Well I am a mum to three beautiful, energetic boys, a wife and a teacher so I am fuelled by coffee. I firmly believe everything's better with a coffee so grab one before you settle down for the rest. Sorted? Great here goes.... to the classroom...
As someone who has relied heavily on books, magazines and the wondrous internet to guide my parenting journey I have found its fabulous for babies, toddlers and children - for recreation, for advice, for total mumspiration - but it falls a little short when it comes to the bit where you see them off out into the world and this first really comes with school.
As a teacher and a mum I normally feel reasonably confident in both roles so it was a shock that I felt completely clueless as a parent of a child at school as to what I could do to help my boy. I don’t feel like anyone has ever told me about the important things (what should I be doing at home to help build his concentration,how would I know if he ate, what would happen if he had no friends, who could I talk to about the school toilets - I'm not sure my boy knew what a urinal was before he started school- would someone explain them?) I knew it wasn’t the schools fault - they'd sent me a welcome pack with all the usual bunf about school uniform and school values in and once he had started we were told the teachers were available on the playground (no good to parents who couldn't do the school run) or we could make an appointment with any concerns. The problem was my concerns weren't that serious. It has never helped I got no information from my boy himself. My child cant be the only one who says "yeh it was ok" whenever I ask how his day went or "nothing much" when I ask what he did. He'll wax lyrical about a row over football at lunchtime but has never mentioned who he sits next to in class. I want to know whats going on in his classroom, who his friends are, what he's really good at, what he finds fascinating. However – as a teacher I know if the teacher is spending just 10 minutes on communicating with each child’s parents every day they would only be spending one hour actually with the children and out of that hour with 30 children that’s 2mins with my child? NOT what I want and certainly not what his teacher or OFSTED are looking for.
As my son has continued his journey in education from reception to year 3 I now see my internal dialogue from those early days played out in the parents Wassap group. Often a comment will strike a chord with me as a parent but confuse me as a teacher. For example I can understand why a parent would be concerned that they have heard their child may not be allowed to go to the toilet whenever they want – but the teacher in me is shocked that parents wouldn’t understand that that would never actually be the case- that the practicalities of a day may mean their child is encouraged to go at certain times, that the teacher knows your child and that they would just assume that a teacher would treat their child badly baffles me. When a parent comes to see me with a problem 99% of the problem is solved once the parents realise that the teachers are on their side – you love their child and want the best for them and so do the staff. I do think greater general communication about why things are done the way they are might help ease some of these minor concerns but understand schools have far too much to do as it is so heres my blog and the hope it may help you or help you help your child. Well thats the hope so here goes....
If you have any questions about your schools, school work, mummying, well anything really leave a comment below and I'll do my best.
