Teachers - are you given a briefing or given the low down on pupils when they move up a year?

[clottedcreamteaplease]

Just wondering when pupils move up to the next year in Sept if the new form teachers are given a briefing on pupils? Eg. Any child that has perhaps caused problems slight bullying of others during the last year or are new form teachers not told anything about the new class?

We have a very long (or sometimes two shorter) meetings with the previous teacher in the July before we get the new class. We discuss each child talking about approaches to learning, strengths and weakness, personalities and friendships, who they get on well with but can't work with, who they clash with or have had problems with, behaviour, parents, health, favourite subjects, etc.
We acknowledge lots can change over the summer and often have a different relationship with the child to the last classteacher, but it is a really useful starting point for a smoother start to the year.

We tend to know quite a bit about children throughout the school whether we teach them or not! We have a briefing meeting too but generally that's to go through levels and what these actually mean ( a level 3b overall can mean strengths/weaknesses in a whole raft of areas so a discussion along the lines of "X is really good at problem solving but struggles with mental maths, it's the speed that causes problems") and any specific difficulties-such as bullying, personality clashes, home life difficulties-will also be raised.

BUT we also want to give children a fresh start too, so whilst issues known about are in the back of your mind, until an issue raises its (sometimes ugly) head, I try to give children the benefit of the doubt until proved otherwise!!

In ours it's a 20-30 min meeting in July to cover the whole class. My ds has some minor difficulties and I know that when he moved up a year group last September, these issues were not mentioned to the new teacher and she was very surprised with what she had to deal with.

Some teachers, if they encounter problems at the start of September will go back to the old teacher to see what the deal is/how to tackle.

We also let the new teacher know what the parents are like

But seriously, of course we pass on all the info we can about academic and social development etc.

Of course they do.

The parents is a big thing - if your name is mud you can never undo it.

There's no such thing is a fresh start anyway, if you were 2 years behind end of last year you'll be (at least) 2 years behind start of this year. So you don't get a fresh start. You get to start 2 years behind where you should be.

Also remember there's probably no new expertise in the school. Eg if the last years teacher followed the SENCOs advice and it didn't help, this years teacher following the SENCOs advice still won't help.

I'm very worried about back to school

I'm moving schools and have been given extensive notes by the previous teachers of my new class. It's everything from behaviour and learning issues/strengths to friendship patterns and any relevant notes about home life. At my previous school it was done through meetings.

We still do our own assessments and make our own judgements, but it is certainly helpful to know not to sit X with Y, or that Z is still struggling since their parents' nasty split, etc.

cheryzan-not always!

I have a parent coming up who has a "bit of a reputation" in school but, having taught 3 of his children previously, he and I get on well, his relationship with the previous teacher was fraught to say the least! Conversely, there are parents who think I'm the worst teacher in the school, others who think I'm the best thing since sliced bread!

We have roughly 45 mins discussion with previous teacher.

We discuss:
-Current levels
-Levels from previous years - is child making appropriate progress?
-Statements/IEPs
-Support given last year - Extra handwriting/spelling/maths and how effective it was
-Friendship problems from last year
-Groups to avoid sitting together due to massive chatting
-Individual information. This could include recent death of parent or separation of parents, epipen or inhaler use, out of school hobbies.

There will be formal handover meetings but in PRIMARY school most teachers know most kids anyway and talk about problems [including parents] at lunch and break times.

apologies for capitals-don't know how that happened!

We know the children anyway and usually the parents unless they are completely new to the school.
Disagree with Cheryzan, every day is a fresh start never mind each new year nothing to do with being behind or ahead but being an individual.

Wonder if they discuss the parents as much as the parents discuss the new teacher

I would imagine that forewarned is forearmed with some parents.

It's probably not the children who get discussed most like this in my DC class, it will be the parents of the 'D'C who can do no wrong.

It is a good thing for the teachers to know who can do who and who needs more support!

DS1s teacher is marmite amongst parents, he thinks she's cool (he likes a good structure and a disciplined working environment) so I am more than pleased to have her teaching him. Others think she is the devil incarnate. I'm sure the teachers are the same about the parents!

Who can do what not who. Not appropriate for KS2...

What Kingscote said.

I'm not sure about DS's school but I'd like to think his eating disorder would've been important information to pass on last year. Thankfully he has the same teacher this year as he did last so no transition to do.

So, what sorts of things are said about parents then? just being nosy

I rarely if ever mention parents

I would only mention the parents if there is a known safety issue for the child or for the member of staff from a parent (the most common were contact issues relating to non-resident parents, another example might be a history of abuse towards staff).

For the children, I obviously pass on all relevant paperwork on levels, SEN, interventions etc, and if the new teacher didn't know the child (more common in my new job, with a much larger school) enough surrounding detail to set those in context. It's about 'setting the stage' for each child to make maximum progress in their new class from day 1, not about pinning a label on them. Any good teacher knows that pupils respond in slightly different ways to different teachers, so it's 'fact' things about 'this child must wear their glasses / uses a pen grip / has a fiddle toy / is recently bereaved'.

I think I may have been mentioned to the new teacher but only because I have helped out in class a lot over the last year and she fell on my neck at the new teacher meeting at the end of last term and asked if I could come in sometimes because she won't have much TA support this year.