Primary teachers - how do you remember all your kids' names!

[starrychime]

Was having a wee chat with DD just started P3 and I asked if teacher knew all the class names yet. Got me wondering how you all manage to learn 30 odd kids names in presumably a fairly short period. Slightly worrying that when it came to DD teacher said 'she'd heard of her'. What can this mean - what would you mean if you said this? (Starry sits back, sighs and lets paranoia settle back in after the hols )

Last Christmas I wrote cards for all the children in the school from memory and when I checked found I had only missed the names of a couple of the new Reception children( I teach yr 5/6)( Mind you, we only have 80!) You soon get to know your own class, and most children in other classes too as you see them at play/assembly, many are the siblings of children you have already taught or are names that crop up in the staffroom which is where perhaps your DD was mentioned

When they first started school my little ones came home with name lables stuck to them for the first couple of days. It was to help the dinner ladies....teacher didn't need any help!

I'm no a teacher but have worked in a nuresery with a similar sized room eg 20-30 kids in there at a time, you just do very quickly pick up their names - I manage to remember children's names better than I do adult names!

At my son's school his teacher he will have in september was reading them stories before they broke off for the summer hols so they could get to know each other.

I work in education, though not in a school, and I always remember all the children's names... I can remember all the children in DD's class after a week too... um I can remember all those in my infant classes even

I'm a secondary school teacher who teaches at least 180 children. Within a week I will have 90% of their names memorised.

Some children are very easy to learn because they always answer questions/have noticeable hair or other features/answer back etc.

I'm a secondary teacher, so in any one school year I might have 8 classes, each with 20-30 kids in, so a lot of names to remember! It does take a while, but I generally get my classes to have name plates (well, folded over pieces of paper!) on their desks in front of them for the first few lessons until I can commit their names to memory. Works quite well I find. With just one class of 30 kids, I'm fairly sure I would know their names within a few days. How long had your DD's teacher been taking the class when she said this to you?

She didn't say it to me PJD, but to DD yesterday on first day in her class. Got the impression it was just a quick comment actually and teacher was just going round the kids getting familiar with them. Of course I am like "so was teacher smiling when she said it?", "was it when you were doing register" etc and DD is saying why are you asking so much and is a bit and I should in fact be thoroughly for letting this bother me even a bit the 2nd day into a new term and should actually shut up about it and use my limited energy for something more worthy like wondering how many Ripples it would be reasonable to scoff tonight after DD in bed

Don't overtink this! She had probably just heard another teacher mention your daughter's name in passing. Kids do get mentioned in the staff-room- often for the most mundane of reasons. I'm sure it doesn't imply anything sinister!

lol about the Ripples!
In my experience teacher's have usually "heard of"
a) children who are really difficult and challenging - don't worry about this one - you would know if this was the case because of the number of times you'd been called into school to discuss behaviour.
b) children who are really struggling and a long way behind their peers. as above you would honestly know if this was the case!
c) children who are particularly bright and do things out of the ordinary for their age/stage.
d) children who are particularly mature/helpful.
e) children who say things that are funny enough to be worth repeating in the staff-room!

Take your pick from the last 3!

Oh and names learning - teachers learn them so quickly because they have to and classroom/behaviour management depends on it. "Jimmy sit down and listen" is more likely to be responded to than "boy with the red hair sit down and listen!"

I'm primary, I was thinking that it's much more of an issue for secondary, with the hundreds that flow through in 45 minute slots.
Yes, we talk about children in the staffroom, in passing for all sorts of reasons. Playground duty is another way of meeting a lot of them. Some names are more memorable than others for different reasons, mostly good.
Plus we do name labels for pegs, trays, books.
Data analysis means you look at progress in cohorts across the school, I've already done all this for my new class in September.
Two ripples. They are a lot smaller than they used to be in the 80s.

Yes, am going for 2 with a nice cup of tea for dipping - or even better hot chocolate to dip chocolate in (or is that too much?)
Paranoia will now be sent out into the corridor till it stops being such a pest!

