Parent-Teacher Meeting Questions Every Parent Should Ask

Most parent-teacher meetings last 10 minutes and leave parents with three vague compliments and zero clarity. The fault is rarely the teacher's — it's that parents arrive without a focused agenda. Here are the questions that turn a polite catch-up into useful information.

Academic questions

1. Which subject is my child strongest in and how do you know?
2. Where is my child relative to grade-level expectations in literacy and numeracy?
3. What is one specific skill we should practise at home this term?
4. How does my child respond when they get something wrong in class?
5. Are there any topics from last term that need revisiting?

Social and behavioural questions

• Who does my child sit with at lunch?
• Does my child volunteer to answer in class or stay quiet?
• How does my child handle a disagreement with another child?
• Has there been any conflict you have had to address?
• What kind of friend is my child to others?

Wellbeing questions

• Does my child seem tired or distracted in class?
• How is the lunch box looking — empty, half-finished, untouched?
• Are there days of the week my child seems different?
• How does my child handle transitions between activities?

Questions about your own role

• What is one thing we are doing well at home that I should keep doing?
• What is one thing you would like us to stop doing or do differently?
• What books would you recommend for my child right now?
• Are there any apps or screens you have noticed are affecting school behaviour?

What to do after the meeting

Pick one or two action items — not ten. Share them with your spouse or co-parent. Set a calendar reminder to follow up with the teacher in six weeks. Most importantly, share the positive feedback with your child the same evening. Children remember what their parents repeat from PTMs for months.

How Yajur structures PTMs

Yajur Public School holds formal parent-teacher meetings each term, plus optional informal slots every month. The structured PTM uses a one-page agenda — academic, social, wellbeing, action plan — so both parent and teacher leave with the same takeaways.

How to listen well in a PTM

A good PTM is two-thirds listening and one-third asking. Most parents reverse this. Let the teacher describe your child first, before you fill the air with questions. Often the teacher will mention something you didn't expect — a friendship pattern, an emerging interest, a small worry. These observations are the gold of a PTM. Catch them, write them down, and ask about them later if needed.

Avoid the trap of comparing teachers. 'But last year Ms Y said the opposite' is rarely useful. Children change year to year, and so do the teachers seeing them. Treat each PTM as fresh information, not as a court hearing.

Following up after the meeting

Write to the teacher a week later with a short note — 'we tried the daily reading suggestion, and we have noticed this'. Teachers remember parents who follow up. The relationship deepens, and the next PTM has a foundation rather than a fresh start.

Special questions for transitions

Some PTMs come at sensitive moments — joining a new school, moving from LKG to UKG, stepping into Class 3 with subject teachers, entering middle school in Class 6. At these transitions, add a few specific questions. How is my child adjusting socially? Are there any new academic demands she is finding particularly tough? What can we anticipate for the next term? Have you spotted any strengths I might not have noticed at home?

Transition PTMs are also a good moment to share family context that teachers may not know — a new sibling, a parent travelling, a recent loss in the family, a move to a new neighbourhood. Children carry all of this into the classroom. Teachers handle it far better when they know.