Super Successful SLC’s!

Student Led Conferences are vital to our work. They put our students in charge of sharing information about their academic progress with their families. In the words of expeditionary learning guru Ron Berger, “Student Led Conferences require and empower students to take the lead role in communicating their learning” – in other words, our students know they have to be responsible for their learning and progress, and they must be able to explain to their families where they are at, and where they are heading!

SLC’s obviously looked a little different this year. They were online; students had 25 minutes to speak about a range of things, including their HoWLs data, Academic progress, how they have found working from home, and the pledges they made at the start of the year. Crew Macmillan continue to surprise me daily; and once again, they absolutely SMASHED it! They each spoke confidently and maturely, could analyse their own data in terms of GCSE grades (which is a vital skill as we head into Y11) and they were all able to share examples of beautiful work with their families. As such, i wanted to share some of the amazing work with you!

Firstly, Crew were asked to reflect on their attendance across the year. Although we haven’t physically been in school THAT much in Y10 (Thanks, COVID!) – online attendance is still absolutely vital, and it is still monitored. Some great reflections in crew; here is Imogen’s! Imogen spoke through how ‘blue’ means ‘Awesome’ – in terms of our narrative for success, this means Imo is exceeding expectations!

Students were then asked to reflect on their Work Hard, Get Smart, and Be Kind attributes in sessions. Archie and Joe provided really detailed analysis for each HoWL!

We also asked students to use their own data; check out this detailed reflection of HoWLs by Alfie and Courtney.  Both of their HoWLs grades are exceptional – Alfie and Courtney ALWAYS works hard, ask tonnes of questions to get smart, and they are examples of the most kind souls I’ve ever met. Just look at those blue and green grades!!! They both analysed their grades beautifully, picking out the grades they are happy with, but also what they need to work on:

Following their HoWLs data, students got the opportunity to analyse their academic progress data. Crew Mac were fantastic at this; they really got down to the nitty gritty meaning of the data and they could explain what their ME grade meant (their minimum expected grade by the end of Y11), whilst comparing it to their AP1 data (their predicted grade for the end of Y11 if they continued working how they are now). A beautiful example below from Milo:

(It’s important to note, too, that Milo’s ME grades are 3.5-4… very high targets to meet!!!)

During their SLC’s, students were also able to highlight pieces of beautiful work. This is my favourite part of SLC’s – seeing parents faces light up and fill with pride as they unveil how talented their kids are is just incredible. It seems we have a fair few artists in Crew, too!!! Have a nosey at the following beautiful work which just blew me away!

Alfie, Isaac and Heather’s Art work:

Ricki & Joe’s English work:

…Courtney’s Citizenship work, & Frankie’s Spanish Product!

Crew also had the opportunity to discuss a piece of work they struggled with. Courtney gave a beautiful example and spoke in length about maths; a subject she finds tricky, but one she is learning to grapple with and is improving every day. Courtney provided an example of her Hegarty scores for Algebra – she spoke about a ‘lot of red and orange’ – and then about how she was going to go away, watch the videos, practice the method, and return to the quizzes to (hopefully) improve her scores. What a way to Get Smart; excellent work Courtney!

We, of course, couldn’t conduct SLC’s in 2021 without reflecting on working from home. For some students in Crew Macmillan, being at home is a blessing, and they are thriving – although i don’t know if that’s just because they get more of a lie-in in a morning?! Others aren’t too fussed; they manage well both in school and from home. For others, WFH has actually been a real challenge; it can feel really lonely and isolating at times, and a lot of crew are missing the social aspect of talking to their friends in real life. I must say, I’m struggling with it a little bit too – it’s lovely to see 100% crew attendance each morning online, but i cannot WAIT to see your happy faces in person soon enough! For now, check out these wonderful WFH reflections from Frankie and Milo:

To end on a super positive note… you’ll be pleased to hear that every member of Crew Macmillan passed their SLC’s (with 3 more to go!) – a lot of time and effort went into the preparation of them, and I’m so proud of each & every one of you! Keep doing what you’re doing; keep showing up, working hard, getting smart, and being kind. Keep engaging with the data, and keep your spirits up; we’ll be back together as a crew in person as soon as we can!

Miss C x

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