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Saint-Didier primary school |
parent-teacher meetings |
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Saint-Didier primary school |
parent-teacher meetings |
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Like my colleagues Corinne and Paul, I consider the new school year parent-teacher meetings to be very important. Why? The parents have no previous experience of classes as we hold them. So they have to be told what we do and why we do it. This means that: - we must take our time and make ourselves available. The meetings are held on Saturday mornings (they last for about three hours) ; - the meetings must be relevant (this point is in stark contrast to the advice I received from the headteacher when I was a deputy headteacher ("Make them talk about the timetable, they'll argue for about an hour, and you'll have no worries"). The agenda is written on the board. - the parents must be respected, in the same way that we respect their children. They can add items to the agenda. I urge them to interrupt me whenever they want to. I ask for their input for certain projects (this year, the dates for the knowledge markets). I include a short theory bit on topics that I read about during the summer. This year, I talked about different methods used to teach children how to read. For these reasons, the parents attend the new year parent-teacher meetings every year. The atmosphere is very friendly. On 6 September 2003, 21 parents attended. I think it is noteworthy that there were 14 mothers and 7 fathers: school is a serious matter, it is everyone's business. The
positive effects on the class can be seen rapidly. Even if they don't
understand everything we do (totally understandable when one considers
that it's also difficult for trainee teachers), the parents know that we
mean business and are dedicated. And when children are told, "You're
lucky to be in this school, where you learn a lot", they are more
willing to put in extra efforts when we ask them to do something. |
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Remi
Casteres |
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This
page has been translated from French by Andreas Theodorou. |
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Discussion |
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