Tips for Planning and Preparing for a Parent Information Night

As you all head back to your classrooms for another school year, you are provided with that dreaded date for the parent information night!

This can be really daunting for even the most experienced of teachers! Give us a class full of 9-year-olds and we become the most talented Hollywood actors/actresses. But, a classroom full of ‘real’ adults and beads of sweat start to form!

Being prepared and organised shines through any nerves you may have on the night – here are some amazing tips and ideas that will have the parents applauding at the end!

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Send an Introductory Letter

There is often many things that you want to discuss with the parents at the beginning of a school year. To avoid the information night becoming a bombardment of information for the parents, I used to send a letter home on the first day of school! This letter would cover the following topics:

• About the Teacher – some nice little facts about me as a person!
• Specialist lesson days for their child – Library, PE, Music etc.
• Important information about the Tuckshop.
• Information about the upcoming Parent Information Night, including the date and time.

You may like to use our editable Meet the Teacher Letter template.

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 Get Creative and Get Organised!

Make sure your displays are finished and the classroom is neat and organised.

Creating some displays with the students in the first few days is also a really nice idea. It not only helps you to get to know your students better, but provides the parents with something to look at when they arrive, rather than watching you twiddle your thumbs at the front of the class as you wait for the night to begin!

Here are some cute ideas:

• Have your students write a letter to their parents about three things they love about their classroom! Provide this letter to the parents as they walk in and allow them to walk around and find the things their child likes about the classroom.

• Create a self-portrait display! Like the one below – parents try and pick which self-portrait is of their child!

Image credit: Our Small-Town Idaho Life blog.

 

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Use a PowerPoint

Having a PowerPoint will help you remember the topics you had planned to talk about and will encourage a more professional look to your presentation. It also provides the parents with something visual to look at rather than staring at you! Incorporating an informative video is another way to engage the parents more!

Keep it simple and easy listening for the parents. Most of them have been at work the whole day, just like you!

It’s difficult to create a PowerPoint with information that is going to suit everyone’s needs! Here is an idea of what you may like to include.

What do Parents Want to Know at Class Information Nights?

Routines and procedures

Talk about a ‘typical day’ in your classroom. Without going into too much detail, explain to the parents what their children will be doing from arrival to dismissal. A cute idea is to film the kids talking about what happens during different sessions of the day – such as explaining how English rotations work.

Behaviour Expectations

Discuss how behaviour is managed at the school and in particular your classroom. Talk the parents through your behaviour management system, how you manage unfavourable behaviour and how you reward good behaviour.

Curriculum and Teaching Units

Briefly, go over the curriculum and teaching units that their children will be doing throughout the year. You may like to discuss any excursions and incursions that are occurring and how they are linked to the curriculum in this section of the PowerPoint.

Make sure the terms you are using are understandable to the parents. There is nothing worse than a teacher talking in acronyms that the parents don’t understand.

Homework Expectations

This is where you can explain how much time is spent on homework in your year level and what the content will be like. I would discuss sight words and home readers as a must for the early years.

Explain to the parents that you understand that occasionally life gets busy and homework may not get completed.  Emphasise the point that if this happens, leave the homework sheet, but listen to your child read! I never expected the homework sheet to be completed but I made reading vital!

This video we created would be a great addition for parents to watch during a parent information night:

Tip: To embed a video into your PowerPoint, there are two options – take a screenshot of the video and hyperlink the image to the YouTube clip. Alternitvely, within PowerPoint, go to Insert, Video, Online Video, then copy the YouTube link and the embeded link as well.

NAPLAN 

It makes us all cringe when we hear this word! But parents still want to know about it, especially if their child will be going through it in the year ahead.

Let them know the dates of NAPLAN and any tips they could do at home to prepare their child.

Parent Helpers

My classroom always ran so smoothly when I had parent helpers – the more the better I used to say.  I used to use this night to talk about what parents were able to help with in the classroom and do a call out for volunteers.

I found that if I explained how easy it was they were more likely to put their hand up! The thought sometimes scares parents I think.

Communication is Key!

Provide parents with the best way to get in contact with you! I used to provide my email address and say that they could contact me at any time on that email. I checked it in the morning before class and at the end of the day. That way they knew if they sent it at 12pm – I wouldn’t get to it till 4pm! If it was an emergency they were advised to contact the school by phone!

Encourage communication! I discussed how I would send home weekly newsletters each Friday to talk about what had happened during the week and important information for the week ahead.

Editable and Downloadable PowerPoint Templates to Use

Make your presentation really pop and impress your parents by using some of these beautifully designed PowerPoint templates. You may like to add your school’s logo and other photos of you and the school grounds as well.

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Provide Handouts

I love this idea! Rather than a boring black and white booklet that, let’s face it, parents are most likely going to chuck in the bin. Create this visually appealing flipbook with a magnetic strip on the back! Parents are much more likely to take it home and stick it on their fridge for future reference.

Download our editable Parent Handbook flipbook template and put any information you feel relavant to your school and classroom. I then printed each page on coloured paper to make it look super pretty!

 

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Provide One-on-One Time

The parents are there for one thing only! They want to suss you out and to also talk about their child! I would always explain that the purpose of this night was to talk about the classroom procedures and what they should expect throughout the year. By letting them know that parent/teacher interviews were coming and having a timetable available for them to book in to see you.

They will hopefully keep personal questions and queries specifically about their child to a minimum. Allowing you time to concentrate on giving them the information you want them to hear!

I created this simple timetable using own of our many editable page border templates.

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Tell us Your Tips and Tricks

There are always so many fantastic ideas and tips out there from others – so let’s share! If you have a fantastic idea to add – flick us a comment in this blog…