Student teacher asked to observe my child?

[OxfordshireMumOf2]

I might be massively over thinking this but I've just dropped my DS (reception age) to school and the TA who is studying at Uni approached me and said "I'm doing my teacher training and as part of my coursework I need to do child observation, would you mind if I observe DS" I said of course, no problem as my initial thoughts were it's for her uni work why would I mind? But since being home I can't help but wonder why she asked me.
Does anyone have any experience of this, does this mean my child is worth observing for any particular reason? Would she be observing more than one child? I can't help but worry that she's chosen him for a specific reason, I should have asked really

When she’s done, ask to see the notes she made on him

Shell likely have picked a well engaged, easy going child where she can demonstrate teaching methods working well.

I definitely wouldn't overthink this. She'll be wanting to show how teaching methods impact progress, as pp said. I wouldn't ask to see her notes - that's her study, her business.

You are definitely overthinking this in a big way!

She asked you because you are approachable and would say yes! It's nerve-wracking asking these things. Any child is interesting to observe as they all learn differently. I'm sure your DS is fab and will chat away about what he is doing and thinking, giving lots for her to write about.

Ask her next time you see her if you feel uncomfortable about it. As it goes I've always known students on placements opt for well engaged children who are likely to show decent progression for these sort of elements. She didn't have to ask parental permission but did as a courtesy it seems, I'd say that's thoughtful and so she'd be mortified if she knew you are now worrying about it and would be happy to mention it.

thanks all, I was just worrying that she needs to focus on a 'difficult' child for her studies, not that I have any reason to think this of DS, but hopefully it is because he is outgoing and she'll have an easy time focusing on him. I won't ask to see her notes but may just double check at parents evening in a couple of weeks as to why he was selected

They will just have to pick a child to make observations on and note things like “Billy collected the conkers with friend, separating them from the leaves and then counted them out demonstrating good one to one correspondence.”

It’s a very common term in EYFS (Nursery and Reception). It’s absolutely fine!

I had to do something similar when I was in my SALT degree and we had a school placement - basically we had an assignment where we had to observe a child against a number of criteria and collect evidence for observation about where they were related to those.

Basically kids were picked based upon attendance (no use in planning observations on a child with an iffy attendance who isn't going to be in school much), and just generally they picked kids out for us who were likely to be engaging in a range of activities so we could pick out some interesting observations over the time we were in class. Hopefully that makes sense.

Then we had to present it all back at uni anonymised (well we didn't get to do that part because Covid hit and stuff closed down).

If I remember rightly you sometimes have to track a kid through the day just to see who what they were learning/doing.

I picked a child who wouldn't t present any problems ie would've done pretty much what the teacher hoped they would do and whose mum was approachable enough that I thought she'd probably say yes.

I had to do a research project for my teacher training too. I picked 3 kids who I knew had good attendance and would engage.

this is really helpful and has put my mind at rest thank you

I was asked this when my DD was young-I said yes. I presumed they’d asked me because I was a teacher and understood what they were doing, so would be likely to say yes. They have to choose someone!

I had completely forgotten about this but I remember having to follow a child around for 1 day during my (uncompleted) PGCE in a secondary school. I don't remember choosing the child myself - maybe my mentor did - though I don't think it would have mattered if I'd chosen the child myself. There was nothing unusual about the child they picked. I think it was just to understand children's experience of the school day and see things from their perspective.

Definitely overthinking! As others have said, she'll need a range of different children to observe and that's all there is to it.

Most practitioners will choose children who engage well in their chosen activities, to help them gather the evidence they need, so look at it as a positive that your child has been chosen.

They need parental permission and often ask parents who they know will be approachable and understanding :-)

Couple of the TA’s have asked to do this with mine, I think because we have a good rapport, they’re always in school, they both attended since nursery and reception and they were their keyworkers at certain points. Both my kids are completely average in terms of academic performance and are fairly amenable so I guess that all helps. Mine also had photo consents so I guess they figured we’d say yes.
like others said it’s no good picking a kid who’s likely to be off, misbehave, can’t do the work or the set work is too easy.

Overthinking totally!

I started a PGCE many years ago and in the first few weeks we did a lot of observing and surveys and things like that.
Often we had to pick a mixture of children deliberately, so equal number of boys/girls, and things like if we were doing academic stuff one at the top of the class, one from the middle and one from the bottom type thing.
At reception level I suspect the equivalent would be a Winter term baby, Easter term baby and Summer term baby, and compare how they react to certain things.

As above.
All trainee teachers have to do case studies.
When training we advise them specifically NOT to choose children who misbehave in class or who are struggling. It's easy to focus too much on that and not the actual learning process if they do.
It's harder (but ultimately more useful) to observe a child who participates fully in the learning process and gets on with it.

When I was teacher training we spent a whole day counting the interactions and if they were positive or negative from adults to the child. Then we put it all together presented it to the staff and we all discussed what could be improved. There were children who were never spoken to, and ones where it was majority positive or negative. It was interesting.