“A school problem becomes easier to solve when we stop asking who is responsible for the result and start identifying what produced it.”
— Tymur Levitin
Your child comes home from school in Switzerland.
Something is wrong.
Perhaps the grades are lower than expected. Perhaps the teacher says the child needs to improve their German. Perhaps homework takes hours. Perhaps your child is quiet in class, avoids answering questions or says they understand nothing.
You arrange a conversation with the teacher.
But what should you actually ask?
Many parents enter such meetings with one general question:
“Why is my child struggling?”
The problem is that this question can produce an equally general answer.
“The German is not good enough.”
“The child needs more practice.”
“They need to work harder.”
“They are not yet ready.”
These observations may contain useful information. But they do not automatically explain what is happening.
And without an explanation, it is difficult to decide what to do next.
A productive conversation should therefore move beyond identifying a problem.
It should establish where the difficulty occurs, what evidence supports the teacher’s interpretation and which action is likely to help.
1. First, Ask What the Child Actually Cannot Do
The statement “Your child is struggling in mathematics” is not a diagnosis.
Mathematics involves many different activities.
A child may struggle to calculate, understand mathematical concepts, read word problems, interpret instructions, organise written solutions or explain reasoning.
Those difficulties are not interchangeable.
Ask the teacher:
“Could you show me one specific task where my child had difficulty?”
Then ask:
“Which part of the task caused the problem?”
The answer may change the entire direction of support.
A child who cannot calculate fractions needs something different from a child who understands fractions but cannot interpret the German wording of a problem.
The visible result may be the same.
The underlying mechanism is not.
This distinction is particularly important for families whose children are learning mathematics and other school subjects through German.
2. Ask Whether the Difficulty Appears in Every Subject
If a child receives poor grades in mathematics, biology, history and geography, it may be tempting to conclude that the child is generally weak academically.
But the subjects may share a hidden demand.
They are all taught and assessed through language.
A child who struggles across several subjects may have difficulties with academic German, reading comprehension, written explanations or task instructions.
That does not prove that language is the cause.
It gives us a hypothesis worth testing.
Ask:
“Does my child struggle with the subject content itself, or mainly when they have to understand and explain it in German?”
Then compare different situations.
Can the child solve a calculation without a written problem?
Can they explain a scientific process orally?
Do they perform better when instructions are simplified?
Do they understand the concept in another language?
The purpose is not to remove German from the educational process.
It is to determine whether the child needs subject instruction, language support or both.
3. Ask Which German Is Causing Difficulty
For newly arrived families in German-speaking Switzerland, “German” is not always a sufficiently precise explanation.
A child may understand Standard German but struggle with local Swiss German speech.
Another may communicate comfortably with classmates but have difficulty reading academic texts.
A third may understand the teacher’s explanation but struggle to write a complete answer.
These are different situations.
As discussed in Swiss German or Standard German for School? What Immigrant Families Actually Need to Know, everyday communication, Standard German literacy and academic language serve related but distinct functions.
Ask the teacher:
“Is the main difficulty understanding spoken language, reading written German or expressing knowledge in German?”
A useful answer should identify the context.
For example:
“The child follows oral explanations but has difficulty with written assignments.”
Or:
“The child understands the mathematical procedure but cannot explain why it works.”
Those observations lead to more focused support than simply saying the child needs better German.
4. Ask What the Grade Is Actually Measuring
A grade is a result.
It is not a complete explanation of the learning process.
Suppose a child receives a low mark on a science test.
Was the scientific knowledge incorrect?
Were important terms missing?
Was the answer incomplete?
Did the child misunderstand the instruction?
Was there insufficient time?
Did the child provide correct information in a form that did not satisfy the assessment criteria?
Each possibility matters.
Ask:
“What would a successful answer have included that my child’s answer did not?”
This question is especially useful because it moves the conversation from judgement to evidence.
It also connects with a broader issue explored in Why Are My Child’s Grades Lower After Moving to Switzerland?: a change in school performance does not necessarily mean that the child’s underlying knowledge has disappeared.
A new educational environment can introduce new linguistic, curricular and assessment demands.
The task is to identify which ones matter.
5. Ask Whether the Problem Is New or Persistent
A child who has just entered a new school system is not in the same situation as a child who has been struggling with the same skill for several years.
Ask:
“When did you first notice this difficulty?”
And:
“Has it changed since my child joined the class?”
A learner may be making progress that is not yet visible in grades.
For example, the child may now understand classroom instructions independently but still struggle with longer written explanations.
