Tam Milledge | Teaching tips & resources for primary teachers

So much of the friction between parents and teachers comes from one place: neither of them can see the other’s day.

A parent sees the morning. The tears over shoes, the late night, the worry they carry out the school gate.

A teacher sees what happens next. That same child, plus 24 others, each walking in with their own morning.

Back in 1968, education researcher Philip Jackson estimated teachers make around 1,500 decisions a day. Many of those are about children who need something a little different from the child sitting next to them.

That’s the reality of differentiation in a primary classroom, and it’s verrrrry hard to explain from the outside.

Parents aren’t doing anything wrong by not knowing this. Most have no way to see it, because the only person who could tell them is flat out teaching.

And none of it means stop emailing. The best home school partnerships I’ve seen were built on parents who reached out early and teachers who were given the chance to help.

It just helps when both sides know what the other is holding.

Teachers, if you’ve ever struggled to put this into words for a parent, hopefully this helps!

Stick around for honest truths about teaching, and strategies to help make it easier!