Guidelines for PCM/PTC

What are parent-teacher conferences (PTC)?

Parent-teacher conferences are short (20 Minutes) one to one session between parent and teacher that are formally arranged by the school thrice in a year after school hours usually on Saturday.

The PTCs are a valuable tool to help a parent and child’s teacher(s) work together for child’s success. This is a great opportunity for parents to ask questions and gather information that will help them to encourage their children to achieve success.

Common agenda points to discuss in PTCs will include going through the important achievements, goals set, issues with academics or behavior etc.

How parent-teacher conferences are conducted?

Parents are informed at the starting of the session through a circular about the frequency of the PTCs during the year. Typically 2-3 PTCs are held after every 3 months or so. In case there is a Student Led Conference (SLC) then the PTC is not held.

The PTCs are generally conducted in the classroom. Different time slots have been allotted to the parents according to their request (Request Form – Appendix-1), set time limit and number of students in the class.

Why the PTCs are important?

It is very important to have good relationships between parents and teacher because the goals for the child are indeed shared goals; both teacher and parent want what is best for the child/student. By conducting these sessions with parents Teacher gets opportunity to discuss the child’s learning progress and by attending, parents can show that theyare interested and prepared to participate in and support their child’s learning.

The PTC will give you feedback on your child’s performance and progress.Also it is chance for parents to find out how their child is getting along in school and what is going on inside the classroom.You can also meet the specialist (single subject- Arts, PE, Music, Dance) teachers if you wish to.

Since the parents are considered as primary educator, they can contribute a lot to the discussions and decisions of their child’s progress.

Dos and Don’ts for Parents for PTCs

DOs:

Do attend the PTCs in the slots been given to you unless there is an emergency. (Please refer the note on Postponing PTC Slot mentioned below)
Both the parents will have to be present for the PTC.
Reach at school 30 minutes in advance so that you can get enough time for entry, parking, reaching in the class etc.
You are requested to first go to your child’s classroom
Please be present 10 minutes before time outside the class for the meeting i.e. if your meeting time is 8.00 am than you need to be present outside the class at 7.50 am.
In case you are late, you will not be able to get the allotted 20 minutes with the teacher.
Please respect the privacy of the meeting.If a meeting is in progress or the teacher is busy, do not walk into the class. The teacher will call you in when she is ready to meet you.
If you wish to meet the specialist teachers, please submit your request circular(Appendix-1)and visit them in their allotted classrooms as per circular sent to you (Appendix-2).
Please bring the list of goals per subject and other documents as per the list sent to you.
Be prepared with questions that you want to ask at the conference to save time i.e. if you want specific feedback on maths or you wanted to discuss your child’s social skills etc.
Share information which you think is important for a teacher to know.
Be open to suggestions from the teacher.
You can also take notes on the discussion you had with teacher during the meeting and discuss the same with your child later on.
If you wish to leave any comments/ give any feedback for the meeting, please fill in the Parents Feedback Form(Appendix-3) after PTC is over.

Don’ts

Please switch off your mobile phones before you enter in the classroom for the meeting.
Do not interrupt the teacher in between the meeting.
Do not exceed your allocated time limit.
Do not defend your child if teacher has mentioned any specific issue.
Do not lose control over emotions.Try to stay calm and focused on what will help the child the most.
Do not stray from the topic.
Do not discuss about the other child or the other teacher.

Postponement of PTC Slot:

Rationale : At times there are requests from parents to change the slot because of:

Engaged in some other work which is unavoidable.
Out of town for some work etc.

The motto of the school is to address genuine requests made by parents for the change in PTC slots other than slots fixed from school side.

Guidelines for Postponement of PTC Slot:

If there is any genuine case or emergency then only a parent can ask for a change in PTC slot.
For any change in date (not in time slot), parent need to send the request by email or through letter, addressed to the HOS at least 7 days in advance, unless it’s an emergency.
The reasons for the postponement must be mentioned in the notification to check whether the reason is genuine or not.
If the reason is found genuine, HoS will approve the same and send it to the teacher for further processing.
The teacher then will find a mutually convenient slot before or after the regular PTC date and will inform the parent about the confirmed date and time for the meeting through diary note.