What Should I Ask the Teacher?

When it comes to a positive home-school relationship, regular and constructive communication is the key. At the beginning of every school year it is difficult to navigate the right time and place to discuss your child’s learning and by the time ‘meet the teacher’ or initial parent teacher interviews come around, many parents are overwhelmed and unsure what to ask their child’s teacher. Sometimes this results in the teacher doing all the talking or the parent  asking about one thing and forgetting to ask about the ten other things they were not sure about. Detailed questions are great if you have them, but what if you don’t really have any specific concerns? What do you ask when you get the opportunity to talk to your child’s teacher one-to-one?
Here are five important questions to ask your child’s teacher when you meet with them:
1. Is my child experiencing any difficulties (socially, emotionally, academically or physically) in your opinion?
2. How are my child’s individual learning needs being catered for within the classroom setting?
3. Are there any ways that I can provide additional support the school and my child’s learning?
4. What is the best way to contact you should I need to discuss my child?
5. Is my child doing the best they can do?
These direct and simple questions are not meant to be in any way an attack on the teacher or school, so obviously the tone in which they are asked is also important, but they are questions which allow an open flow of information and a relationship built on partnership for a common goal – a happy, thriving child at school.

As featured in: District Gazette - March '20

---