Mumsnet Talk

Hi, Please can you tell me if you as a teacher would be upset if a parent asked you what you will be covering in the upcoming terms.

My DS1 is struggling and I want to help him by doing some home study at home to enforce what he is learning at school.

I'm not a year 2 teacher but I have been a year 2 TA for several years and we always issue a curriculum map termly so that parents know what topics will be coming up. None of the teachers I've worked with would be in any way offended if you asked the question and would probably be delighted that you wanted to help your DC!

Hi, Thanks so much for that

Not a teacher but ours announce topics for each half term at the start of each half term.

We also announce topics for the coming half term in a curriculum newsletter. This goes out in time for the holidays generally.

DD's school send out a curriculum map for the year in September outlining the key topics in each subject.

That's really good that you want to help. Have you spoken to the teacher about the fact that he's struggling?

Also not a teacher but we also get a curriculum map termly like UsedtobeSane is talking about, plus there is a presentation at the beginning of each term to go over it and flesh it out a bit.

If the teacher is offended about you asking then that would be a pretty poor do imo. I can't imagine she would be though.

I think they should be able to tell you what will be happening at the start of each term, but I wouldn't expect them to tell you what will be happening next term. Im a TA btw.

Was the teacher able to offer any suggestions of how you can help at home?

I'm a year 2 teacher - I'd be overjoyed that you were showing an interest.

We already give out a termly sheet for numeracy which details what we are covering. Maybe you could get together with other parents and ask the school to instigate something like that?

We get a list each term of what they will be covering in each area eg Maths, pe, RE etc.

We get a list each term of the topics and curriculum map, however, and more importantly, we get the targets for DS for that term, with examples of what we can do at home to help..

Hi Simbapride:

I'm just a Mum - but information flow at our school was initially quite poor (things improved radically in the run up to OFSTED inspection).

It sounds like what you want to understand is what will be covered for that entire year. If so - can I suggest the following:

Campaign for Real Education has prepared statements on what should be covered for each year (age group): www.cre.org.uk/primary_contents.html - just select the curriculum you are interested in getting details on. Please do bear in mind that this is 'ideal world' stuff - and may well exceed what your own school is aiming for. As a parent I find this an incredibly useful yard stick against which to form expectations on what my DDs should be covering or not.

Ask around - I also find it incredibly interesting to hear from other parents what they're kids are doing. Whilst you're waiting for your child at lessons or pick up time at a club, etc... - strike up conversations with other parents and ask them about what their DCs are doing in school right now. It really helped me to get the confidence to feel our school was 'coasting' a bit - and could be doing more.

If you feel your DS could do with more materials - worksheets/ games - to give him opportunities to reinforce and practice what is covered in Y2. Can I suggest you go to BBC Learning - but enter through Schools/ Teachers (boxes on right hand side of web page) and then you can select the area of curriculum you are interested in - www.bbc.co.uk/schools/teachers/ - in the middle left there is an orange box - select the KS1 tab and then select the subject.

When you click the subject - you go onto another webpage with a blue box and some areas to chose of this curriculum topic to chose from. You can use these and explore (usually on-line games) or to the right you can click subjects under the KS1 subject list and you can then have access to worksheets, activities or games.

Also don't forget BBC Bitesize which reviews English, Maths and Science for KS1 SATs. www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/. This is ideal review and very useful - in that if your DS struggles you know there's a lot of catch up work to be done. The nice thing about Bitesize is that the games are pretty easy to run, so once they've started you can get on with cooking, your own work, etc...

Obviously all schools and teachers are different, but I didn't met with much help when my DD1 was seriously struggling in a number of areas in Y2 - so have found it easier to search out this kind of information and generate ideas of things we can do at home myself, rather than get it from our school.

PastSellByDate - thank you for this - I have managed to put together some easy worksheets that I can work through with him - hopefully this will bring help him in the class room.