Parents often find that they think of a hundred things that they wanted to ask the teacher when they arrive home from the parent’s evening. Preparing for a parent’s evening by thinking about your questions ahead of time could help you to optimise your meeting and get the information you need to support your child.
Here is a few suggestions of questions that you could ask:
- Does my child fit in or have friends in class?
- Does my child ask questions in class?
- Do you think that my child is happy?
- Is there anything that you are concerned about?
- If yes: What do you need from me? How can I help?
- What can my child do over the holiday to help them catch up?
- What mark do you expect from my child and why?
- Can I tell you about the challenges at home?
- Can I tell you about a concern that I have?
- What are my child’s strengths?
- Is my child doing their best?
- How can I contact you?
Things you shouldn’t do:
- Don’t be confrontational, the teacher is not the enemy, they are there to work with you to unlock your child’s potential.
- Don’t try to socialise and become the teacher’s best friend. Being friendly is great, but teachers have a job to do and would like you to use this time to make sure that your child is academically, socially and emotionally on track at school.
- Don’t stress about all the little things. The way parents who are not involved at all can make a teacher’s job more difficult, a parent that is overinvolved, hovering and stressed about everything can also be tiring.
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