Professor John Hattie, a renowned researcher in education, notes feedback as one of the top ten influences on student achievement. Effective feedback benefits learners by assisting them to understand what they know, what they don’t know and where to go next.
Our Junior School teachers are highly skilled practitioners who provide frequent feedback to our boys as they engage in daily warmups and lessons. Our Junior School students, our teachers and our parents also receive valuable feedback on the outcome of our boys’ learning through our weekly Friday Book assessments. Our semester reports provide further feedback about our boys’ progress against the expected standards of each year level.
As parents, we can also provide our sons with constructive feedback on his learning by reviewing his semester report with him. Whether our son is in the early stages of his education or we have siblings across multiple year levels, semester reports can be the basis for starting valuable conversations with our sons about learning.
How can we talk to our boys about reports?
Take Time
Find a quiet place to sit one-on-one with your son to talk about his report. Give him your undivided attention, without interruptions.
Set the Tone
Highlight your son’s progress, including his strengths. This will encourage your son to engage in conversation with you about his learning – the successes and the challenges.
Effort over Grades
Our boys need to be comfortable with making mistakes and need to develop the resilience to continue to be challenged. Focusing on his effort over achievement means we empower our boys to persist to create positive change.
Cull Comparison
Every boy is on his own learning journey. Help your son to understand that everyone excels (and struggles) in different areas. He should focus on his own learning journey.
Set a Goal and Make a Plan
Identify an area for improvement and take actionable steps towards growth. Such steps may include your son committing to regular reading at home, improving his focus or engagement in class, arriving to school on time or regularly reviewing his weekly progress via Friday Book assessments. You may also like to take the opportunity to collaborate with his teacher through our Term 3 Parent Teacher Interviews to discuss strategies for improvement.
Talking about learning with our sons helps our boys to see us as active participants in their education, who are there to guide and support them along the journey. When speaking with your son, be sure to listen to him. Listening to our boys encourages them to articulate their thoughts and provides us with valuable insight on how we can best guide and support them.
Including our sons in the solution to learning obstacles, increases his ownership of the current situation, develops his confidence in his abilities to improve over time and motivates him to overcome future setbacks. His positive mindset and relentless attitude will be a powerful predictor of his success.
Anja-Lee Caldwell
Junior School Curriculum Leader