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Why report to parents and whānau?

 

We are preparing to close this site soon as this content has now moved to Tāhūrangi.

Tāhūrangi is the new online curriculum hub for Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga | Ministry of Education.

 

Schools report to parents and whānau for two key reasons.

Parents and teacher
  • Parents and whānau are key stakeholders in education and as such they expect meaningful information about their child’s progress and achievement in relation to learning entitlements set out in The New Zealand Curriculum.
  • Parents, families, whānau, and wider community have a valuable role to play in supporting their children’s learning at and beyond school.

Effective reporting of student/ākonga progress and achievement across the curriculum requires more than one-way transmission of information from teacher or student to parent. It requires meaningful, ongoing information sharing processes where the roles and expectations of students/ākonga, teachers, parents, whānau, and the wider community are clear.

  • The key contributors to learning classrooms are teachers, students, and parents and whānau. These contributors need to maintain close dialogue, share information, and work together if students are to be fully supported in their learning. 

Ministry of Education Assessment Position Paper, 2011

The table below summarises the key differences between one-way reporting and information sharing that informs student/ākonga learning across the curriculum.

One-way, accountability-focused reporting  Information sharing that informs learning
  • Teachers report to parents what their children have learnt or achieved.
  • Students/ākonga, parents, whānau, and teachers share and understand information and insights about children’s progress and achievement.
  • Focused on describing successes and failures.
  • Focused on describing and supporting what learning and progress has occurred.
  • Accountability and compliance are the key drivers.
  • Ongoing learning (by students/ākonga, parents and teachers) is the key purpose. Accountability is the by-product.
  • Once or twice a year only.
  • Continuous and timely with key times for more formal evaluation.
  • Reporting is from school to parent, one direction only.
  • Multi-layered and multi-directional between students/ākonga, parents, whānau, teacher, community.
  • Essentially a one-way message. Take it or leave it.
  • Students/ākonga, parents, whānau, teacher and community collaborate and co-construct meaning and the way forward.
  • Reports are sent home on paper.
  • Technologies support two way information flows and the quality, timeliness and richness of the information.

The vision of the New Zealand Curriculum is for our young people to be confident, connected, actively involved, lifelong learners. The purpose of reporting is to share information about a child’s learning, progress, and achievement towards this vision in ways that support further learning.

Communicating clear, dependable information about progress and achievement provides a basis for building a strong partnership between the child, the teacher, and the child’s parents, family, and whānau to support learning and improve student outcomes.

Each child’s parents and whānau are their first and most important teachers. Building learning-focused relationships and connections between parents, whānau, and teachers is therefore vital for each child’s ongoing learning and success. Children are the core participants in any learning environment and as such they need to be actively engaged in understanding their own actions and progress as learners.

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