What do you want from your child’s Reception teacher?

[BargainHunters]

I’m sure many are in the same boat with their DC about to or just started school.

What makes the ideal Reception teacher?

What would you hope your child’s Reception will be like and will do, and what do you hope they won’t? (Please no teacher bashing).

I’ll start:

I hope they:

-comfort my child when they are hurt/scared
-update my child’s online learning journey so I know what they’ve been up to

i hope they don’t:
-shout at my child

I just want(ed) them to teach my child as well as they can with the resources they have available and not be unkind.

honestly had no expectation of feedback unless there was a problem apart from at parents evenings

I want them to do their job-just like any other person really.

Acting with fairness/parity between the kids
Resolving (actual) issues promptly and reasonably
just making it into the top three teaching them in a way that promoted their learning.

I really felt for DD's YR teacher. Probably not unusually, her class of 30 kids (she had a TA, but still) included at least a few kids at the extremes of academic aptitude, two "boisterous"/may be other issues kids, a few with "My mummy says I'm a miracle" type parents, one newly resettled refugee with no English and more. How anyone got to the end of the year in possession of a rudimentary grasp of phonics and maths I've no idea.

I generally left her to it and trusted her - I felt that was my job as a parent. When something did crop up that needed intervention, she was excellent.

I don't know how YR teachers do it. I work with 2-4 year olds and we have a ratio of 7:1 MAX (usually a lot less). As a PP mentioned there will be all abilities ranging from some fairly severe SEN (which in the past would require a 1:1 but now they might get the funding for a couple of hours a week). There will be children with little to no English. There will be children who spend their entire time out of school watching Tik Toks/ on ipad and can't concentrate. There will be children taught to hit others by watching their loved ones do it to each other or them. Then there's all the perfectly average kids who are curious, argumentative, hurting themselves, missing Mummy, not being someone's friend anymore taking something when someone else is playing with it etc.

After having 30 of those for 6-7 hours, tidying up the class planning the next day's activities and preparing them, I think wanting the teacher to fill in an online learning journal is bit much.

I want my child's reception teacher to see past their academic ability and not forget that they are a 4 year old who needs a little bit of adult attention, even if they are well behaved and can already do the 3 rs part. I think quiet academic kids can easily get left aside/overlooked just because they aren't so obviously demanding on the teachers attention.

My DCs have left school but one had the most fabulous reception teacher who we still talk about now. She had WARMTH.
The children felt very secure with her.
She was warm, fair, positive and enthusiastic. And they all came out reading and writing!
Ds's DDad died while he was in her class, aged 4, and he was so looked after.
My other DC had a cold, nasty, patronising (to the parents) cow. They also learned to read and write. We still talk about her but about how shit she was.

I hope they are well trained in sen so if a child isn't learning like their peers they can flag to Senco and parents.

Early intervention is absolutely vital for not only learning but also self esteem and so on.