Teachers - at what point do interested parents become ...

[Mog]

'pushy parents'. There's been a few threads recently about people wanting to make suggestions to teachers but worried about coming across as 'pushy'. I've been in the same position myself re making suggestions about things to schools.
So at what point do parents start to annoy you and would you rather have this than no interest at all.

I would always tend to perfer that parents were interestied! It is vital if the child is going to make progress, probably the most important thing.

What irks me somewhat is when parents think that we only teach their child, and fail to remember that we will have 29 other kids in the class at the same time. So we can't be their childs private tutor

Agree with what mb said!

here here Martinbishop
At parents evening last week a parent asked if her child was spoilt in the class I replied 'err no we have 10 other children to deal with she has to get on with it all'
SEN school so small classes)

I honestly welcome parental involvement - absolutely. I would rather have a parent come and see me every day than show no interest in their child (have had both scenarios in the past!) However, I detest it when parents try and tell me my job! They forget that we are highly trained and qualified. I welcome their input and suggestions (no one knows your child better than you!) but, on a couple of occasions, people have overstepped the mark.

Depends on how it is done too. Did they make an appointment to see me (even if for only 10 minutes) or did they want to get into a conversation just at the point when I have 30 children all trying to say goodbye to me and I am meant to be making sure they all go with the right person?
Are they voicing a genuine concern and will listen to my opinion, or are they just being demanding?
Sensitivity goes a long way.

I suppose it's come up quite a lot on the reading threads. I think a lot of us experience our children as better readers at home because perhaps they are more relaxed or we have longer to concentrate on them. It's trying to get the balance right as a parent between sounding like you think your child is a genius and also worrying that they are not being challenged enough at school.

I tend to think that so long as my child is happy at school (someone to play with at lunchtime, heard/done something interesting during the day and making reasonable progress at reading and writing) then the school with 30 children in the class is doing a pretty good job (hosting 2 hr childrens parties with 10 children drive me to brink of nervous breakdown so trying to teach 30 children something/anything is pretty amazing to me).

If I am worried about reading etc, I will try to do some at home in the evening or weekend.

Always pleased when parents are interested and involved. What drives me mad is parents who wait until parents evening to voice a concern! Why wait for the night when I have only 5 mins per family, when they could speak to me any day of the week?! I am always pleased to arrange to talk something through when we actually have long enough to sort it out. Also prefer to deal with queries when they are time relevant - useless talking about something which happened 3 weeks ago!
Sorry - rant over!