Preparing for Your Child’s Parent-Teacher Meetings

About this time every year, schedules of parent-teacher meetings at your child’s school would have been given out. Termly, we aim to send a reminder with a list of helpful questions that you could ask your child’s teacher to ensure you have both an effective and productive meeting as you are the person who knows your child best.

Developing a warm, positive and respectful relationship with your child’s teacher is important so that you can receive the best response to these questions as you support your child’s learning.

Feel free to choose the questions that fit your context and let us know how your meetings go.

Social / Behavioural Questions

  • Is my child able to get along with others in class and in the playground?
  • Who are his/her friends? Who does he/she play with?
  • Does my child participate well in group activities?
  • What are his/her best characteristics?
  • Does my child put himself/herself forward or ask questions?
  • Where does he/she sit? If at the back and is being distracted, you can gently but firmly request for your child to be sat in front to minimise distraction and to get the best out of the lesson

Academic Questions

  • Where is your child according to the learning outcome for the term (satisfactory, expected or exceeding)? If the teacher won’t say, ask if they can give you a rough percentage based on your child’s overall performance to give you an idea of where your child is and where he/she should be at that point in the year group? You can request for the learning outcome or curriculum for maths, literacy, reading for the term or year and ask how can you can support your child with his/her work at home?
  • How is my child in his/her literacy: comprehension, inference and writing (use of adjectives, connectives, correct grammar) and handwriting? You can request to see a sample of your child’s work if you don’t already have one
  • How is my child in his numeracy and mental maths?
  • For children in reception to Year 2: You can request a description of your child’s reading ability, reading level and how you can best support him/her with this?
  • For children in Year 2 and Year 6: Is my child on track to meet the requirements for the academic year?
  • When and if the teacher shares a concern, ask how you can help improve this concern if no suggestion is offered and what the teacher is also doing to support this as well.

You may find that 10 minutes is not sufficient to answer all the questions above. We suggest you choose a relevant question that will answer a question you have about your child’s progress or learning.

The information you receive from this meeting can help you make necessary adjustments ahead of September. With Ant Learning Saturday or Summer School, your child can close any gaps that have been identified or prepare them for higher achievement in the next academic year. You can reach us on 020 8050 5798 / 07762 709 512 if you would like to discuss the goals you have for your child.

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