few weeks after the conference experience.
I then created a survey using the Monkey Survey System (Evidence C1e/f).This in itself required careful thought as I needed to be able to offer a variety of options so that whānau could truly reflect what they thought about the process. This would involve having a balance of positive and negative responses available, along with some that preferred the status quo. I also wanted to ensure that whānau could select more than one answer to a question if they wished in order to gather as much feedback as possible.
6. Testing took place
I completed the JAM mathematical assessment on all children in my class including the other strands. Mrs Petrove the Reading Recovery teacher completed the Observational Survey. This was normal practice so as to have an impartial assessment. After analysis of the data and resulting goal setting with the children established, the whānau were invited to a conference meeting. This generally happened about 2 weeks after the child's anniversary testing took place.
7. Conference Times
Each family was e-mailed with about 4 possible dates for an interview. These ranged from times between 3- 5 and some after 5 until 6.30 to cater for working families. There was always a proviso that alternative dates could be arranged if need be, to ensure that whānau members could all attend if they wished to do so. I did end up with two Sunday afternoon appointments. One was to cater with a family working in bakery that could not attend during the week and the other was to cater for a family with one parent that worked out of town during the week. One appointment was rescheduled when a mum got called into work .
All children attended the conferences.
8. Conference Content
Each conference was unique. Some involved more time to explain processes and share examples of work, including iPad evidence of numeracy thinking and explanations of their scientific learning (an explain everything app about how we got day and night), (Evidence C1g). Families that did not have opportunities to visit the room regularly due to work appeared to enjoy the opportunity to take time looking at their children's work.
The conferences also allowed for opportunity to share any worries or concerns about children's learning from the whānau's point of view.
I did not expect any of my comments to be news to my families because we have an expectation at Central School that families should be aware of children's learning and there should not be any surprises within the reports. I had naturally already shared any learning concerns prior to the conferences with the relevant families. It was however an excellent opportunity to share techniques and strategies that parents could use to support their child's learning.
9. The children's part in the conference.
The children had completed a self assessment sheet as a basis for discussion at the conference held earlier in the year. ( Evidence C1h). They had therefore had some practice at explaining what their goals were. I endeavoured to talk to the family and the child trying to make them feel important in th conference role. At times the children revoiced their goals and they proudly showed examples of their work. At the conclusion of the conference I usually summarised the goals prompting the children to retell their next goal.
10 What were the results of the survey?
As evidenced by the survey Results ( Evidence C1e/f) Links https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-6ZTBV7CY/and
https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-6ZTBV7CY/The Anniversary Conference was well received by whānau. Many comments on the attached results indicated that whānau were extremely happy with this system. " Keep the interview- great use of time- way better than just getting a report", "We as a family enjoyed the process, it was inclusive, supportive and also gave us practical tools and tactics to try at home to assist in growing the child's ability. It was a positive experience and one we valued, it was much appreciated. I can't offer or think of other suggestions to improve the session as it was excellent".
Two surveys were sent out- the initial one had a small problem identified after the first mail out- in that not all questions allowed multiple results. The survey could not be modified once sent out, so I made a second version which went to the remainder of the whānau surveyed.
The first survey had 4 respondents (the 5th was a colleague who had screened the survey for me, but had not responded to any questions), The second survey received 11 replies. Therefore I've received 15 responses from the 22 surveys undertaken so far.
11 Analysis of the Results.
I then analysed the resulting data and arrived at some conclusions. ( Evidence C1i)
Analysis of the Combined Results of the Anniversary Conference Trial Surveys
Total participants: 15 out of 22 conferences- 68% feedback.
NB: Participants could respond more than once to each question- so data includes the total number of responses given. % would be irrelevant as not all recipients responded to each item, and some may have responded to many items.
| Item |
Question |
Responses Positive
Key Findings |
Responses Negative
Key Findings |
1
|
Did you leave the conference understanding your child’s current learning needs and next steps in their learning? |
12 clearly understood what their child could do currently and where they would be heading to next.
