Long-term goals are customized to each student and are made by their teacher. One set per Semester. Semester 1 is Sept-Jan, and Semester 2 is Feb-June. At Orrett, one of our guiding educational philosophies is that both short AND long-term goals are important. Every child needs short-term goals to keep them motivated but also long-term goals to help make real sustainable progress both on their instrument(s) and developmentally.

Attend the 15-minute goal planning meeting with your child and their teacher. It is NOT required that you lead this discussion, but rather than trying to cram so much information into the typical 2-minute discussion at the end of the lesson, it is best to have you there to observe and offer input if needed. This is not a "parent/teacher meeting" per-say, this is us requesting your presence to help solidify and communicate the importance of long-term goals to our young students. If you are taking lessons online, we request your digital presence.

Having you in the class gives a chance for all three parties (student, teacher, and parent) to give input on what these goals should be and collectively know what is being worked towards. We also believe passionately in the learning triangle which gives equal weight to student, parent, and teacher. This philosophy rightly believes that when everyone is on the same page, the best learning occurs. This is also why we have teacher, child, AND parent sign-off on the long-term goals.

If the date of your meeting is not convenient, I encourage you to email your teacher and let them know and they can delay it by a week. Alternatively, the teacher could involve you by Zoom even if the child is in person so that everyone is present in some way.

The week before the meeting, ask one of the teachers if they can do goal planning during the first 15 minutes of the lesson, and ask the other teacher to use the last 15 minutes of the lesson. 

While we sincerely appreciate your best efforts for attendance, for those who simply cannot attend any week in person or by Zoom, your child's teacher would be happy to prepare a brief email summarising the goals and we'd still ask you to sign the physical page (or reply to the electronic one) once you have seen it.