When you apply or start school, the school office will ask for details about your child:
- Basic information: Full name, address, date of birth, and your contact numbers.
- Communication: Your email or WhatsApp number (used for school closures or updates).
- Health: Any medical conditions, medication needs, and your doctor’s information.
- Family: Any siblings or relatives at the school, and pick-up arrangements (if someone else takes your child).
- Family situation: Any important details about your family (especially if they affect your child).
- Learning needs: Any diagnosed special educational needs or concerns you have about your child.
Optional but helpful information:
- About your child: A short summary of their home country, hobbies, and even some everyday words in their home language. This can help the class welcome your child and learn about their background.
Remember:
- Sharing this information helps the school care for your child and support their learning.
- Schools are happy to answer your questions about any of this information.
My child is starting at a new school in the UK, what information should I be telling the school about them before they start?
The admin office at the school will ask you to give them details about your child when you apply and/or start at the school. Usually, primary and secondary schools will want the same information.
This information will include your child’s full name, address, date of birth and contact numbers should the school need to contact you for any reason. They may ask for your email address or WhatsApp number as lots of schools use these to contact parents about school closures or important messages.
The school needs to know if your child has any medical conditions and if they require medication to be given at school. If so, the medication will be kept in the school office and if the child requires it, they visit the office to take the medication (this may differ if you have agreed with the school that the child needs to have medication with them and it is then safely stored with the class teacher). No medication should be given to the child to carry around in school unless agreed with the school beforehand. The school may need to know who your registered doctor, General Practitioner (GP), is.
If your child has any siblings or relatives at the school, this would be useful for the school to know and if there are any arrangements with somebody other than you for bringing or collecting the child from primary school.
It is helpful, and sometimes vital, for the school to know about any family information including parenting arrangements, especially if there are restrictions around another parent or adult seeing or meeting your child.
If your child has a diagnosed special educational need like dyslexia or you have concerns about their wellbeing or needs in any way, this is important for the school to know.
Sometimes it is helpful for the class teacher or Form Tutor to have a short, written summary about the country where the child has come from and what the child likes doing in their spare time (hobbies). Some everyday words in the home language may also be interesting for the class to learn! The class teacher could then use this to teach the class about the child’s home country and invite pupils to help your child find their way around the school and make friends. Pupils are often very keen to help new members of their class!
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