Can anyone help explain id this normal, and any advice (primary schools)

[Roeland]

My DS and DD (year 3 and year 5) are at a large junior school that is part of a larger (7 school academy trust)

I understand the pressures schools are under (I work in public sector) and I try to be supportive, do extra homework with kids, volunteer etc. School has large classes, big mix of first languages, high level of sen needs and deprivation etc.

I try really hard to support the teachers but we don't get what I feel are V basic things (we hand in all homework, there is NEVER any feedback to the poor kids on if it was right or not; I asked for some tips on how to support DS with maths, was promised worksheets and web links etc, never arrived; we get one page report once a year, nothing else, so no idea how they are doing)

The academy is currently obsessed with promoting itself - we are going to have a joint "festival of education" and no individual school summer fayre; we keep getting posters and flyers for academy paid summer clubs, now a uniform change to "keep up with other local schools". We get one newsletter a half term from head that is all, used to be a lot more communication

I just want the basics. To have my child taught, to help them with needs, and to know how they are doing. I dont want to be an annoying parent when I get how tough it is - I really feel for and try and support the teachers. But I really want more and I don't care for the academy selling itself when the basics aren't done

Is there anything I can do to help my kids and their education that isn't a pain to the teachers? At the moment I feel only option is to put in alot of extra work at home as I feel they get so little input at school

*is this normal - sorry won't let me edit title

All those things sound fairly unexceptional to me. The joint event between schools is a bit sad but you can see why that saves time.

I think it has long been normal to put in extra at home, you can't just post them into school then expect to do nothing at home.

Obviously education had been underfunded and it's wrong, but I don't think your school sounds that unusual.

Bigger issues are behaviour, teacher turnover, SEN support and response to bullying.

The maths thing is not great, I'd politely email and ask again, but also you can just do maths at home anytime.

Thanks - I did suspect that was the case. Have no issues with doing work with them, just trying to get a sense of is this the norm nowadays on the basics. Thanks for reply

I think those are basics that the school should be providing. In comparison to my children’s school - we get 2 parent’s meetings a year, 3 end of term reports, a weekly newsletter, messages on an app about progress with times tables or other things they’ve been doing. But I moved my eldest daughter from a school where communication was really poor, it wasn’t the main reason for moving her (25+ staff had left under a new head teacher) but it frustrated me no end so I get where you’re coming from.

Does the school have a maths app that your DS has a login for? We do a lot on that, but there’s also other maths websites/apps out there you could use, my daughter uses one called Hit the button for times tables practice.

I am surprised you don’t have parent’s evening.

if you are doing lots with them at home you must have an idea of how they’re doing?

It’s hard to know if you’re being unreasonable as there isn’t a lot of detail. It’s unusual not to have a parents’ evening at all. Has the teacher told you if they’re doing ok or struggling?

What are lessons like? Is behaviour in class ok?

There are always workbooks in shops like WHSmiths and the Works if you want to support them more. If they’re getting homework then the teacher has already planned that and asking for me adds to their workload so you’ll need to find more (online has tons).

Are you on the PTFA? They do all the summer Fayre and Xmas events in my school so if they’re not very active then those things won’t be great although I can see why the schools are joining together as maybe then they have enough volunteers to run stalls and set up - these things take a lot of work.

Do you really not have parents' evenings? Schools are required to give termly feedback - usually it's parents' evening, parents' evening, report in that order.

A half termly newsletter is fine though. My child's school does a weekly one and it's full of unnecessary information. The school already uploads loads of photos to Seesaw which I think is overkill - I'd rather the teachers were doing something else, even if it were spending time with their own families.

The communication sounds poor. My daughter is Y5 in a similar school and we get an update at least once a week on Class Dojo from her teacher on what the whole class is doing, plus he’s very responsive to messages. Parents evening twice a year and written report once.
The homework she is set is pretty automated - reading we have to sign her planner, maths on various apps (Freckle, TT rockstars) but if she has struggled and I message her teacher he will address it pretty quickly. If they are being asked to do project type homework it should be marked.

It does sound like the bare minimum in relation to contact but tbh lots of schools go overboard with the messages, newsletters etc. My DS primary school (part of a MAT as well) has open classrooms twice a year as well as standard parents eve twice a year. They also do info evenings about certain things such as SATS or the year 4 spellings test. I find they rarely tell me anything I didn't already know. But it's nice to see their work and meet the teachers. The extra work my DS does for maths at home is on the doodle maths app, and TT rockstars. They do maths homework via an app in secondary school as well so it's good to get used to doing it that way.

None of the promo stuff (flyers), uniform change, head teacher newsletters (I think every half term is fine) type stuff is related to classroom learning.

Summer fayre is generally the province of the PTA.

