- Meet the teacher: Schedule a meeting with the subject teacher and bring the report along.
- Understand levels: Ask the teacher to explain the expected level for your child’s age group and compare it to their current level in the report. Ask questions if anything is unclear or you disagree.
- Understand the grade: Ask the teacher to explain what the current grade means in practical terms. What kind of work did your child do to earn this grade? Are there examples they can share?
- Future goals: Ask the teacher what grade they expect your child to achieve in their final exams (GCSEs).
- Discuss expectations: If your expectations differ from the teacher’s, explain your concerns. For example, say, “I thought Natalie could get a higher grade like an 8 or 9.”
- Seek solutions: Ask the teacher for suggestions on how to help your child improve their grade. They may have ideas for activities or resources to support your child’s learning.
Remember:
- Talking to the teacher is a good way to understand your child’s progress and support their learning.
- Be clear about your questions and concerns.
- Work together with the teacher to help your child succeed.
My child is about to do her GCSEs. She got what I consider to be a low mark in her school report but the teacher said she did well. What can I do as I want her to get a better grade?
Arrange a meeting with the subject teacher and take the report with you.
- First, ask the teacher to clarify levels and expectations with you for your child’s age group to check that you both agree. Ask additional questions if you don’t agree or don’t understand.
- Ask the teacher to explain the mark that your child currently has so you can understand what “well” means. Ask for examples of how your child works, or about the work and tests the mark was based on to aid this.
- To get specific, you can ask the teacher what grade they expect your child to get in their GCSE exams.
- If this does not match your expectations, you can clarify these with the teacher e.g. “I expected that Natalie would get a higher grade, like an 8 or 9 in her GCSE.” The teacher can then help you to understand whether your child is likely to meet these expectations or not.
- You can ask for solutions, and ways to help your child stretch their learning to improve their grade where possible. The teacher should be able to give you some ideas about how to enrich the learning in that subject.
This question was asked by one of our parents during our recent webinar ‘Unlocking the Power of Parent-Teacher Communication‘ and was answered by a very experienced primary school teacher who has also held a Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Coordinator (SENDCo) role.
If you have any questions for our bilingual team (English and Cantonese), reach out via email contact@seven-springs.co.uk