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- June 24, 2024
Dear Parent/Carer
We would like to invite you to attend a student-led conference for your child on Monday 8th July, 2024 between 2:20 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Individual appointment times can be made during this time period.
Each Student-Led Conference appointment lasts 10 minutes and aims to enable students to take greater ownership of their learning and develop a deeper knowledge of how to progress in the future. This is an exciting opportunity for your child to guide you, together with a member of staff, through their learning this year. Research has shown that Student-Led Conferences are a very powerful way of encouraging students to take ownership of their learning and in helping them to identify the next steps in their development at school. Your child will look carefully at their strengths and areas for development and use examples of their own work to support the analysis of their learning. The conference is split into four stages as follows:
Stage One: Summary of the year
Stage Two: Student’s strengths
Stage Three: Areas for development
Stage Four: Target setting for the next academic year.
The students will prepare their resources, organise their examples of work and identify areas for development during form time in the two weeks leading up to the conference. In order to support your child in this process it may be beneficial to discuss how their planning and preparation is progressing (Further guidance can be found in Appendix 1 at the end of this letter).
To ensure the conference has maximum impact, we strongly advise you to attend with your child; however, your child must attend the conference. Students who do not attend will be spoken to by the Head of Year after the event and will complete their conference on a subsequent day. All students are expected to wear their school uniform.
To give parents a greater understanding of the purpose and importance of this event, we include some feedback and quotes from parents who attended last year.
"It was a delight to see my daughter speak independently about her learning, topics she enjoyed and areas she felt needs to develop. To see her grow in confidence, from previous anxieties around public speaking to develop and produce an outstanding presentation, was heartfelt to watch and hear, as well as how she has become an amazing student at Freddie’s. What a difference time makes."
"The teacher was warm and inviting and got the most out of my child being like this and it was a very positive meeting."
"This was a valuable addition to the parent/teacher evening, encouraging greater student involvement and developing oracy skills. It pushed my child out of his comfort zone but a valuable experience. Thank you."
"I found today's visit very worthwhile. I’m very pleased with the progress my daughter is making at this school."
"Very impressed with the pastoral care at Freddie's. I like the way the conferences keep students accountable for their attendance and progress throughout the year. Great idea."
"I think these conferences are so valuable in allowing the students to take ownership of their learning and development. It also allows them to develop confidence in presenting information about themselves and feeling a little out of their comfort zone."
"I enjoyed the session. It was good to hear my child discuss how they feel this academic year has gone. Detailing the things they have enjoyed and the areas they feel they can improve on."
"It was really nice having the opportunity to come into school and listen to my son talk about school. He is very quiet - I hope he will become more confident as he moves through school and therefore gets more out of future conferences. Thanks for arranging the conferences."
"I was very pleased with the way the conference was led with both the student and teacher, I saw a great improvement in the confidence my daughter has gained since last year and enjoyed seeing some of her work and hearing what she is proud of and how she would improve areas she has been less successful with this year."
"This was a great opportunity to hear some of the areas that my daughter has improved on this year and as discussed confidently what she is proud of. It was good to hear what her plans are for next year with her options and how she can improve with her attendance and also her homework. Tonight, I got to see and hear how I can support my daughter also. Thank you."
"Really nice to catch up with the form teacher and chat about learning. Great to get the students involved in their own learning rather than it being stated to them."
"The conference is positive as it helps young people reflect on their year and develop their confidence. I enjoy attending them as they are informative, and it allows me to show how very proud I am of my children."
"The Student-Led Conference is a very good initiative which I will encourage the school to continue to sustain. It has helped me as a parent to get a better clarification about the activities that my child is doing in school. Thank you."
"This gave a great insight to where our daughter is currently at with her learning journey. Wonderful to hear her working her way through various situations. Thank you."
"Good idea to get pupils to take ownership of the learning."
"Great idea - enjoyed meeting the form tutor. Great to see my son in his own environment. I can see how much he has grown in confidence, and he is really proud to be part of Freddies!"
"Important to encourage the children to talk about themselves, strengths and weaknesses, as they will need to do this in an interview situation."
This is an in-person event but all appointments must be booked using the internet based booking system School Cloud. We will still require you to book an appointment for your child, even if you are not able to attend with your child, so that we can manage the day effectively.
You will be able to book appointments from 5pm on Thursday 27th June 2024 (Login codes and booking details will be sent out via email prior to 5pm on 27th June).
The closing date for booking appointments will be 8pm on Sunday 7th July 2024.
We look forward to meeting you on 8th July for this exciting event and, in the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s Head of Year, or our dedicated email address schoolevents@flhs.wigan.sch.uk, if you have any further questions or queries.
Yours sincerely,
Mr P Davies
Headteacher
Appendix 1.
Role of the Parent/carer in the Student-Led Conference.
1 - Parents/Carers participate as active listeners.
2 - Before the conference, parents/carers can:
- Encourage your child’s involvement in the learning process.
- Familiarise yourself with the conference process by discussing your child’s planning.
- Prepare a list of questions that might support discussions.
3 - During the conference, parents/carers can:
- Provide encouragement, praise, and reinforcement.
- Assist your child in identifying strengths and learning goals.
- Work with your child and teachers to determine the next steps for learning and agree their targets for improvement.
4 - After the conference, parents/carers can:
- Participate in the conference evaluation.
- Support your child in taking action to achieve their new learning targets.