Do you have much idea what goes on at school?

[BarefootDancer]

If your dc Y2, like mine, tells you very little about school, how can you help reinforce their school learning? Feel frustrated in this.

Any Friday night wisdom? Or I will be on the NormaNoMates unanswered threads topic.

Oh, no it's OK I won't coz I have answered myself blardy blardy blah

Speak to the teacher. Ask for a 10 minute meeting after school or whenever, and ask what topics they are covering this term (though being Y2 it will likely be lots of SATs!), what they are doing in literacy and numeracy, etc, and that you would like to support at home.

Sorry BFoot that was a silly comment. The teacher should be able to give you an outline of the subjects to be covered for the term.

Perhaps the teacher on a monday what they are doing that week. Or perhaps do you have homework diaries? Ask her to write a little note in there. If they dont, buy one and ask her to write a little sentence each week for you.

Yes she does give a very general blurb about curriculum fot the term but on a daily basis I don't know what is covered, so feel inadequate as I can't provide support with learning. Don't feel I can go and quiz the teacher every day. There is a daily timetable, but they don't seem to stick to it. It is all a mystery to me.

They don't have homework diaries. They do have home-school reading diary, but this seems to have dropped off lately, so nothing comes home.

barefoot, just go in and ask her. tell her that you realise she does give info regarding the curriculum and what she is covering, but, you would like to further support your child at home and really appreciate if she could provide you with the information you need. She will probably be delighted that you are taking such a keen interest.

What is the worst she can do, call you a pushy parent in the staff room? So what this is your child you want the best for your child.

Are you working full-time BarefootDancer? I'm working full-time now, but before I was I went in and volunteered to help in school one afternoon a week (in another class). This gave me an insight into 'school life', and helped me to ask the kind of specific questions that would elicit responses from the boys. Is that a possibility for you?

General advice; rather than asking "What did you do at school today?" try phrasing specific questions:

Did you have an assembly this morning? What happened in assembly? What did the HT talk about?

What did you do in literacy today? Did you do writing or reading? What did you write about? Did you enjoy it? Did you find it easy or difficult? Did you manage to finish the work in time?

Crikey, that sounds like the Spanish Inquisition - it isn't like that, honestly. It's just about teasing out information, showing your dc that you're interested in what they've done.

Personally I tend not to be too focused on their 'academic learning', but rather on the social side, whether they're happy and having fun, and whether they're behaving well.

The other key thing of course is to engineer a time for such chatting: if a chat with you has to compete against watching the TV or playing on the computer, then they're bound to be reluctant. Walking home from school worked very well for us. Or you could all sit down around the table for a drink and snack after school. For some people sitting down and having a cosy chat about the day just before bed works well. Or you could take her out for a special treat at the weekend to a 'grown-up' coffee shop to talk about her week at school ..

HTH

Yes thank you Roisin I will try some of that, although going in to help is not an option for me at the moment. I will try the gently gently Spanish inquistion approach.
Also will ask the teacher to be more specific and see what she comes up with.