To be disappointed about lack of communication from child’s school?

My daughter is in rec.

are you expecting personalised contact? We get a school newsletter each week with a link to the class bulletin - there are photos and a few wow moments of the last week. Sometimes she features, sometimes not. There’s usually a big group photo of something.

we’ve also had a phonics workshop, curriculum evening, school mass and a stay and play in the classroom, so plenty of chance to get to know the teacher and other parents.

the teacher writes in her reading record weekly. We’ve also had a parents evening for 10 mins. We can speak at the gate at pickup time if needed too.

they used to use tapestry but stopped recently as it was too much effort for too little gain.

Eyfs have new guidance to limit screen time. This includes having iPads shoved in their faces. Have you had a parents evening ? As long as they can talk about your child then this may just be how it is!

Put your child in school of you're that impressed with it?

But as a teacher, surely you know what the curriculum is a d can do your own assessments?

I can't say I was ever hugely interested in the minutiae of what DD was doing in reception. A bit of phonics, a lot of structured play, story times...what do you actually need to know? Let the teachers get on with it and I'm sure they'll be in contact if there's any issues.

Different schools and year groups and stages are vastly different. It’s like comparing Japan and Saudi Arabia and saying ‘well surely they are both in Asia so the same.’

Don't worry, at some point soon you will have 25 emails a day flying into your inbox most of which won't be relevant to you, this will go on for 12 years.
Apart from the non stop emails I spoke to my child's teachers twice a year at parents night. It's generally a good thing if the school are not contacting you.

Are you sure it's the only school like this in the area OP? It sounds pretty normal to me.

To be honest I feel we’re at arms length even with the comms we get. I teach at a private school we’re teachers are always available, so it’s been a surprise/ adjustment from what I’m expected to do with parents and what nursery did (Oo she did a poo! On the app) and what we get, although I’m pleased with how smoothly things are going for my daughter.

could you raise comms with the class reps who might have older kids in the school? Is this normal or is it particularly bad in rec? I’d also raise to HT if you want.

Isn't it standard? In our reception class it was a normal level of interaction.

Also OP I’d disregard comments they are clearly not current infant age parents. What is expected/ possible/standard moves on and changes quickly. ‘Back in my day…’ comments aren’t helpful.

I've had DC at two separate primary schools and this is standard. School staff are already rushed off their feet with teachers working long hours. I would not expect any more from them, I'd rather they focused on the children's learning than appeasing parents.

Honestly I think you are being unrealistic in your expectations.

Are you always this nasty?

Actually it’s a big part of safeguarding legislation these days to build up a rapport between the school and the parents, because school is the first point of call for any issues or problems happening at home. Abuse yes but also things physical illness and mental health issues. I am thankful that our school really takes communication with families seriously, it’s one of the reasons I chose it. It is very important to build trust and respect between teachers and parents because this in turn effects how the children behave and how seriously they start to take their learning.

My son is in reception, and we use Google Classroom. We get a little update on the topic they’ve been learning or will be learning- Guy Fawkes last week, Remembrance Day this week- then the letter or sound they’ve been learning so we can practice at home, then a ‘star of the week’ update and some pictures on a Friday afternoon. It’s actually more of an update than we ever got from nursery.

The teacher probably does have a bit more time to do it than most though. There are only 16 in the class (no not a private school just sandwiched between two over subscribed ones and a low birth year) with 1/2 teaching assistants depending on the day plus they get taken out for either forest school or PE every Friday afternoon while their teacher stays back.

My DC's primary operated on no news is good news. We pretty much got a half termly slot on the whole school newsletter and that was it. They'd contact us if they had concerns.

You send round one personal post per child every week?! Wow. So 30 personal posts every week. How many hours must that take that you’re not spending actually teaching?

Unless there’s an issue that needs addressing, I’m not sure the need for so many updates. I don’t need to see pictures of my DD in school. She shows us things she proud of either at the parent/child morning thing or brings it home.

Come on its reception, there can't be that much difference.....

It's a few years since DD was in reception, but yes, comms massively drops off compared to nursery/pre-school. We had a weekly whole school newsletter, text whole school messages for reminders about harvest festival/sports day/Christmas fair etc. and then parents evening obviously. We could call or email school whenever we wanted and would get a response fairly quickly, but they weren't proactively sending updates to parents over the course of the week. I don't know how they'd find the time to do that TBH, and as a general principle, I'd rather they focused on teaching and nurturing than on updating me.

The child's been there 3 months.

I will admit that I do find it really weird that DS is away so much and I know so little about what he's doing!

For the first month, we got a handful of photos from the week (the same ones to all the parents, so lots of kids not featured) at the end of the week. Now we get a newsletter on a Friday about what's happened that week, which sometimes has a photo or two, and a "What's on this week" on Sunday which reminds you that it's wear-yellow-day or sports day or you need wellies on Tuesday or whatever but has no photos... otherwise no contact.

First parents evening is this week, I'm looking forward to it!