10/13/2026
Save this for your next parent-teacher conference.
Their teacher has watched them for six hours a day and knows things about them that no report card will tell you. Here’s what to ask to get the full picture:
1. Who do they sit with at lunch?
The answer tells you more about their year than any grade will.
2. What do they do when the work is too hard for them?
Their strategy for being stuck is the single most useful thing you can learn in this meeting, because it is the same strategy they will use at fifteen.
3. Who do they go to when they are upset?
You are hoping the answer is an adult, or a particular friend.
If the teacher says they do not go to anyone, that is worth knowing now rather than in three years.
4. When in the day are they most settled?
Some children are gone by one o'clock. Some do not switch on until after lunch.
Knowing this tells you how to most effectively plan their day.
5. What do they do when they get something wrong?
Their relationship with their own mistakes is being built right now.
6. Have you seen them help anyone?
The answer will tell you something about who they are when you are not in the room.
7. What would you like me to do at home?
Teachers spend the whole evening giving information and almost never get asked what they actually need. Ask it last and mean it. Then write the answer down in front of them.
Pick the one answer that surprised you most and change one thing at home because of it this month. That is the entire value of the meeting.