I’d forget about all that and concentrate on the parts that are about your child’s learning. I think being promised worksheets then not delivered is a bit crap - but potentially was simple forgotten and you just need to remind them. For me, it would have to be “forgotten” (ignored?) twice before it was a concern. Otherwise quite normal.

In my experience, only one report per year and no parents’ evening is unusual.

I would talk to the teacher again. I’d stop worrying “being a pain”, if you’re asking infrequently for basic info and support!

Thanks - all really helpful, we have one parents evening and one report a year - but report comes out on last day of academic year at end of day so no opportunity to discuss / review etc.

Will ask again on the maths - had done twice and just really get how busy the front line teachers are.

Yes to being on PFA and yes to helping with school fayre, do both.

Thanks for replies

I did not read no parents' eve, it doesn't specifically say that in the OP, I agree that would be unusual.

It sounds absolutely fine to me. I don’t actually know what more you want.
I have a zillion requests from parents for ridiculous things like maths papers. They are requests that I don’t have the capacity to deal with. Look online yourself, hire a tutor, get a work book, get a job so you don’t have time to harass the teachers.
You sound quite needy and clearly DON’T understand what the basics are. Homework is set because bloody Ofsted want it to be, I have NO intention of EVER marking it!

Speaking as an exhausted teacher myself, I always find time to meet with parents if they request it via the office. It’s particularly useful if you email in with a list of questions in advance that I have time to think about. At hometime I’m often tired and don’t give particularly good answers when ambushed, but if I have time to think it over and a dedicated slot in my diary, I’m much more helpful to parents. It’s not at all unreasonable to ask how your child is doing and what you can do to help at home.

I’d consider changing schools, it seems poorly run with them caring more about keeping up appearances than educating children.
You can’t “do maths at home” if you don’t know what level they at, what they are studying. You’ll potentially confuse them by going about things a different way.
No feedback on homework is spectacularly shit isn’t it.

We get set homework which is marked weekly.
School assembly.
A Christmas concert.
Children have a Christmas fete.
Around 6/8 school trips per year- might include library trip/ trip to high school.
We have two parents evenings per school year and can see a teacher if there are issues with learning or bullying.
Regular requests to volunteer- maybe you could do that? Or try and get a place on the PTA.

It doesn’t sound at all normal to me based on my experience of our lovely primary. But then I only know this one school, so no idea what others are like!

That sounds hard. Sorry OP. A very useful website for Numeracy is 'Maths Factor' part of activelearn.com. It has a clear progression you work through, It's Carol Vorderman's and there are short video explanations. There are banded reading books too with different types of comprehension questions, all pretty motivating. I prefer the maths factor part of it. Look at bbc bitesize too and 'AAC' apps like 'Clicker' if any difficulties writing. Don't get talked into a Twinkl membership it's great if you're a teacher for specific resources but not needed at home. Buy basics like a set of 100 unifix cubes, a question dice to use with reading books, put together a purse of £10 of a variety of real coins to count and give change during shop games or buying tickets, a set of 3D shapes to identify properties, a set of 2D shapes, angle ruler, big squared paper, glue stick, sticky coloured parker to display data in graphs, make various measuring tapes and number lines. I can't remember the age of your child but info about the curricular topics is on national education gov pages. Literacy can be helped by finding out about 'reading strategies' and working on them, also higher order thinking skills. I'd ask school again about communication re progress as reporting to parents in various forms is a huge part of teachers work.

We also get no feedback on homework so stopped doing it.

I strongly recommend this approach for a more relaxed and enjoyable family life

“Homework is set because bloody Ofsted want it to be, I have NO intention of EVER marking it!”

I have a lot of sympathy with this believe me. But from a parent and child point of view, what we see is all that effort and school telling us it’s important, and then not even being marked. To a parent it makes the school look shit, to a child it’s disappointing and makes it look like doing what you’re asked to just doesn’t matter.

If it’s a maths worksheet for example, what would have helped us would have been being told at the start of term that there’ll be a weekly task - with an answer sheet given the following week - and that we won’t get marked papers back. But to rest assured that the questions were all practice for classroom learning which was repeated so to do what we could and not worry if there were wrong answers, teacher aware of your child’s progress from that classroom work. Otherwise, it just looks like you couldn’t be bothered.

Better still, overthrow the government, fuck Ofsted, and stop giving kids homework that has been shown not to help anyway!!!

Our primary have 3 parents evenings, end of year report, weekly newsletters, weekly homework which they peer mark every Friday, a halftermly update on what they'll be covering for that half term, weekly updates on what they've learnt this week, kids have logins for a maths, timetables, reading apps.
At drop offs and pick up teachers and SLT are very visible.
It's a small single form school and part of an academy trust.