10 things you probably would not expect about primary schools

[meredeux]

Come and help me make a list for all those parents out there who are about to send their children to school for the first time. What did know one tell you but you learned through experience?

Here is my first one:
YOU (the parent) will teach your child to read. The school will provide reading books and someone (probably not the teacher) will listen to your child for a few minutes at a time in the first couple of years maybe once a week but your child will learn to read because you will teach them that (using the school's reading books which the teacher will issue).

(I help out with reading at school and I can see the records for how often the child gets read with at school. This is the second school I've done this at. In the last school, some parents were illiterate and consequently the children reached year 6 still doing the reading schemes from eyar 1).

Your children will sign a school equivalent of the Officials Secret Act forbidding them from telling you what they did at school that day or what they had for lunch. They can only answer 'I don't remember' or 'I'll tell

Meredeux, your kids' school sounds terrible!
Parents' evenings aren't rushed at my dcs' school either....

Ah yes, I was surprised that the point of naming items was not so they were actually returned to your child (as when I was at school), but to make it easier for you and your child to identify them in the lost property. I think this makes lost property a bit of a misnomer, as if they know whose it is then it's not genuinely lost really is it.

You will eventually get your head round the concept of key stages, but the terminology is so familiar to staff, they may forget to explain them and leave you to work it out by osmosis.

Parents of older children are a really good source of info on 'how things work' that you have to pick up as you go along and are not sure of.

I [heart emoticon] my dc's primary school.

Was very sad when my eldest left last year, I have only stepped foot inside the high school once since September.

They have taught my children all sorts of useless but lovely crap The school has taught them things I never could at home, such as how to get along with your siblings

I think you may need to look for another school tbh OP, if you are feeling this way.
Also, in rl, SATS do not matter very much at all. The year 7's take CATS (? - on the actual accronym) in October and they are re-setted at that stage if necessary.

I don't mean this list to be getting at schools or putting them into a negative light. I just started it as a list of things I wish someone had told me as it would have saved much confusion at the beginning.

1. year 3 seems to be the one when homework starts to really kick in. So expect to spend a lot of time helping with this until your child learns to set out the work and write in sentences etc by themselves.

...you later', posted before finished

1. You'll be tapped up for money right, left and centre. Often its just £1 at a time but there will be a constant stream of requests.

1. Anyone want to do the PTA?

Money which will mostly be channelled back into paying for fun stuff for your children to do.

You will get 1 days notice of school plays, x mas concerts, spring choirs etc..
The teacher will be genuinely astonished that you cannot arrange time off work at such short notice
She will inform you that your LO were looking forward to you being able to see them.
SHe will do this for EVERY event, despite the most popular employer in the area requiring 42days notice for time off.

She will also not be available for any conversation or input regarding DC as she is "far too busy with more important SENCO work, to bother with trivialities"

Any important messages or information given will be done via GPs the ONE day you cannot pick them up yourself, despite the fact you are dropping them off yourself the next day.

Meredeux can I be really nosey and ask what Ofsted rating the school in question has? My school just seems to get so much right, and yet they got 'satisfactory' and a notice to improve last time.

Here's another one: Some people should home educate.

Our first school was satisfactory and the second is good. I put this list together at the weekend with three friends, two of whom have children in outstanding schools and one who has just got a 4 from OFSTED.

Some of these really aren't generic. They are specific problems at specific schools.

interesting. So the supposed quality of the school according to Ofsted has nothing to do with it!

10. There are a huge range of things to do at school which have nothing to do with the 3 Rs.

It's perfectly acceptable for teachers to give DCs sweets as a reward for good behaviour/performance, but a punishable offence for parents to reward good behaviour/performance with nail varnish.

wow, pass agg thread or what??

meredeux, it sounds like you are unhappy with you DC's school. maybe you need to look at alternatives?

1. My DC's were taught to read at school and we were told how we can reinforce that at home. There is no way I could take any credit for them learning all their sounds/digraphs/trigraphs etc.

1. the teachers at our school work in partnership with parents to help children who are struggling for whatever reason.

1. no idea about sats tutoring as DCs are young. It does seem like an obvious correlation though.

1. I have never seen or experienced any school gate issues/atmospheres among parents. We just drop off or pick up our children, chat or not chat, and go

1. Who cares whether stickers are given for the same criteria?? kids like stickers and if they use them for encouragement I'm glad it's for the individual needs of the child.

1. I have no issue with the requirement for parental involvement. Why wouldn't you want to be involved with your child's schooling in whatever small way and help make it a positive place for your children?

1. Parents evenings ARE rushed. How else can a teacher speak to 30 odd sets of parents?? FWIW our school make it known that teachers are available at the beginning and end of the school day for parents to speak with if they want/need to.

Your comments are not about "primary schools" they are about YOUR primary school.

I wouldn't want parents of pre-school children to read this thread and expect nothing but negative experiences when their children start school. Lots of schools do their very best to make school life a positive experience for children and parents.

My children's school is outstanding, apparently.

11. The government seems to have mandated that teachers spend an enormous amount of time making records of what has been achieved/ doing admin.

12. school costumes... usually short notice. Tough if you are not creative. Can be a little competitive in some schools (good home made costume ranks top apparently, then shop bought ones, then poor homemade ones).

No really I am very happy with my DC's school. I couldn't stand the last one but I like this one. These things I am listing are normal as far as I know.

Svrider, on the other hand you will be given 6 months notice that an egg box and a yoghurt pot should be brought into school on a particular date. You will receive daily reminders of this for a month and then radio silence will be maintained until the day after said items were required.

At no point will you be told why they were wanted.

School photographs are invariably taken on the day your child has gone into school with yesterday's lunch smeared jumper on and this is also the day after you treated for headlice with one of the oilier methods and your child has a streaming cold.

You will be required asked to provide cakes and biscuits. You will be then given the opportunity to buy these back at a cake sale one week later.