Help me come up with some questions to get more detailed information from the teacher at parents evening.

[IwishIwasmoreorganised]

DS1 is in year 3. Academically he seems to be progressing well, but he can be boastful and big headed at times. I know that he doesn't push himself with his work in class particularly well. He seems to have an air of superiority and doesn't think that rules always apply to him, or that he should always follow the instructions from his teacher. He has been disruptive earlier this term which I was called int to discuss. As a result I don't think he's particularly popular within his class.

We have parents evening this week and I'd like to get more than the usual he's progressing well / as expected type comments.

What kind of questions should I be asking to get specifics about his levels of achievement, progress, behaviour etc. I'm keen to know how he is being pushed and that his poor behaviour isn't because he's getting bored. I don't want to accuse the teacher of not pushing him, nor make excuses for his behaviour.

Do you feel DS1 is fulfilling his potential at the moment? How can we work together to get him to give his maximum effort?
Could you give me pointers of particular areas he needs to work on (such as working in a team)?
I would be focusing on improving his effort as that should improve his achievement.
I was faced last parents evening with two teachers who said 'oh well kitten doesn't seem to want to push herself' I asked them if they had told her what they expected of her. They hadn't I asked for them to do this, then when she knew what their expectations were I would focus her on meeting them.
Other children do become intolerant of non-team players at this stage and further on the teachers do too. DD (Y5) told me that there is a girl in her current project group who right at the start said 'we must do this because it is about me' the teacher stopped her and said 'there is no I in team'.

Thanks.

Fulfilling his potential (or not) is the key thing for me at the moment. I do think that he'll just coast given the chance. If if he's doing that he's probably getting a bit bored at times which might explain some of the poor behaviour. Getting everybody's expectations clear would be a great plan.

He can be a great team player - he enjoys and is good at team sports but he's ridiculously competitive and seems to be willing to go to any lengths to win. This and his attitude worries me, I'm anxious to start making changes before he alienates himself from his peers. He's in a relatively small school (1 form entry) so it's vital that he doesn't burn too many bridges.

Iwish, this could be my ds you're talking about, he's currently in Y2.

Can you possibly request a meeting with the teacher? We get 5 minutes to talk to the teacher at parents evening so if there were any more concerns I'd be asking to see the teacher after school, you won't feel as rushed then either.

I've just gone through the process of changing schools, ds starts his new school later this week. His current school is just too small and there were conflicts between the dc, I personally think it's magnified in a smaller school.

Yes, I think I'll see how it goes this week and if there's too much to discuss in the available time (10 minute slots, but there's sometimes gaps between slots depending on what other parents have requested) then I'll ask for another meeting another time.

I don't think we'll consider changing schools - there's not a lot of choice here (welsh medium), so the pressure is on to help things to run as smoothly as possible.

We're only considering due to this and lots of other factors.

God luck with your chat with the teacher.

*Good - Tut!

Bumping for the night crowd!

What sort of boastful and big headed behaviour does he display at home or is it just at school?

No, it's at home too. How he's better than x at rugby, how he can run faster than y.

How he doesn't need to listen to us / our advice because he knows already - could be quantum physics but obviously he knows it already!

It does seem to be settling down a bit at home so hopefully the teachers will have seen a similar improvement.