Given that us expats here mostly attend international without the regular guideline of our home country ministry of education, schools to schools vary on how they handle students' situation. Most people would agree that the most important person to make school a positive experience is the teacher. But what if your child have a lousy teacher with zero communication with you?

What is the communication between your children's school and you (parents) like? Do you get regular communication via email, phone, SMS about your child's progress, social issues, learning capabilities etc or do you only get to know about these during report card time and parents teachers conference? Do your children have a communication book where entries are made daily?

How accessible are your children's teachers?

What is the role of the school leaders (principals, head of grades, admin, accounting) in communication? If you have a complain about your child's teacher, how effective is it when you bring it up to the principal?

What are the school process that your schools have in place in terms of if your child has an issue and it is not resolved at the teacher's level? What is your next step?

When my daughter attended SMIC Private School, they seemed to err on the side of too much communication.

And obviously the Head of Primary at Xuhui campus of Shanghai Singapore International School has something to say as well!

At management level, we give our teachers a set of guidelines - a call once a month, all homework to be recorded in the homework diary, a communication book for teachers to record communication issues (some teachers use e-mail instead). We try not to check on our teachers regarding such issues, but periodic reminders are made.

Our biggest problem tends to be that parents approach management when they have issues with the teacher - without talking to the teacher first. I have made it a habit to tell the parents to talk to the teacher first. Only if they cannot resolve the issues, should management be involved. As an educator, I understand how a teacher feels when we do not have a chance to address concerns - to hear it first from my superior is not a very nice feeling.

^^ Hmm...looks like the contact between parents/teachers at your school is encouraged - good!

I agree with you St Mike. Teachers should be the parents' first contact. If the issue is not resolved at teachers' level, then the next step would be to go to the management.

Does all int schools work this way?

I have over 20 students in my class -so writing individual messages to each parent every day in a communication book as you suggest would take me about a full hour (and that's if I only spend 2 -3 minutes per kid). Wouldn't you rather your child's teacher spent that hour doing something else, like say...teaching?

Communication is important, but parents need to be sensible and realistic about this too.

My kids are at SMIC. Formal comments only come with grade reports but I find the teachers to be very approachable if something comes up between grading periods. Elementary students use a homework log and the teacher will include comments there when necessary.

The PTA is the source for most official communication and I think that they (and I know that I) sometimes get frustrated with the administration's tendency to be reactively communicative rather than proactively communicative. They recently raised tuition significantly and didn't provide any explanation until they had a parent rebellion on their hands.

At our school (and its one of the good schools that everyone talks about) - we only get comments at report card/parent teacher conference.... I feel the burden is on the parents to be checking up on how things are going.

Even when my first grader was struggling to get work done in class, I only found out when the teacher asked me to approve a referral to an occupational therapist for testing (!?!).

The teachers are always welcoming to having us visit and they are always available to talk. If I send an email question, I get a quick response. Maybe its because so many parents spend so much time at the school, the teachers feel like if the parents want to know what is going on in-between report cards, they'll take the time to find out. So my advice - be proactive.

Well since this is a topic about communication, how do you teachers feel about parents who only want to hear good things about their kids? I know of a couple of parents who have not been attending PTC, because they simply dont like the comments made about their kids.
As a parent, I welcome criticism and encouragement. I certainly like to know how my kids behave outside the home. But sometimes to hear from some parents saying, "My kid is not that bad, you know. How can the teacher say such things about him" just amaze me.

shana wrote:I have over 20 students in my class -so writing individual messages to each parent every day in a communication book as you suggest would take me about a full hour (and that's if I only spend 2 -3 minutes per kid). Wouldn't you rather your child's teacher spent that hour doing something else, like say...teaching?

Aren't you glad you've got parents and management that are pretty sane?

amig wrote:But sometimes to hear from some parents saying, "My kid is not that bad, you know. How can the teacher say such things about him" just amaze me.

In education-talk, we term such parents as "being in denial". I am very sure such cases can occur - because I was one of them. I was the angel whom the parents see studying hard at home, reading instead of going out to play (I had my fair share of playing before I went home, ha!), and who was very obedient at home, helping to tend his two brothers.

If you have a chance to ask my teachers, they would rather not talk about the little devil in their class...

It must be my retribution, for me to have become a teacher...