Parents/teachers 2 x 10 mins and a side of A4

[Anothernameanothertime]

AIBU to think this isn’t enough contact between school and home about a child at primary school?

Based on child NT and average academically, is no news, good news?..

If funding (and resource) was less of an issue, teachers, would slightly more contact be useful?

Does anyone have any experience of other countries and how often teachers talk to parents about their child’s development?

Sounds standard from my experience.

I think if there are issues then teachers and parents should be proactive. If not, the annual quick chat is sufficient.

Sounds completely normal

Any real issues should be addressed long before the parents evening. The parents who go to parents evening are rarely the ones you actually need to talk to.

Sorry, I didn’t quite answer your question. My children have been to 3 different schools in 3 countries (a mix of public and private) and little contact is pretty much no news is good news. My 3 are typical kids. No special needs or behaviour issues.

If there were concerns from either parent or teacher then there would be more contact. Otherwise it sounds about right.

Average

Do you also see homework set and see how easy they find it?
Hear from the DC as to how everything is going?
It's pretty normal.
Wait until you get to secondary!

No news is definitely good news

What age in primary? I teach reception and also have weekly contact via reading diaries, this can vary by child but I usually write 3 or 4 sentences, one to say how they got on and then 2 or 3 on what parents can do at home to support them. I also talk to parents on the door when a child has had a particularly good or tricky day and will offer ideas if the parent wants them for things they can do to help, I think this side of things tails off as they get older as it's oftenore personal/social stuff in reception.
Most teachers I have worked with do the same kind of thing though.
If there's something particular you're worried about speak to the teacher, if not then yep, no news is good news.

If you think Primary is low contact wait til you get to secondary....

No news is good news. Nothing out of the ordinary to report good or bad.

We get 6 minutes per child. It doesn't seem enough, especially for SEN DC, but luckily school are very encouraging of booking extra charts during term if needed. They spend so much of their day at school, it doesn't seem enough time to really check how they're getting on.

You shouldn’t have any surprises at Parents’ evenings.
As already said, reading journals, phone calls, notes, informal chats...those go on all the time. Written reports, targets shared.
Plus you have the right to ask for a meeting at a mutually convenient time to discuss a specific issue.
I’ve been emailed on a regular basis, sometimes it was necessary, sometimes it was a needy parent.

One school I worked in in the 90s, the expectation was a home visit every half term. I wonder how that would go down now!

How often do you get that?
Over a year, it sounds pretty average for primary (3 primarys here).
It's more than we get for my secondary child - no side of A4, just a list of effort and attainment grades once a term.

Is this once a year? Do you mean their report?
How often would you want that communication?
I personally don’t see the point in having a conversation to say X is doing well.

With 30 children in a class, those 10 minutes each is actually more like 5 and half hours. Writing a report is even longer.

No news is good news. Keep up to date with Seesaw/ Twitter/ Dojo and check over homework.

Anothernameanothertime in Bavaria (southern Germany) there is only one parents evening per year, when you similarly get ten minutes but there are only slots for about 1/3 of parents and the rest are expected to attend the teacher's office hour, which is once per week at a set time (say Wednesday at 9:30am or 11am - its a set in stone time with absolutely no flexibility whatsoever). Although fewer and fewer families have a sahp its still the assumption and teachers here generally give the impression that they're doing parents an extra ordinary favour talking to them at all...

I used to be teacher in the UK and far less is expected of teachers here, and they are accorded the level of respect MN accords GPs (don't bother them unless your head's fallen off, assume they know best type thing).

Reports are one sheet of numerical grades mid year and a written report (two typed sides of A4) at the end of the year. Children can and do fail years, though less often in primary than secondary, and year 4 grades determine the direction of education (the school) from year 5 on. Teachers here have a lot of power, longer training but seem less competent at dealing with anything but "standard issue" children and have little time or patience for anyone non standard.

So you might have a better deal in the UK IMO. Although the schools here do achieve higher levels in maths and foreign languages in a shorter time than UK schools.

Thanks everyone. Seems pretty typical.

DS in year 2. He’s been saying he’s bored and he’s pretty distractable at out of school activities so want to make sure he doesn’t get behind/put off. I can help support that but helps to know teacher’s view.

Ask for a meeting with the teacher, that’s allowed.

If you want an in depth chat then book a separate appointment with the teacher

Funny if just had endless moans on a class group chat about 10 mins being too short and they are all getting annoyed because it's either phone or online- they cant run over. I pointed out one year i was stuck in the school hall for 2 hours due to parents overrunning their slot. If you have so much to discuss make a flipping appointment

Schools have to report to parents 3 times a year, so that’s your 2x 10 minutes and one report. Exactly the same at our school. Our teachers are more than happy to chat about issues though - pre-covid it was in the classroom before school, and now we call/email and request a callback. Or catch them quickly at pick-up. I’ve always worked on the assumption that no news is good news!

No it wouldn’t be useful tbh. If a child is having difficulties or an incident happens where parents need to be involved then there is more contact anyway. Otherwise, as a pp, no news is good news.

DS in year 2. He’s been saying he’s bored and he’s pretty distractable at out of school activities so want to make sure he doesn’t get behind/put off. I can help support that but helps to know teacher’s view.

You can ask the teacher if you have a specific concern or question. I thought you meant like a general report of how things are going.