Parent-Teacher Conferences
We conduct parent-teacher conferences regularly to encourage family involvement in students’ learning.
A parent-teacher conference is a valuable opportunity to:
- Share academic progress and growth based on classroom observations, testing data, assessments, portfolios, and assignments, and – most importantly – students’ attitudes towards learning.
- Give teachers the opportunity to learn from parents or guardians in order to be better informed about students' strengths, weakness, needs, behaviors, and learning styles.
- Discuss enrichment or intervention strategies to support students' learning.
- Discuss issues that may be barriers to students' learning and growth.
When organizing parent-teacher conferences teachers must be mindful of special situations, such as divorced parents, single parents, or guardianships. Some divorced parents, for example, may prefer separate conferences.
While the main focus of parent-teacher conferences should be learning, it is also important to discuss factors that can affect learning, such as students' behavioral and social development.
Parent-teacher conferences are divided into three categories:
- Weekly follow ups that inform parents of their child’s progress, point by point.
- Those which are usually held 4 times a year at progress reporting times when evaluations are shared with parents. These are longer meetings, lasting about 80-90 minutes when parents meet all their child’s teachers. Conferences are typically scheduled 1 to 2 weeks in advance.
- Urgent follow up conferences can be set at any time, taking into consideration a mutually convenient time for both the school and the family.