Parent-Teacher Conferences & School Choice

Fall Parent / Teacher Conferences

The fall conferences are great opportunities for parents and teachers to discuss their views of each child’s development. Watch for an email inviting you to schedule your parent-teacher conference for November 10th or 17th. The educators look forward to meeting with parents to review the child’s progress and plan strategies for further partnership in their education.

At the Children’s School, our conferences are structured by the developmental objectives that are the focus of our program design, and our educators have been trained to combine techniques for natural classroom observation, administration of informal, age-appropriate tasks, and collection of photographs and artifacts to develop an informative portfolio and narrative report for families. 

• Self-Esteem and Independence
• Interaction and Cooperation
• Communication
• Discovery and Exploration
• Physical Capabilities / Health & Safety
• Artistic Expression and Appreciation

Teachers will highlight the progress in each area as they have observed it at school. We encourage parents to prepare for their child(ren)’s conference(s) by considering the progress they have noted at home, particularly in the context of family discussions of the daily classroom updates. One strategy is to identify one adjective to describe your child in each of the areas that will be discussed. Another is to recall one prototypical anecdote for each category. A third is to consider the school activities and events related to each area that your child has discussed with you. Finally, you might specify one goal related to each domain that you would like to see your child achieve during the next six months. 

Sharing your views with your child(ren)’s teacher(s) facilitates productive dialogue about how your child is progressing in home and school environments. It’s always interesting to see the parallels that exist between the two contexts, as well as the differences that are often evident. Parents can also ask any questions they have about our assessment procedures and then join educators in a dialogue about strategies each can use to support children’s growth.

So Many School Choices

For the older children, the conference dialogue helps parents choose the next school so that its program best matches the child and family. When considering schools, be sure to note the birthday cutoff because many children with fall birthdays will need a pre-kindergarten year prior to traditional kindergarten. Attached to this newsletter is a helpful handout on Elementary School Options. In addition to this handout and the conference opportunity, Dr. Carver and Miss Hancock will host informal question & answer sessions with interested families about School Choices on Tuesday, November 2nd from 9 to 10:30am in the Cohon University Center’s Danforth Lounge and via Zoom from 7 to 8:30pm. We are privileged that you have entrusted your children to us and look forward to our continued partnership in their education.

Recommendations for Elementary Schools

Many families are working on elementary school applications. If any require a recommendation from us, please obtain a Request for Release of Student Records form from Miss Hancock (412-268-2198 or lh37@andrew.cmu.edu). Send your request and the completed form via email to Miss Hancock. In December, she will send your child’s conference report to the school(s) of your choice.