This past week Chatsworth Primary hosted their Student-led conferences. These conferences, as noted in the IB publication, “Making the PYP Happen” are described as:
Student-led conferences involve the student and the parent. The students are responsible for leading the conference, and also take responsibility for their learning by sharing the process with their parents. It may involve students demonstrating their understanding through a variety of different learning situations. There may be several conferences taking place simultaneously.
The parent turnout was strong. It is pleasing to see the parent community invested in what their child is learning at school as well as how they are learning. As stated in previous blog posts, our students are learning in a much different manner that we did (at least me) when I was in school. It was also great to view the students excited, articulate and confident in presenting their learning to their parents.
I also participated in the student-led conference as a parent as my daughter Stella, in year four, took me around to share the various activities. She beat me in a mathematics dice game (handedly I might add), we made a clay model together and wrote poems. This was followed by us working on a reflection, again together, (she insisted we take a selfie to add to her work) that she uploaded to her digital portfolio.
It is my hope that all of the parents had a wonderful experience with their child as I did.
I would like to thank all the parents who came; your presence makes a huge difference in the triangular relationship between teacher, student and parent we promote here at Chatsworth. I would also like to thank the teachers for their effort in organizing for the day. As you can imagine, the preparation for the conferences takes much time and effort.
Dr. Michael Berry
Head of Primary
