School - home communication

[ElinElin]

My dd is in reception. We do not have a link book or a reading comment book, no school website. The only thing we have is parents evening once a term and we get a termly newsletter with some important dates. Is that level of school - home communication normal? I just feel that we are not getting enough info about what dc are learning, how we can support at home and how they are progressing.

We have a newsletter each term and a parents evening once a year, so you are getting more parents evenings but we do get a reading log, with guidance comments from the teacher.

Is there something specific you are concerned with? What's the policy when you want to talk to the teacher?

Weekly whole-school newsletter, termly outline of what the class will be working on, reading record, homework diary (possibly not in Reception), one parents' evening per year plus open evening in summer term. There is a website, but it really only contains newsletter archive.

Most important though, is whether the teachers are responsive if you need to discuss anything.

We get a once-a-year meeting to explain the syllabus, termly parents evenings, once-a-week newsletter and a reading book to write in. And I would agree that responsive teachers are the most important thing.

I would join the PTA if I were you - you get to know lots more about what is going on.

We get a weekly meeting with one of the Reception teachers about what they are covering that week (about 20 minutes long). The Reception teachers also have a white board outside the classroom where they write a sentence about something that they will do for that day. They also stick photos from last week. We also get a syllabus sent home every half term and a sheet with the sound and words of the week.

The teachers are cagey about how they are doing - "fine" and vague about how to help them learn but I can't fault the school when it comes to informing parents in Reception about what they are learning.

We have reading diary but the most important thing is that dd's teacher will always see you quickly if there's no meeting, or make appointment for next day. Books are always available to view. I always took that approach as class teacher too. Found it nipped problems in the bud, made parents evening less of a surprise to anyone and parents respectful of my time.

We have a termly whole school newsletter as well as termly newsletter for whole class year with details of theme, trips etc

We also have a daily artwork/worksheet etc of stuff they are doing in class pinned on the board to take home

Agree that the most important thing is communicating with teacher.

if they dont have a home/school communication book and there are regularly specific things you need to tell /ask them beacuse you cant pop in to chat after school why not suggest a book or you can write notes or email the teacher at the school i think if i remeber back to reception all three of mine didnt have a school communication book then but just had the reading record book you could slip the note in there i suppose

My DD's school is quite poor at this IMHO, (despite their opinion that they do it well! )

DD has a home reading diary - but it is just what she has read at home - her teacher has written a comment in it once last term sometime, other than that the TA initials to say she has changed her books

We had a "how have they settled in" meeting two weeks after the start of term in Sept, but seeing as in DD's case that was "ok" (which I knew) then not much use. We had a parents evening earlier this term, but you get 7 minutes, so we basically got "she doing fine apart from this one area to work on (pencil control)"

We get a whole school newsletter once a week, but there is rarely anything YR specific in there.We also get a sheet on a Friday with the topics they are covering the following week - so that helps to know what the class is doing, but not how your particular child is progressing.

You don't really get chance to talk to the teacher unless you make a special appointment to go & speak to them.

Since parents evening we have been working hard with DD to improve her pencil control, but I've no idea if the teacher thinks it's getting better or not? I guess I'll have to go & ask & look like pushy mother again...