As a parent, you get to relive your childhood all over again. Going back to kindergarten, learning rhymes, reading fun stories, and doing all that we did as kids and even more, because now you get to do the kid things as well as play the very responsible part of being a parent. So, things like looking for schools, making sure the best is provided for your kids in life, and so on and so forth. One of these responsibilities is also to attend Parent-Teacher Meetings. As kids, we would only wonder what happens at the end of the discussion, but now you get to do it yourself. So today, we will examine the importance of Parent-Teacher Meetings. We will explore details regarding what is a Parent-Teacher Conference, what the benefits of Parent-Teacher Meetings are, and what the whole purpose of Parent-Teacher Meetings is.
Firstly, let’s take a look at a Parent-Teacher Conference. As a parent and a teacher, you have to work together on various things, such as Parent-Teacher interviews, Parent-Teacher Night or Parents’ Evening, to name a few. Basically, this is a short meeting or conference between the parents and the teachers of a respective student. The teachers and parents discuss the child’s progress at school and find solutions to academic or behavioral problems.
The main objective of a Parent-Teacher Meeting is to give an opportunity for parents and teachers to openly discuss what is happening at school and at home. This could be in the form of a positive or a very negative conversation. Ideally, an open and honest dialogue between a parent and a teacher can affect and change for the better in a child’s development and life as a whole.
Parents and teachers meetings are also to promote the welfare of children, in the school, at home, and in the community as a whole. To create better understanding between parents and teachers so that a child gets all the help from their parents and their teachers to adapt themselves to the changing concepts of society and different aspects of life.
Benefits of Parent-Teacher Meetings
Some benefits of Parent-Teacher Meetings are to build a sense of community at school and to increase and sustain parental participation and involvement in school events and in the life of a child. The benefits of Parent-Teacher Meetings are to foster a relationship between parents and the teachers, the school management, and the Board of Trustees, which brings everyone to the same page regarding the development and success of the student and the school and the community overall.
So one would want to know how important Parent-Teacher meetings are? Well, these meetings are very important for parents as they are the stepping stone towards an important milestone in the development of a child as well as in the development of you as a parent. It helps to have a healthy relationship with your child. As they say, you only get one chance to make a first impression, and first impressions matter. Truly, first impressions matter so much that scientists spend a lifetime studying them.
So, one would want to know what the purpose and objective of a parents and teachers meeting is? First of all, let us understand the main difference between the meeting purpose and the meeting objective, which is that the meeting purpose is the reason why you are having the meeting in the first place, while the objective is the desired outcome of the meeting.
Below mentioned are a few points to help you analyze your child’s problems and your child’s progress in any area and seek help if needed during Parent-Teacher Meetings.
- General questions. One must keep a repository of general questions related to their child’s results, test, assignments and the development of your child.
- All-round development. It is necessary for a parent to be in constant touch of their child’s development.
- Academic performance. As a parent it is our duty to be fully aware of our child’s areas of improvement and future aspects.
- Academic strengths and weaknesses. As a parent we must be aware of any plans a teacher may have for the better results and outcome of a child’s academic progress.
- Homework. Teachers give homework, but it is the duty of a parent to collaborate with a teacher in case of any doubts and queries regarding the homework given.
- Social skills. As teachers and parents it is necessary that we build a child’s social skills and improve their overall development.
- Aptitude and behaviour. As teachers and parents we must ensure kids have the ability to acquire a new skill, which is related to their intelligence. We must also ensure kids have a positive behaviour towards their success and failures.
- Parental involvement. It is the most important aspect of a child’s development, remember a teacher can only do as much as during school hours but beyond that your child is your responsibility.
One addition to the whole topic is a question that is often asked: what happens at a Parent-Teacher Conference? Well, these conferences mainly focus on a child’s learning, talk about their academic progress, especially highlighting their strengths and areas of improvement. Although behaviour and social concerns might not be discussed on a large scale, they do happen to be a part of the whole agenda for the meeting. The teacher helps parents to review their child’s progress, which includes strengths and areas of improvement. There could be talks about standardized tests and results, personalized education plans, and other plans related to a child’s natural development.
Here at EuroSchool, we make sure you have all the agenda pre discussed for all Parent-Teacher Conference and Parent-Teacher Meetings. We always start the conference with positive comments to help build a positive behaviour in children. We know that parents are often anxious about the meeting’s agenda and all about what the teacher has to say about their child, hence we have exceptionally skilled teachers who start the conference or the meeting with positive comments to show parents that we recognize their child’s strengths but we must equally work together on the child’s areas of improvement, thus giving our students the best of education and opportunities to excel in every area and aspect of learning.
