Page 29 - Blossoms 28 28032024
P. 29
P ARENT T EA CHER
PARENT TEACHER
CONFERENCE
CONFERENCE
This week, we had our parent-teacher conferences. PTCs are essential avenues for parents to
discuss their children’s progress. Teachers are often willing to review the reports with parents
and answer any questions about their child’s performance.
PTC in EARLY YEARS
Meetings in the early years revolve around a child’s performance against the Early Learn-
ing Goals for the year group. Children are assessed under expected and emerging standards
based on the EYFS goals. Often, children progress way above their age group and achieve
many more goals than others. We often tell parents to be reassured if a child is working at
the emerging level as they still have the whole year to achieve these goals. Teachers also make
available a portfolio of children’s work for parents. These works show various activities the
child has completed across all the learning areas in the EYFS.
PTC in Primary
For students in Years 1 and 2, parents discuss a formative report that shows what their child
has achieved based on the objectives under each subject taught. These detailed reports show
the child’s performance and rating from Outstanding to High, Good, Aspiring, and Basic. This
rubric of assessments aligns with the Cambridge Assessment criteria.
Students in Years 3 to 6, in addition to the formative report, get a summative overview of how
the child has performed in the Control Tests, which prepares them to write the Progress Test
at the end of that year group leading to the Checkpoint Exams in Year 6.
Parents often evaluate their child’s performance based on these tests. At Abuja Prep, a score is
just a number that does not clearly define how well a child has performed, and that is why we
take the time to produce a formative report alongside it. As a Cambridge school, we encour-
age parents to understand the grading system. Often, a score that is regarded as a fail, when
converted, falls under an Outstanding Grade. The Cambridge Grading system is internation-
ally recognised, so we use it as an assessment benchmark for our students. We urge parents
to find time to understand this system by reading more about it, coming in for our seminars
where we explain it further, or just asking the teachers questions about it.
Overall, the PTCs were positive this term, with parents acknowledging their children’s growth
and the effort they put into their performance. We thank our teachers for their professional-
ism and their ability to help their students succeed in their learning. We also thank our parents
for our continued support and encouragement this term.
DISCOVER DEVELOP DELIVER DISCOVER DEVELOP DELIVER