A lot of people are involved with the education of a child. It’s not just the parents and their relatives or the teachers at the school that provide all of the education.

Much of it is provided by people they meet in their community and other individuals who they deal with occasionally, like shopkeepers or police officers.

All of these people are teachers in one way or another for your children, so whether it’s ICT in secondary schools or the local librarian offering words of encouragement, they are all part of your child’s education.

What do children actually want from their educators?

Children learn more when they enjoy the activities associated to the learning process. Therefore, the first tick on their list when they tell you all about their expectations will be to have fun while they are learning.

Everyone with children will be able to tell you that when children are smiling and laughing, they are probably happy and that’s the best time for them to be learning about the world, whether it’s mathematics or English, science or social studies.

The message from children to their teachers is the same in rich and poorer areas, whatever race or culture they come from – they want to be respected as people who are willing to learn.

How can respect be gained from teachers?

Children love to be greeted in the morning and especially by name and then sent off at the end of the day with a pleasant goodbye message.

If the person that sees them for the first and last part of the day at school smiles when they’re talking to the children, there’s a better chance that the children will instantly be put into a good mood.

The attention that a teacher gives to children is extremely important. When you give your full attention, the child is more likely to be involved, associate with you and understand what you’re talking about.

If you’re too busy watching the television or casting an eye out into a car park area, the child will wonder why you’re not giving them your full 100%.

What’s more, children of all ages want to be challenged. By that, they want their learning abilities to be constantly stretched and not to be worried about their two times table every single year of their schooling lives.

As a further term of respect, they want you to find out what they have been doing and what interests them; to find out what makes them tick and what their life revolves around.

A child that follows Manchester United is far more likely to listen to their teacher if they spend just a few seconds talking about the weekend’s match, than if the educator delves straight into difficult areas of teaching, without a smile on their face.

Children expect to be treated like real people by their teachers, so providing ICT in schools for modern technology, combined with old-fashioned methods – like respect – will grab the attention of the children – and when you have this, the simple fact is they will be more willing to learn.