8 Ways to Monitor Your Child’s Progress in School

As a parent, you would be keen to know how your child is doing in school; isn’t it? It’s also the responsibility of parents to do that to make sure your child stays on track. With busy schedules, parents have to multitask and keep switching between work, home chores, other activities. But monitoring your child’s progress and education should be your number one priority.

To ensure that your child has been going up the learning curve and will meet the set standards, it’s imperative that you keep track of how he or she is doing in terms of grasping important skills and concepts. Though the teachers in best schools in Dubai follow the protocols and communicate the student progress by sending home reports of the child or uploading the reports on the web portal of the school at designated intervals, there are many other ways to monitor your little one’s performance at school. Read on to understand the steps you can take.

1. Be involved and go to school at times

Going to your child’s school at regular intervals is very important to get a feeler of how she is doing there. You could ensure that you volunteer and attend various events, parent-teacher meetings, any field trips, etc. Most of the schools these days also welcome parent volunteers to help the teacher in various chores like decorating the class for some event. You can go and observe how your child behaves, reacts, and socializes in the classroom.

1. Stay in touch with your child’s teacher

Talking to your child’s teacher is very important to get an idea of what are the strengths and weaknesses of your child. And after home, teachers play a very important role in shaping your child’s future. Also, talking to the teacher will help you share any concerns you might have about your child. Therefore, communicate with the teacher as much as possible – meet them, talk to them by phone or email and keep taking feedback for your child so that you can follow up on any issues and work alongside the developmental needs of the little one.

1. Set up a routine for home assignments and projects

It always helps to establish a specific start and finish time for homework, extracurricular activities, and school projects, as then, your child’s schedule will become easy to manage. Focusing on the importance of school work and setting up a special homework or reading time always helps the child to give importance to that work and trains your child’s brain to grasp and learn at that time. Making routines helps kids to feel secure and structured.

1. Check results on various graded assignments, assessments, and quizzes

Track your child’s results frequently – be it graded assignments, assessments, quizzes and other evaluations, etc. Ask the school or child’s teacher on how the grades are communicated and then accordingly monitor your child’s progress. Most schools use standards-based grading, which is done on a student's concepts and skills, for example, A, B, C, or A+ for an excellent performance. But at times, maybe your child’s report doesn’t mention the A+ Grade in Math for your child but rather mentions mastery of the number system, or mastery of addition, subtraction, and so on. So, it’s important that you understand this terminology, which may vary from school to school.

1. Visit the school and its website

It’s important to get to know the school facilities, campus, and staff. So, it would help if you plan to visit the school and check out their admin offices, library, sports areas, canteens, etc. You should also check your child’s performance and how the school is progressing through their website. Some schools also have a dedicated portal to upload and document classwork, checked home assignments, progress reports, test dates, and other activities done in classrooms. Hence, it’s always helpful to visit the school and the website to stay aware.

1. Keep an eye on the backpack

It’s a good idea to empty and inspect your child’s backpack daily. Keep a close watch on everything, including completed classwork, homework, notes from the teachers, etc. Also, keep the weekly calendar, timetable, or syllabus handy to know which activities and classes are planned for that day or week. The school diary and backpack make it easy for the teacher to send a message for you, and you can also keep track of what’s going on at school.

1. Celebrate success on every achievement

Whenever your child learns a new skill or concept quickly, remember to cheer for him or her to motivate him. Offering this type of validation and acknowledgement goes a long way in building the confidence and self-esteem of a child.

1. Network with other parents

Meetings and keeping in touch with other parents can provide you with an insight into other issues going on in the school or in the class. It’s always beneficial to get friendly with other parents of your child’s classmates and friends. Also, stay in touch with all the subjects and substitute teachers, parent representatives, and classroom volunteers.

You can use the above-mentioned ways to monitor your child’s holistic development. Guide them along on their journey of learning and growth so that they could bloom in the future.

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