A page about me, for a new teacher

The activity

Before a new class or a new school, she tells her teacher, in her own words, what she enjoys, what she finds 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 her last year. YoungMinds advises parents to tell school staff early what their child finds difficult and what helps. A page in her own words does that before term starts, and gives her a say in what her new teacher is told about her.

• 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 her page, so that the right people have them. The page has her name and perhaps her 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, she is dreading school, has stomach aches on school mornings or says the teacher doesn’t understand her, talk to her class teacher and, if she has or may have special educational needs, the SENCo. If the stomach aches keep coming back, or her sleep, eating or mood have changed and not changed back, talk to your GP as well. If what she writes or says suggests that someone is hurting her, that she is hurting herself, or that she does not want to be alive, stay calm, thank her for telling you, do not promise to keep it secret, and act that day, using the routes under “If you need help right now”, at the foot of every page.

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 in her school to one of the youngest.

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.