Bridging the teacher-parent relationship

Julia, the teachers who are also parents, what are they going through right now?

We’re really conflicted

We’re really conflicted between the 30 children who are relying on us and the 5 children who need us the most.

So it’s very interesting because you look at your own kids with your teacher hat on and you think to yourself: “Well, what do they need to get from this time ?”

They just need to come out unscathed

They really just need to come out of this time feeling like they’re still ready to learn and still ready to be a part of things and that nothing terrible happened.

But there is anxiety and there is loss

So we want our children to be filled up with family during this time and filled up with closeness and relationship and we’re not really too fussed about the extra input of Maths that they’re going to get.

It’s the summer term, it’s not a content-heavy term, and every teacher is going to plan to catch up in the autumn.

So it’s much, much more about knowing what’s important, having realistic goals for them and realising that taking them for a walk is probably more important than another Maths sheet; that reading with them is probably the second most important thing you should be doing.

And the third point is speaking in full sentences, because these are the skills that are going to go out the window. Their brains are going to go to mush by the end of the summer, if they don’t focus now.

Because they’re not as stimulated. All that jostling about and development that happens in school, however uncomfortable it can be, is a stretch for them and, spending the next six months on the sofa is not what our children need.

So, as a teacher and as a parent, I know that what my children need from me is to keep them moving.

I know that the children in my class don’t need me as much as my children at home do.