School communication

[Allme501]

How often do you get updates from your primary school please?

We are only getting one general update per week and have only had one specific update about our child since September. The school use an app for this and I feel like they should be doing much more. I have very little idea about what my child is doing all day. Friends with children at other schools seem to be getting much more. I’m nervous as I’m about to apply for his reception place and I’m not convinced I want to keep him in the school he’s in because of this (he’s in the nursery).

Erm I didn't get updates at all on my child...

Apart from two parents evenings a year obviously

And there's never been an app at my child's school either so no updates that way...

Thought that was pretty normal at school

You don't need to know what your child is doing all day. If you have a specific query ask the staff. Staff should not be taken away from their core business, ie working with the children, in order to write largely pointless updates to parents.

What information do you want? At school it’s usually an update at parents evening unless there is something serious happening ie behaviour.

Ah, not school then, nursery? Unless the child is tiny then no, i think you're expecting too much. Don't you ask at pick up anyway?

What exactly are you asking for? We get a weekly newsletter (across the whole school). We can monitor homework via Google Classroom (from KS2 - there isn't much at KS1). 2 parents evening a year and a report at the end of the year. Our school does also do a termly meeting (optional) for each year group where parents can hear what is on the curriculum that term.

How many more updates do you want?

Surely a general update once a week and a personalised one each half term is plenty?

Updates about my child? Two parents evenings a year, I've never had cause to speak to the teacher otherwise.

Updates from the school about random events, bake sales, the PTA, the football teams progress etc etc? All the bloody time. Endless nonsense. Can't see why they can't put it all in one weekly newsletter.

Is your currently DC at a school nursery? I think it’s pretty normal to not get much in way of updates. Mine both go to/went to school nursery, with my eldest who is now 7 we got nothing bar the weekly timetable, termly lunch menu and a newsletter every half term. With my youngest who is at school nursery now we do have an app but you don’t get much- it’s along the lines of ‘the class enjoyed their music lesson’ and 10 photos where all you can see of yours is the back of their head! We also have a planner where you can right messages back and forth and that’ll say if they did anything particularly bad or good eg timeout for snatching, got on the rainbow for helpful tidying plus notes like ‘remember Thursday is show and tell’. I feel like that’s quite enough tbh. You want the staff’s attention on the kids not an ipad to send all these updates to the parents!

I haven't ever received any updates other than injuries or accidents in school. If I need to know anything I ask the teacher directly at a convenient time. DD is yr 5.

I think you are comparing a school nursery with a private nursery. School you may see an odd photo of a forest school , PE lesson or exciting activity. Private nursery you get feedback and photos daily.

But it sounds like OP is asking about the primary bit. For the future when her child does go into reception

That sounds fairly standard for a school nursery. Reception would be much the same.

Do your friends have children at private, non school nurseries? If so they're probably at a setting where a daily diary is done because of the young age of some of the children there ie some will be babies. Once they reach preschool/school age there is less communication as it's expected that the child can talk and tell you a bit about what they did that day. The child to adult ratio is also higher so it's not generally possible to do written communication for every child every day.

This is very standard. We get a link each Friday to a whole year group blog which details what the year group have done that week. Plus two parents evenings a year. School is very different to preschool settings.

Hi all, thanks for your replies.
Sorry if my expectations are a bit high, I'm a first time mum to an only child so I can only really go on what my immediate social circle share with me.
His previous nursery (not that small or private) would do a general update on their app once a day and then speak to me at pickup so I'm just used to knowing a bit more about what he does in his day.
Friends on mine with children in other schools get general updates daily or every couple of days and at least 3 or 4 personal ones a month. Clearly that's way more than average.
He's only 4 so I don't think wanting to know what he gets up to or how's he's been when he's not with me at that age is particularly over the top but going by some of the replies then perhaps I'm wrong.
The teachers don't speak at pick up unless there has been a specific issue and I don't really know any other parents yet.

We get a parents evening twice a year.

We get generic newsletters fortnightly which cover the whole school and a class specific one every half term.

That's pretty standard.

Your child is at nursery not school and I wouldn't expect any updates at all unless something had happened that I needed to know about

Nursery child gets a weekly update from private nursery.

Infant school child gets a lot of photos on the school app (a couple of times a week perhaps 6 photos of an activity are uploaded), to the point I've fedback to the school I think it must be adding unnecessarily to teacher workload. It takes me from 8am - 5pm just to do the very very minimum of my teaching job, without uploading photos, which wouldn't be my first task in terms of priorities when so much else could be done first. It's a very fine line in schools already in terms of 'if there's no evidence, did the learning really happen?' and all it leads to is asking children to pose for photos instead of me helping in the lesson. I also think children should have a break from being constantly photographed. I feel quite strongly that primaries shouldn't go down the route of photographing for parents every vaguely interesting thing that happens.

At private nurseries it's often true that there will be apps with updates on them - that's paid for childcare. But at actual school, includnig if you are using the nursery at a school, that's simply not the case.

It's normal but I get it's a shock to the system after nursery. The expectation is that at 4 your child can tell you what they've done all day, but whether they will or not is hit and miss!

But my dd started yr 1 in September and the first child-specific update I'll have this year will be at parents evening next week. We get a newsletter once a week and occasionally photos on the app if they've done a special activity.

I moved my child from a private nursery to a school pre-school (nursery with a curriculum) and now we have far better communication. The lack of communication from the private nursery was piss poor from my perspective give that my son at the time was completely non-verbal and couldn’t express his basic needs. In our case good communication is crucial to be fair given that my child is SEN, and we need a good school-parent relationship as they are also involved in implementing a support plan and potentially an EHCP application. BUT I think even if my child was typically developing I’d still want to feel like my child was understood and that I had good enough communication. I’m never looking for a War and Peace length novel about my son’s day, but just something that makes me feel like he’s being noticed and more importantly that he’s being nurtured.

Parent teacher meetings are the designated times for you to receive updates on your child's progress unless there are areas of specific concern.

You don't need to be told every single day what your child is up to outside of knowing what they're required to do for homework.

Your child is there to be educated, teaching staff have enough on their plate without being expected to give little Timmy's mummy a blow by blow account of their day.

We used to get a termly class plan of what they will be doing - High Level. Would also mention any dates (ie Book day wear PJ with date) They would also send a termly newsletter with photos /examples but again light touch.

We had two parents evening a year. One school report.

They would if there had been an issue or any concern happy to receive an email - preferably before the start of school and the teacher would respond before 9 if applicable or end of day.

Id rather they focus on teaching than sending daily updates for 30 children - can imagine that would be quite a lot of time!

Thanks for taking the time to reply but perhaps next time you could be a little less condescending.

My daughter started reception in September for the first half term we got a weekly news letter for her class. The teacher announced after half term that they were stopping it and we will get personal updates as and when. There's a weekly newsletter for the school. We had a meet the teacher afternoon about a month in.

Our first nursery sent many photos a day and we were disappointed when we moved to a different nursery and they didn't do as many photos which was disappointing. Then we found out that the first nursery was awful and had so many issues and their frequent photos were a poor snapshot into the realities of the nursery and in part to lull the parents into a false sense of security about the care they were providing. It's given me a different outlook on photos and updates!