Northland School Board of Trustees
Reporting to Parents Policy
Rationale:
Reporting to parents on student progress on both a formal and informal basis encourages a shared responsibility for student learning. It enhances the close relationship between home and school and reflects Northland School’s philosophy that a child’s education involves many different people.
Purpose:
• To inform parents regularly of their child’s achievements and next learning steps.
• To involve parents in their child’s education
• To provide opportunities for parents and teachers to raise matters of concern needing attention.
Guidelines:
• Individual parent/teacher interviews will be held twice a year.
• Records will be kept of agreed goals and courses of action.
• Parents will have access to records of academic achievement.
• Written reports will be provided for each student twice a year. The mid-year report will outline student progress towards National Standards and will include information on student achievement, progress against learning goals, next learning steps and suggestions for ways parents can help at home. The end of year report will summarise the year’s progress as well as noting student achievement in relation to National Standards.
• Issues of concern will have been discussed earlier rather than first noted in reports.
• Year 4 to 8 students will be involved in a student-led conference at mid year.
• An interview will be held for New Entrants after the first 6 to 8 weeks of school and will focus on how the child has settled to school.
• Teachers or parents who have concerns about aspects of a child’s progress, behaviour or attitude will be encouraged to arrange an interview as necessary to discuss these concerns at a mutually agreed time rather than waiting for the twice yearly parent/teacher interviews.
• An “open door” policy will facilitate informal reporting.
• Individual portfolios will be kept to provide a continuous and developing collection of each student’s record of progress. These will be sent home at the end of the year for parents to view and comment. Each portfolio will contain a sample of handwriting, a completed piece of writing, a response to reading, an artwork of some form and two mathematics tasks or activities.
Approved: 16 May 2011
Review Date: 2014