Bookings are now open for Student Parent Teacher (SPT) Conferences for Semester Two. Appointments with teaching staff are available on Monday 7 August, Thursday 10 August and Tuesday 15 August and can be booked via the PTO online platform.
This semester, it is more important than ever that students attend these important conversations about their learning – as staff are working to shift the dynamic of SPT Conferences to place a greater emphasis on student voice and critical reflection. This reflects our shared commitment to one of the College’s annual strategic priorities to empower community voice. We hope that these changes to SPT Conferences will provide an opportunity for students to take greater ownership of their learning.
In a recent Professional learning Afternoon workshop, Student Empowerment Coordinator, Ms Kelly Hoinville and I worked with staff to explore the benefits of this approach. We role-played this new genre of conversation together, focusing on effective questioning techniques that encourage deep reflection and emphasise the agency that each student has in their own learning journey.
Some of the questioning proposed by teachers included:
- How are you going in this subject? How do you know?
- How would you rate your effort in class our of 5 stars? What actions might move you one star closer to 5?
- If a family member was to look into our classroom, what would they see you doing? How would they see you engaging in learning?
- If you were to undertake an assessment task tomorrow, what could you confidently demonstrate or recall?
- What is one goal that you have for the semester?
- What do you need me to know to help you reach this goal?
In classes, students will be provided with structured opportunities for guided reflection on their learning habits and their achievements on assessment tasks to ensure that they are ready and equipped with the skills that they need to engage in high-accountability conversations of this type.
For more information, please watch this video
Catherine Spurritt
Deputy Principal – Learning & Teaching
