Transcript
Marion Shand – Te Kauhua Facilitator
The principal, Bruce, wanted to do student-led conferencing for ages, almost since when he got here. Nobody bit, nobody took the bait – they didn't want to, it was hard work. One syndicate said, “Alright, we'll trial it as an action research. You provide release time for us to train ourselves up, you provide some expertise in what we have to do”, and they tried it in their syndicate. They had a huge success.
Clayton Smith – Henderson Intermediate
80 – 85% tracking attendance data at parent interviews, we never cracked 50. So once you present four years running worth of data of parent interview attendance, the importance of whānau engagement in the academic success that the children were having through whānau engagement; and then the syndicate that had done student-led conferences with 85 to another syndicate with 35 – you can't argue anymore.
Marion Shand
So that syndicate presented at a staff meeting and said, “These were our successes. This is our improved relationship with our students; our students have a heightened awareness of their own progress; we have conferences with them; they can go home and talk with their parents – the parents love it. It made our parent interviews easy because they were led by the student, and it wasn't pressure on the teacher”. And the trial seemed to have worked. Once they presented that to the staff, there was whole staff buy in, and the staff said, “Right, let’s do this next year – whole school”.