Parents evening - advice pls (first post) ;))

[Nicolesmum38]

This is my first post:

Firstly I really hate parents evening, 10 min always seems to go so fast!
I am also one of those people who just don?t have the delicate skill to phrase matters correctly.

I have parents evening tomorrow evening and my daughter who is the oldest in class (year 4) is just not getting stretched enough. Homework takes her 10 min each day at the most, so far all the tests have come back faultless and when I ask her what she does in class she remarks it is all so easy and boring?

How do I tactfully mention this to her teacher who is very nice and does give individual homework to the children who are struggling but I feel she is forgetting those for whom done it over and over again and really now do know their tables back to front etc?

I am not saying my daughter is a genius but this is the first year she is finding it all so effortless and uninteresting. Would it be overly pushy to say something, the last thing I want to do it get on the teacher?s wrong side however my daughter herself is keen to be challenged as she asked me to give her something trickier?

Can you please give me some advice?

Are you capable of setting your daughter more difficult work yourself which is relevant to her curriculum? You're welcome to mention your concerns generally to the teacher at parents' evening. That's what the evening is for. It's not pushy; it's normal. But if the teacher hasn't spotted the problem already, (and from what you're saying it looks as if she hasn't,) then it'll probably take her a while to assess your daughter correctly and rectify the problem, if indeed she ever gets round to it. Whereas, on the other hand, if you can set your daughter some problems yourself, like calculate the area in square meters of our new carpet, and write book reviews for Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass and The Secret Garden, then the teacher can help with individual problems as they crop up.

Nicolesmum38: I think that there are definitely things that you can say. Start off by saying that you've not been to a parents evening before (at least not as a parent), say that you've made a list of questions and you'll read from that (might then make it easier to ask difficult questions), and ask about class structure. For example, in my DS's year 2 class (and probably in year 1 too) completely unknown to me - the tables that they sit at are streamed for the different subjects. Makes perfect sense - DS is on purple for literacy, yellow for something else etc. And the problems given to the class to solve/read etc are streamed in 3 ways (hard, middle of the road [where DS firmly is!] and more straightforward). See if your school does the same? Ask what they do when children find it too straightforward? Is there anything that you could be doing that they recommend? Are there any clubs that your child could join (a reading club for example)? If the 10 minutes isn't long enough (and when is it?) then ask for an appointment with the teacher in a weeks' time so that you can go into suggestions in more detail. Good luck!

Isn't parents evening essentially an opportunity for the teacher to tell you how your child is doing? In 10 minutes they talk for most of the time, and you will nod your head a lot.

I think if I was in your shoes I would go to the parents evening, and then make an appointment to talk in detail about your child's needs another time. Then you will not feel so pressured to cram it all into 10 minutes.

Take along examples of her work which illustrate the point you are making too.