Tena koutou katoa. Nga mihi nui atawhai.
Thanks to all the parents who attended our Parent Teacher evening, especially braving the inclement weather. The teachers reported good conversations about students’ learning progress.
Last term, we asked you as parents, through our AskYourTeam pilot surveys, to delve deeper into Term 1 responses about what we can strengthen here at Carmel. One of the areas we wanted more in depth feedback was around communication about learning.
Below are the preliminary results to the first two questions of that survey:
Q1. In what way could we enhance these ‘Meet the Teacher’ opportunities to make them more effective and meaningful for you?
The common themes to this question were:
- More Information: There was a strong emphasis across parent comments that they would like to receive more information around what their children are learning, who the teachers are and who is leading the year group.
“Maybe an email from the teacher informing us what topic the class is discussing at a given time. This will enable parents to have an idea of what topic is been taught and have discussions at home.”
- Timeliness and Method of Communication: Another common theme across this question from parents was the need to be notified of any issues when they happen, rather than waiting for a teachers’ meeting. Communication via phone or email on the matter is preferred.
“Maybe the teacher can send email directly to parents if there are concerns with the student. I think parents appreciate it if teachers reach out to parents too.”
Question 2: Do you have any further comments on how we could ensure that you have appropriate and meaningful opportunities to discuss your daughter’s learning with her teachers?
The common themes to this question were:
- Helping our children progress: The need to proactively communicate back to parents and identify at an early stage when there may be an issue that needs to be addressed, feedback to the parents on behaviour and teacher concerns well before parent/teacher interviews so parents have a heads up and are better prepared to help support their children.
“My big thing would be to make contact with the parents if there are any issues/problems with learning, behaviour or social skills. All of these things have the ability to affect learning (and make contact earlier rather than later). Our girls don’t always tell us everything and we assume no news is good news. As a parent who would like to support my daughter through her time at Carmel, this is really important to me.”
- Use of emails/technology: Regular communication via email is important to parents to help them keep abreast of what is happening from week to week in the classroom.
“Happy to use email and just wait for response till teacher is available – have had good feedback when I have used this method in the past.”
Over the next few weeks, we will be planning how we implement some more effective processes to respond to these themes.
