5 Things To Do at the Beginning of a New School Year
It’s the beginning of a new academic year. You’ve made sure your kids have uniform, equipment, and food, and hopefully they have physically gone back to school now. What next? I’ve put together some top tips to help you get the best out of the year and be prepared for whatever it holds.
Find out the best channels of communication
Gone are the days when you relied on the letter that gets scrunched up and left in the school bag for weeks on end. Schools now use e-mails, apps and text messages and phone calls. Make sure your details are up to date and that you are easily able to use them. Many schools now do a manual audit of this in the first few weeks of term, so look out for a paper form about this.
Follow the school on social media
You never want to miss any communication, so use as many things as possible. Social media is a great tool and schools will often put out positive stories that are great to know about. In addition, many schools have been using social media to notify of things like closures and non-uniform days since so many people consume information from their Facebook accounts. Don’t be that parent who sends your child to school in uniform on Fancy Dress Friday!
Make contact with the class teacher(s)
You want to make an impression with the teachers, so they feel they have a good relationship with you. They will then think to contact you if there are concerns, and you’ll feel happier contacting them. If your child has gone back to school and into year 7, there will be lots more teachers than you are used to, and this makes it harder than primary school.
Some things you might want to do:
- Find out a little about them
- Make sure you can spell their name
- Introduce yourself, make yourself accessible to the teacher and tell them that you are there to support them
- If you know your child’s learning styles let the teacher know their preferences
You can get my guide to learning styles here:
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£7.99A Guide to Learning Styles This 27 page downloadable book explains three learning styles to help you understand your young...
Know who the useful people are
As in any organisation there are some people who make the wheels go round. Make yourself a list and their contact details. Some of the people you might want to contact are:
- the school secretary
- absence officer
- SENCO
- heads of departments
- exams officer
- site manager (for when they lose things!)
Get a list of dates – and put them in your calendar
The school year gets busy and you don’t want to miss things. Find out the dates now (or seasons) and make sure you can organise home life around them. Term dates are the most important and these are usually displayed on the school’s website. There should also be an events calendar for each term. This should include parents evenings, trips, exams, and assessment dates.
By being proactive, you ensure that you are all set up for the year, and can begin to build good relationships. This puts you in better standing for if things go wrong. It’s sad but, parents who appear more organised are more likely to be listened to and respected.
Remember:
While slightly adapted to this situation, it is incredibly fitting. Your performance as a parent relies on preparation.
Come and join in the return to school chat, and get more support at Education Support 4 Parents our free Facebook group.