8 understood where they had gaps in their learning and what their current goals were
5 responded that they were provided with some practical ideas to help their child with their learning |
No negative responses |
2
|
Has your child talked about their learning goals since the conference, or identified that they are practising a skill mentioned in the conference? |
8 indicated that children talked about and demonstrated their goals at home reading practice.
6 indicated their child had asked to practice goals at home. |
1 was unsure of their own goal
1 says the goal but is unsure how to meet it
i had not mentioned learning goals since |
3
|
How did you find the conference experience? |
12 reported they were given plenty of time to discuss their child’s learning.
6 were impressed that their child could talk about their learning
12 thought it was good to have their child involved in the conference
9 indicated their child left the conference feeling proud of their learning |
1 thought the conference was too long |
4
|
Was the conference more informative than receiving a standard end of term report? |
10 thought the conference allowed for discussion and opportunity to clarify information and ask questions
10 thought the data shared would help them support their child with their learning
10 felt they had more knowledge of their child’s next learning goals and where they were heading towards
8 felt the teacher had clearly explained the goals and next expected steps. |
No negative responses. |
5
|
Did the conference foster stronger connections between home and school? |
10 felt more able to speak to the classroom teacher after this conference
12 identified that working together would help their child’s learning outcomes
8 responded that the teacher listened to their concerns and gave ideas as to how to help their child. |
No negative responses |
6
|
Were there any aspects of the written report that were difficult to understand? |
12 felt the report was clear and easy to understand
7 liked seeing photos of their child at work
7 could see how their child was progressing
5 could understand the gaps in their child’s learning
8 identified that the information was helpful |
No negative responses |
7
|
Were there any surprises for you within the conference and did you feel comfortable to express any concerns about your child’s learning in this setting? |
12 felt comfortable to talk frankly and ask questions
7 were pleasantly surprised with some of the results
3 responded about their surprises in comments
1 response was a a surprise about the depth of knowledge that the teacher had about their son and the benefits of discussing his personality and how that related to his learning |
1 was surprised about their child showing a lack of confidence and her shyness during the meeting. They were worried that this may affect her learning because her shyness was more of an issue to her than the actual learning. They offered feedback that she needed lots of praise and encouragement, but acknowledged that the concerns raised by the teacher were helpful and that they had been working on supporting her to speak up since. |
Summary
The majority of responders to the survey found the new conference trial to be a positive experience for themselves and their children.
The conferences were inclusive and supportive resulting in clear learning understandings and goals, both for the child, the teacher and the whānau involved.
The conferences allowed for discussion and built communication and trust between the participants. Which should in turn have strong influence towards children accomplishing their learning goals.
The new report format was easy to read and provided whānau with a reference point for learning goals, both current and in the future.
Having plenty of time to talk, share and discuss was appreciated by all participants. This allowed the opportunity to treat whānau as individuals and fitted perfectly with our school values PRIDE- Personal Excellence, Respect, Integrity, Diversity and Equity, as some families required more time, some opportunities to view work and some valued discussing other support solutions for their child- eg attending a social group like Keas, or online numeracy support like Skoolbo.
12. Recommendations:
1. Continue the trial in 2016. This time include the remainder of the children turning 6.
2. Investigate a new reporting structure for Year1-3 children at Central School, focussing on including Anniversary Conferences within the reporting process.
2. Include a second teacher within the trial so as to ensure that the workload resulting from these conferences can be adequately assessed, allowing for personal teaching styles.
Follow up as at 28/7/15
1. One child is now happily attending Keas as a result of the conference . This was a suggestion from myself to the whānau to support his social skills development. That child has also been to the hospital and now has an assessment of ADD.
2. Many families are using the online Skoolbo accounts.
3. Some families text communications to the teachers cellphone.
4. There are increased email communications re learning
5. Two children have written me letters ( totally unsolicited) and drawn pictures telling me that they have been practising their goals.
