How to approach secondary school teachers

[LuciferRising]

DD has moved onto Y7.

Her primary school were excellent in dealing with maths issues. They worked with us so that we could spend 10 minutes a day going over what she learnt in class. She went from a score of 86 to 104 in her maths SATs.

She is afraid of her new maths teacher, who has told them not to go to her for extra help because they have various apps to use. I have had a look at these but are a bit useless if I don't know where to concentrate DD.

I ask DD what she is learning and she seems confused. Her test scores coming home are getting lower and I feel all her hard work is being lost.

Do parents approach secondary school teachers for advice?

personally - i’d get a maths tutor

your daughter flourished with 1-2-1 support and she’s not going to get that in a class of 33 at secondary

you benefited from the support which allowed you to support your daughter. you pick also get this from the tutor

primary maths very different to secondary

i’d be more alarmed that your daughter is “afraid” of her maths teacher tbh

Could you not email the teacher? Or phone the school and ask they give you a call to discuss?

Is it possible the teachers message has been misconstrued? There is a push in teaching independence so at my school we ask students to try to find answers to questions or problems by working with a friend first, then checking the apps or Teams that we use before going to the teacher.

Our students aren't discouraged from asking for help we just encourage them to try to solve a problem or find a resource for themselves first.

I understand it might not be the case here and the teacher has indeed said don't go to them for extra help though it is such a shame if they have said this.

Yes, parents do approach secondary school teachers for advice. However, it would be very unusual for secondary school teachers to contact you regularly to let you know the content of the lessons.

It's pretty unusual at primary as well - sounds like you had a year 6 teacher who really went above and beyond!

You should have somewhere a list of topics the teacher will be covering for that half term/term. It's called a scheme of work. For some schools it is in the website, others stick it in the front of the students' exercise books.

That will tell you in broad strokes what they are studying. So for example my school for year 7 for autumn 1 we did place value and number systems (2 weeks) addition including decimals (2 weeks) perimeter (2 weeks)

If you want to know what your daughter is doing in each lesson you should look in her exercise book. There should be a title and date for each lesson and usually some independent work - if you look at what she has written down you should be able to work out the topic of the lesson.

If you don't have/can't find the scheme of work it would be perfectly reasonable to ask for it.

That having been said, it does sound like your daughter would benefit from more focused working on a 1:1 or small group basis.

Some schools run a booster system whereby students who come in struggling with English and maths can drop a language and do extra maths and English lessons. Maybe worth asking about that?

My dd had a tutor once a week, online. She was a university student. She went through anything from the week again with dd.

Could you give dd a notebook and tell her to write the learning objective down if she can't remember what she has done in the lesson and she isn't bringing any work home.

Start with an email and ask what she has been studying and explain why you are helping her.

Always leave an audit trail.

My son got an A level in A level Mathematics in 2023. He went on a revision course (cost over £1000.00 with accommodation) for a week during Easter 2023 and it bumped him from a B/C to an A which is what he needed for his Uni course. I recommend getting a maths tutor for your daughter.

It’s excellent you are being reactive and you know your DD’s potential now you just have to continue to support her and find ways to help her reach it.

There's a lot to think through here.

Primary school is different to secondary. Secondary teachers don't have time to answer a lot of questions from individuals.

Is your DD scared because she doesn't know the teacher, is nervous in secondary, or because the teacher has been unreasonable?

Are your DD's scores falling relative to classmates? If your DD is e.g. in top 25% of the class, it doesn't matter what the raw score is. You say her scores are falling, but you don't know what the average is.

You don't have enough info, just worries.

So in your situation I would get a tutor for now and also try to attend anything that will give chance to speak to teachers.

My dd started in year 7. Maths would be her weakest subject. Their google classroom has lots of resources including tutorials made by the maths dept showing real examples of all the topics.

We had parents evening recently and all teachers encouraged me to email them with any queries at all. The maths teacher asked if my child needed any support, had any concerns etc. In the first instance I would email the teacher. Though I don’t think they would provide details of every lesson for you I work through at home with your child.

Perhaps send an email explaining that your daughter is unsure about the content and asking for pointers to the general scheme and resources. I wouldn’t expect a lesson by lesson break down though.

If that’s not successful, a tutor who can explain in greater detail.

Not after a lesson by lesson break down - I guess more a scheme or work mentioned above. In primary they sent the worksheets they had been working on that day and also provided extra support.

I'll email the teacher and see if she can point me to a high-level overview for the term.

My daughter isn't afraid of the other teachers. She is sensitive and the teacher may have said something reasonable which she has mis interpreted. But, she had a panic attack over this teacher while in school - based purely on her own thoughts of what may happen because she forgot a book - which she didn't need.

op, your daughter has a panic attack?

really Op this needs to be your urgent focus

We spoke with her form tutor about it - he was the one who dealt with it and I am happy with how he did. It was the fear of detention and being at a new school, and it escalated because the situation involved the teacher. He is keeping his eye on this situation. She is open with us, speaks to us, and doesn't have anxiety. If it continued to happen then we would investigate further. For now - I am happy. She seems more happy about detentions after her friend received one for forgetting a planner.

I just wanted to understand the interactions between parents and secondary schools, and I have some good advice above.

Everyone says ‘secondary is different, you don’t have so much contact with teachers - teachers don’t have time to respond to parents’ - my experience has been completely different.
My son only started in year 7 in September and he has SEN (no EHCP) but I have contacted all of his subject teachers individually to share info about him that I think will help things go more smoothly, both for him and the teacher. Yes there is a SENCO to coordinate all of that but most SENCOs are snowed under and if I waited for them to have the time to do this things could have escalated by then. His IT teacher offered to share the notes of what they would be covering each lesson with us to help - he actually does this on Teams for all children, often arrangements for SEN kids actually benefit everyone.
When issues have occurred I have e-mailed his teachers directly again. I have had really positive responses from all his teachers and it does seem to have made a big difference. I appreciate they couldn’t manage to do that if every parent contacted them in this way, but then not every parent will need to - I don’t think I have contacted his twin sister’s school once about her (she’s in a different school).
I have contacted my elder daughter’s school teachers a number of times over various issues and they have also been equally responsive and helpful (different school to my son, both girls in same all girls school). So I’d say don’t hesitate to contact them, if they’re busy they won’t respond but if they do you may find it will really benefit your child.
My son’s school publish a “learning journey” for every subject so that you can see what they will be studying each half term. Not as detailed as to each lesson, but helpful for parents who are interested in what their children are learning. I would have thought what you want for your child is not unreasonable and if I was a teacher at their school I’d be happy that a parent was so supportive and engaged in their child’s education. Good luck!

I’ve always found secondary teachers to be very honest and helpful. Contact is via email and occasionally they’ll call to follow up. I have a much clearer picture of what’s happening with dc in secondary than I ever got from primary.

if you have an app like maths watch then it’ll show what topic they are doing. You can’t really get the teacher to send you separate info on each lesson.

What app do they use as loads are excellent