A page about me, for a new teacher

The activity

Before a new class or a new school, your child tells their teacher, in their own words, what they enjoy, what they find hard and what helps. You write it down together and hand it in.

What it is for. A new teacher starts the year not knowing what helped your child last year. YoungMinds advises telling school staff early what a child finds difficult and what helps. A page in your child’s own words does that before term starts, and gives them a say in what their new teacher is told about them.

• The first step. Choose a calm afternoon a week or two before the new class or school starts, and ask: “Your new teacher doesn’t know you yet. Shall we make a page for them about what helps you?”

Safety. Medical needs, such as allergies, asthma or medicines, go to the school from you directly and not on your child’s page, so that the right people have them. The page has your child’s name and perhaps their photograph on it. Hand it in or send it by school email, and don’t post it anywhere public.

When to get help. If, several weeks into the year, your child is dreading school, has stomach aches on school mornings or says the teacher doesn’t understand them, talk to their class teacher and, if your child has or may have special educational needs, the SENCo. If the stomach aches keep coming back, or your child’s sleep, eating or mood have changed and not changed back, talk to your GP as well. If your child has hurt themselves, or talks about not wanting to be alive, stay calm, thank them if they have told you, don’t promise to keep it secret, and act that day: help them ask the surgery for an urgent appointment, and if it is closed, use the routes under “If you need help right now”, at the foot of every page. If what your child writes or says suggests that someone is hurting them, stay calm, thank them for telling you, don’t promise to keep it secret, and act that day, using those routes; if the person hurting your child lives in your home or your child’s other home, go straight to children’s social care or the police. If your child is badly hurt, or may have taken too much of a medicine, get medical help straight away, even if they seem well.

The other five steps, and your part in it, are in the library.

The sheet that goes with it comes with a subscription: A page about me.

It goes with

• Neurodiversity, and the Conversation with the School. For parents whose child has been working harder and longer than other children to do things that come more easily to them.
• The Move to Secondary School. For parents whose child is about to go from being one of the oldest at school to one of the youngest.

The first chapter you open here is free to read in full.

Free on this subject

• Transitions. What to do first, what helps, and who else can help. Free to read and to print.
• Neurodiversity. What to do first, what helps, and who else can help. Free to read and to print.