Am not a teacher, but I work with children. Generally, you will know the names of the children before you meet them. So it's just a question of matching faces to names that you're already familiar with.

And there's a bit incentive to learn them fast once you do meet the children, for the reason mentioned by Sarahfreck. There is great power in being able to use a child's name, in an appropriately stern/consoling/encouraging tone of voice. Saying "oy, you, whatever your name is" really doesn't cut it!

Lots of schools also have a photo list of the pupils that teacher's can access. So I have personally spent time pouring over the list trying to memorize some.

Also the teacher may well have come across at least some of the pupils before. So may also remember Sophie who helped with the lights at the Christmas show, or Luke who was in their group for the visit to the local church, or Tom who is in their house for sports day.

I'm a trainee in secondary, and although in normal life I'm not great with names, I do work hard to learn my classes asap. Although I think attempting a name even if its the wrong one is often more appreciated than no idea. My two blonde Hannah's also appreciated it when I explained why I kept hesitating on their names.

Primary school is much easier as you have them all the time, and fewer names to learn.

DD2 was very and when on her first day at secondary (massive school 2000+ pupils), when the head was walking roudn chatting to pupils and asking their names, she said "I'm DD2firstname" and he immediately replied "oh, you must be DD1firstname's sister". Admittedly they have unusual names, but I was pretty impressed that although I know he knows DD1 (all for good reasons ) that he was able to match up DD2 to her just by first name.

I'm hoping to be a primary teacher and I reckon I'll manage quite well as I have 'that sort of memory' IYSWIM?

one technique I've experienced in clubs etc is getting the children to come up with a word that begins with the same letter as their name and then you go round saying them - "Amazing Andrew" "Cool Caitlin" etc :)

Identical twins can pose a problem for a while but usually you can put names to most faces by the end of the first day and all by the end of the week. Even children who look alike have different personalities and mannerisms.
I've talked to the next teacher about all my last class so he's "heard of them" too

Do you find that over time it is easier to remember all their names? It seems to get easier some how.

i find memorising childrens names sooo much easier than adults. You are with them for 5 hours a day 5 days a week and knowing their names is crucial to good classroom control.

My problem after 8 years of teaching is calling children by their siblings names (especially since I teach across the school on different days and can teach 4 siblings from one family over the week) and even worse than that is when a child walks in and looks exactly like someone you taught 5 years ago even though they arent related. They don't seem to mind my occasional lapses and normally laugh about it.

I can now even do the thing where your teacher from infants recognises you in the street when you are at secondary school - there are some children you just never forget!

I'm usually pretty good at remembering children's names (I teach primary but have been doing PPA so teach 300 different children each week) but for me the difficulty has come in changing from one school where the majority of children were black or mixed race to another where the school is much more mixed.... I have discovered I am hopeless at identifying white boys from among a group! Prior to changing schools I'd have never expected to find that particularly difficult but in the 6 or so years I spent at my last school I only ever had a maximum of 2 white boys in my class. I have to work a lot harder to remember which name goes with which boy's face these days.

Found I really couldn't remember the name of a girl who greeted me enthusiastically on a Calais-Dover ferry today. I have an idea she is coming into my class next week.....!!!!

You learn them all very quickly because it is very important to do so. Secondary teachers learn more.

I can normally get about half a class's names learnt by morning break on supply... some individuals' names you have down pat before you've even done the register for some strange reason!

I bumped into a little boy in the supermarket this morning. I recognised him as a new nursery child but couldn't think of his name until it suddenly came to me at the checkout ...

Now, parents are a different matter! I can never remember second names so I know Mrs X is Jimbob's mum but can't remember what her name is, even worse when parents and children have different surnames. I quite often used to say "Can I have a word with you Mrs errrmmm" and have now developed lots of ways of approaching parents without using their names

I go with "Is that 's mum?" when I have to contact anyone.