Parents’ Evening should be a two-way conversation, designed to help you understand how to support your child on their learning journey. Read on to discover some tips on how to get the best from your child’s parents’ evening and what questions you could ask.
My daughter’s life at school is a complete mystery to me. She is a girl of few words, and certainly doesn’t use them talking to me about her learning. I am a details person, which added to the fact that I work in Primary education, leaves me in a real pickle. I want to know, but I don’t want to put words in her mouth, nag her or assume anything.
Most schools organise parents’ evening in the Autumn term which provide the opportunity to meet with the teacher to discuss your child.
Most schools have two parents’ evening per academic year (Autumn and Spring term) with meetings that last around 10 minutes. The main focus of the Autumn term meeting is usually on how your child has settled into the new academic year (organisation, confidence, friendship groups, concentration, contribution to discussions etc). The Spring term meeting is much more focused on academic progress and achievement, so is likely to be the point at which teachers discuss whether your child is working at an age appropriate level, struggling or exceeding expectations.
Parent evenings normally take place in your child’s classroom to enable you to understand more about the environment they work within, and to see their work in books and on display on the walls.
I was fascinated to watch my husband’s reaction to entering a primary school classroom for the first time since his own childhood, and to witness his uncharacteristically quiet and shy interchange with our son’s first teacher. Later he admitted to being transported back to his own experiences at Primary school, so struggled to put his ‘parent head on’ (especially whilst perched awkwardly on a Baby Bear sized school chair).
Despite being told everything was fine, I felt a sense of frustration that I hadn’t really found out anything about my child as a learner. In reality, my husband and I were a mute audience waiting to be ‘told’, which didn’t enable the teacher to engage in dialogue or meaningful adult conversation about a topic very close to our hearts.
A few years and several parents’ evening later, I now realise that my role in a parent meeting requires much more than just listening. Sharing information and asking the teacher questions supports my child by developing a working partnership between home and school.
The most useful parent meetings I have experienced discussed learning behaviours and attitudes with teachers who
clearly knew what challenged and motivated my child, and explained how they were going to support them in their learning throughout the year.
Asking a couple of questions around attitudes to learning and learning behaviours such as the ones below could lead to a more useful and informative parent meeting:
- What does my child appear confident doing?
- How does my child respond when challenged?
- How does my child interact with peers in the classroom?
- Is my child reluctant in any subjects/situations?
- Will my child ask for help or make it clear if they are not sure about something?
- Is my child able to focus and concentrate when expected?
- Does my child contribute to class discussion without prompting?
- What does my child find easy?
- What does my child find difficult?
- What could we focus on developing at home?
It is worth remembering that teachers have a tight parents’ evening timetable, so will keep the meeting short. It would be unusual for your child’s teacher to use parents’ evenings as a forum to raise a problem around your child’s learning or behaviour for the first time. However, useful questions to ask if concerns are raised might be:
- What strategies do you use to help my child with ……?
- What is being put in place in school to support my child with ….?
- What can I do at home to support my child with ……?
Schools will usually make contact before parents’ evening to arrange a convenient meeting to share concerns, with plenty of time for questions and detailed discussion around strategies to support your child. Parents’ evening would then be an opportunity to review progress and discuss next steps.
At Student Navigator we offer bespoke mentoring support for primary school children to develop learning behaviours and attitudes. If you have any concerns about your child’s learning please do get in touch to see how we can help.