Do teachers get info on pupils from previous class?

[ShadowWeaver]

Dd2(10) had the same teacher for 3 years who was absolutely fantastic, but sadly she left and DD now has a new teacher. Did has a few issues and I'm wondering if I need to explain it all to her (to help her understand did better) or if she will already know. It's relating to MH as well as a minor-ish medical issue. The new teacher has been understanding when I've mentioned DD is having a down day, but unsure if I need to explain the reasons.
Thanks

I’ve found they don’t tend to pass on info. I can see why but it is frustrating as a parent wondering whether to explain everything.
I would ask for a meeting with new teacher just in case.

Oh gawd, I presumed they did. Maybe that’s a bit naive.

In a halfway decent school they would!

Ds school the teachers have meetings about the children with additional needs, and often those take place with the parents too (or a second meeting does) and then a more general meeting to pass over information about the other children

If she is on the SEN /Learning Support register then the new teacher will read that.
Otherwise, in my experience as a teacher, just a grade.

Handovers can be a bit hit and miss - depends on the nature of the transition and record keeping practices of school and teacher. It wouldn't hurt to have a chat with the new one and give your perspective either way

Speaking as an ex teacher - in most schools teachers have handover meetings to discuss the children's levels, needs, personalities, who they are friends with etc...

I have worked in schools ranging from outstanding to requires improvement and this has been common practice across all of them!

It would depend on what the information is. Safeguarding would allow info on formal stuff, SEND stuff.

Often the personal notes are not, to allow the student to make new relationships unencumbered by what was put in place with the earlier teacher, allowing them to grow, not be straightjacketed by support.

Obviously this means that occasionally teachers are dned if they do or don't pass on all info. But it generally works well.

Depends on the school. They should pass on some info, but it's not always that in-depth.

I would say it's worth having a chat with the teacher. She might know some of it, but would understand it better probably if you explained it to her personally.

She's not SEN. She had to have councelling (sp) due to low self esteem, wishing she was dead. She got a lot better after that but seems to be relapsing a bit. That was in year 4 (yr6 now). She also went through puberty early (7) but had injections to delay it which have now stopped so she's going through it all again now. So many hormones for her to deal with bless her, plus SATs and she hates PE so much she cries every morning she has it. (New teacher has helped with that, just letting her do refereeing or taking photos) I just didn't want to arrange a meeting for her to say either "yeah, I know that" or "I don't need to know that, why are you telling me and wasting my time"

of course they do. They have meetings, talk in staffroom, they know the kids needs and difficulties.

Our school releases the current teacher and next teacher together for the morning to have a handover meeting. Each child is discussed individually both academically and socially. Additional needs and/or difficulties are always discussed, as are things that 'work' for each child.

See DDS old teacher was off for 6 months before new teacher came (substitutes during that time) so I'm not sure if the info would have been passed on. Think I might just ask the new teacher if she wants background info, can't hurt can it?

Then again the TAs know, so may have passed it on. (She has same TA as year 4 for some lessons)

You could drop the teacher a
note/email saying dd isn't coping with the change well and as for a chat about support.

The reply you get should tell you if you are dealing with an informed teacher or not.

No teacher worth their salt would be annoyed with that!

Mine are adopted with various needs / issues. At primary I always provided a typed A4 at the start of the academic year giving background and info. I thought it was safer to assume handover would be patchy. I also did the same for the class tutor at the start of y7.

Well if she got a bit better but is now relapsing, it's a bit of a 'new' situation anyway and definitely worth a quick chat with the teacher. No good teacher is going to mind information being repeated anyway (and with 30 odd children to think about, it's often necessary!)

Better to risk repeating information rather than risk a lack of info. Honestly, I think you're overthinking it!

It's often kept on file, but teachers don't always have time to read everything. From experience it's best to check that the teacher knows ("Of course you're aware that..." - hoping that assuming they know doesn't insult their intelligence.) In primary school we did it with each change of teacher. At secondary school we used parents' evenings to monitor whether they knew and were supporting. Most teachers were pleased to have it drawn to their attention and keen to reassure.

Do bear in mind that assuming she is transferring to secondary next year you have much less teacher contact and now is a good time to encourage her to advocate for herself. Primary school didn't even pass on the information that dd was frequently on crutches. We had but secondary was surprised (considering her obvious needs) how little primary had communicated. Secondary teachers only get barebones on each student on a need to know basis. I arranged with yr6 teacher that I would always encourage her to say what the problem was even if I also emailed behind the scenes. That worked well.

In the school I work in they have a pupil passport for children who need it. If they don't do this in your DD's school it might be worth suggesting it.

www.pupilpassport.co.uk/

DD's secondary school has Pupil passports which I think are great.
It means all her random teachers have access to required info.

As a teacher I never begrudged a parent a quick five-ten minutes to discuss a personal or medical issue, even if I felt I was aware of it from other sources. There's nothing like being able to ask questions and thank a parent for letting me know. It doesn't matter how many notes you read or if you've had 30 minutes with the previous teacher to talk through the whole class, nothing beats being able to speak with the parent about it.

If you feel the new teacher doesn't know, or doesn't know enough, please just fill them in. I can't imagine they would mind, even if they had been made aware.

Thanks for all the replies, it gave me the confidence to ask and she wasn't really aware due to the reasons I said above, so I'm going in a bit early on Monday to discuss.