what would you appreciate from your child's new teacher?

[Daisie]

Hello

I have just qualified as a primary teacher and will be teaching year 4 in September.
I'm really keen to get on well with parents and I think it's really important. I'm 21 so am very aware that some might worry that I'm inexperienced. I do have a proper teaching qualification though and have worked as a nanny, so am used to talking to parents.

I was just wondering if anyone can give me any advice. Is there anything that you would really appreciate from your child's new teacher?
I'll aim to go outside with the children at the end of each day, for the first week at least, so that parents can see who I am. Is there anything else that parents want to know at the beginning of the year? (expectations for homework and that type of thing?)
Thanks in advance for your help

Ds is just about to finish Y5. The best thing his teacher has done (and no other teacher in his 12-class school has done for their class) was a weekly round-up by e-mail. Just a few short paragraphs outlining what they have learnt this week, what topics they have covered in history etc, what the children enjoyed, who the stars of the week were etc. She would also include reminders for sportsday and for empty cardboard boxes etc if any were required for art etc (or the current project - empty 2L plastic bottles for the eco greenhouse) Ds's teacher would type her roundup on a Friday afternoon / early evening and it is a lovely way of rounding up the week. It also makes us parents feel a little more involved in what our children have been doing.
In fact it was so successful we have asked the headteacher to ask ALL teacher to do this.

all teachers gah!

I agree with the point about making sure that you know the educational history of all the children in the class. And don't just restrict yourself to SEN files - my son has very uneven development and had quite a lot of testing to sort this out. Last year's teacher obviously hadn't done her homework, and it made a huge and negative difference to how she reacted to ds all through the year (even after we worked out what had happened and got the head to make her read the file because patterns were set by then).

Keep homework varied - we had two years of 'writing three interesting sentences', and it had palled after the second week!

Regular updates about what the class as a whole was doing, and how we could support it, would have been lovely, as well.

Good luck, and I hope you have a fantastic first year.

I would run anything you're intending to do past your head teacher first though. It's just that what you do (successful or not with the parents) may have repercussions on the rest of the staff. There may be a school policy on emails for instance or, if not, parents in other yeargroups might start asking why they can't contact their child's teacher in the same way. The school might not, as a whole, want to go down that route, yet you would have started a precedent. That sort of decision is for the management team. Likewise homework and topic details. Most schools have established policies on that, as well as systems for information sharing, so I think it would be wise to check first.

But it sounds as if you're enthusiastic and keen to do things well. That's the best thing parents can hope for, really.

Don't punish the whole class for the bad behaviour of a few pupils.

Reward the good behaviour of most of the class most of the time, rather than rewarding the occasionally good behaviour of generally badly-behaved pupils. Rightly, the well-behaved kids see it as unfair.

If you've got a webpage for your class, make sure it works and keep it current. It can help out those parents who can't find the newsletter at 1 am, but can check on the website to see if it's the day to take in something for the tombola or whatever.

E-mail would be good, but far better is being available, informally, after school for a 'quick chat'. Builds good parent-teacher relations imo.

Don't shout - too much! Some of the quiet ones think you're shouting at them, even if you aren't.

Good luck in your new job. Sounds like you have a very positive attitude.

I would 100% agree with clam...you do not want to "step on toes" before you start, and do something that is against school policy etc.. In an ideal world, yes, nice to give out an email address, but I personally would never do it, it just makes you too accessible in my opinion. There is a line to draw, and I personally think this is one of them. If a parent wants to meet with you, it is very easy for them to either phone the school to request an appointment or email the school office. Just as you would with a GP for example, I personally have never come across a GP who hands out their personal email address to patients!

Someone mentioned about a note in the summer...we do this in Canada for our incoming students (pupils), but sadly it is seen as such a negative thing here.

Daisie, is it a one form entry school? If not, and you have colleagues in the same year group, perhaps check with them first before you do a lot of unneccessary work, as every school I have ever taught in has sent home a "topic web" the first or second week of each halfterm which explains the topics to be covered, so they may be doing that in the school already.

I like the newsletter idea, especially since you are a new staff member, gives you the opportunity to introduce yourself to the families of the children in your class. I do not think you need to include photos TBH, I think thats a bit OTT. Again, check school policy re this though, as I have taught in schools where this concept is a huge no no, and ones where it is not an issue! Always make sure though that you get the Heads approval of anything you send home first, as we had that problem with an NQT last year, she sent something home, a parent took offence to something she had written in it, came in on a rampage to the Head, and the Head had not seen or approved it to be sent home, so it caused a problem.

With the reading of the files, I personally do not read them before the class comes in. We have a passover meeting at the end of the previous academic year, where the previous teacher meets with the new teacher and passes on pertinent information. I personally beleive it is important to start each child on a new slate in September, and if after they have started in my class, there is a need for me to read background information, then I will read what I need to. As for knowing what ability they are, I get the jist of that from the previous teacher in the passover meeting, and we do assessments within the first ten days of school anyway, so I do not group my kids pre this anyway, so knowing their ability from last year means nothing to me in the grand scheme of things!

Daisie, you seem to be really enthusiastic, which is fab!! Keep that enthusiasm and you will have a fab year!

Don't only approach parents to tell them about something bad/ worrying

Try to occasionally mention when they just made everyone laugh, or seemed to really enjoy something

ditto clam

Our fabalicious NQT 'got into trouble'for taking ppl's emails to fwd helpful websites on to them.

As an ex secondary teacher this is total hypocrisy as in sec school the eachers head. if not for the hills, then asap for the staffroon for tea, but just make yourself available at the gate (if that is appropriate) and SMILE ..if they are driving you crazy at school they will be driving us even more to distraction at home. I find my offspring drive me half insane atm so please believe that I and all my co-mummies have immense respect for you that you can tolerate the noise all day.

It sounds like they are very lucky to have you.

Oh and for goodness sake dont rely on spell check for reports. I can't type for toffee (or indeed a creme egg or any other confectionery for that matter)so do get a grammar pedant to check your reports for you to resolve any practise/ice issues that the spell check misses. If in doubt come to MN and go to pedant's/pedants' corner where 100 and 1 willing souls will help out if not always in unison! Good luck !

Ohh and whatver school personal policy is on handover files I would make sure you know exactly who has diabetes, epipens, has lost a parentor a sibling, has tricky custody arrangements etc etc . Am sure the school will be good at this re. allergies etc but in some schools the personal stuff is 'need to know only' and is not always on open file.

Likewise if there have been resolved bullying issues you do not want to inadvertently pair up two children in your very first lesson who have had probs in the past.

Continuity is a big headache for sec pastoral heads as all sorts of confidentiality issues apply but I know that parents found it very annoying for example that some of teachers say at an October parents meeting didn't know that their child was dyslexic.

Most of the above really, friendly, approachable but most of all if I were to come to you, I would appreciate the truth about DD in terms of her behaviour or learning etc, none of this dressed up positive negative positive stuff. Just tell it to me straight and let's be able to work together to sort it out.

I am very lucky that DD's current teacher is exactly like that and I know she has to remain positive about the kids but I really appreciate being told when she has been a madam and working together to sort it out.

RE the reading through children's files, I am only a TA in YrR atm but even I know the ins and outs of the children's lives and I think this is fab because it ensures continuity between all the adults working directly with the children. I often have to speak to parents too so knowing the important things is always a massive help in how you approach them.