That is meaningful development.
Conversely, a difficulty that remains unchanged despite consistent support may require a different approach.
The important distinction is between a temporary adaptation challenge and a persistent learning barrier.
Neither should be assumed without evidence.
6. Ask What Support Is Already Being Provided
Parents sometimes leave a meeting knowing what their child needs to improve but not knowing what the school is already doing.
Ask:
“What support is my child currently receiving?”
Then clarify its purpose.
Is the support aimed at German-language development?
At a particular academic subject?
At reading comprehension?
At classroom participation?
At completing assignments?
In Zurich, for example, Deutsch als Zweitsprache (DaZ) is an established form of support for eligible learners who need additional German-language development. The arrangements and available measures must be checked within the relevant canton and school.
But the existence of language support does not automatically mean that every academic difficulty is being addressed.
A child may need additional work with mathematical concepts.
Or subject-specific German.
Or strategies for reading complex instructions.
Parents need to know which difficulty the current support is intended to solve.
7. Ask What You Should Actually Do at Home
“Practise more” is not a sufficiently precise homework plan.
More of what?
Reading?
Writing?
Vocabulary?
Mathematical reasoning?
Listening comprehension?
Test preparation?
Ask:
“Which two or three activities would make the greatest difference right now?”
The answer should be realistic.
A family should not need to recreate an entire school programme at home.
And parents should not be expected to become specialists in every subject.
A useful plan might involve reading a short text and explaining its meaning, practising specific mathematical operations, learning the meaning of recurring instruction verbs or reviewing subject concepts in a familiar language before working with them in German.
The choice depends on the actual difficulty.
For some families, individual German lessons will be appropriate.
For others, the more relevant route may be school-subject support in German.
The distinction should follow the child’s needs, not a predetermined tutoring package.
8. Ask How Progress Will Be Recognised
This may be the most overlooked question.
Parents and teachers often agree that a child needs improvement.
But what would improvement actually look like?
A better grade?
Fewer mistakes?
Greater independence?
Faster reading?
More participation?
Clearer written explanations?
Ask:
“What specific change would show that the support is working?”
A measurable observation does not always need to be numerical.
For example:
“The child can now understand a word problem without having every sentence explained.”
Or:
“The child can justify an answer using the relevant subject vocabulary.”
Or:
“The child begins written assignments independently.”
These are concrete signs of progress.
They also help families distinguish between an intervention that is useful and one that merely consumes additional time.
9. Ask When the Situation Will Be Reviewed
A school meeting should not end with an indefinite promise to wait and see.
Adaptation takes time.
Language development takes time.
Academic progress takes time.
But time alone is not a plan.
Ask:
“When should we review the situation again, and what should we look at before then?”
A review can establish whether the agreed measures have helped.
If the child improves, the next step may be to increase independence.
If the same difficulty persists, the explanation may need reconsideration.
If new problems appear, the plan may need adjustment.
The point is not to pressure the teacher into guaranteeing a result.
It is to establish a shared process for observing and responding to development.
10. Ask What the Child Thinks Is Difficult
Parents and teachers see important parts of the situation.
But the learner experiences the task directly.
That perspective can reveal information that neither adult has noticed.
Ask the child:
“At which moment do you stop understanding what you need to do?”
The answer may be surprisingly specific.
“I understand the example, but not the exercise.”
“I know the answer, but I don’t know how to write it.”
“I understand the teacher when she speaks slowly.”
“I can solve it at home, but not during the test.”
“I know what the German words mean, but I don’t understand the question.”
These statements are not complete diagnoses.
They are starting points for investigation.
The child’s experience should be considered alongside classroom evidence, rather than treated as either automatically correct or irrelevant.
The Difference Between a Conversation and an Agreement
There is another problem that deserves attention.
A parent and teacher can have a friendly, constructive conversation and still leave with different understandings of what happens next.
The parent believes additional language support will begin.
The teacher believes the family will arrange private tutoring.
The family expects new information after two weeks.
The school assumes the parents will contact them if necessary.
Nobody intended a misunderstanding.
But no shared action plan was established.
That is why the final part of the meeting matters.
Before leaving, clarify:
What is the problem we are addressing?
What will the school do?
What will the family do?
What is the child expected to practise?
When will progress be reviewed?
Understanding a conversation is not the same as agreeing on responsibilities.
And agreeing on responsibilities is not the same as carrying them out.
A Useful Meeting Is Not a Search for Someone to Blame
Parents may arrive frustrated.
Teachers may feel that they have already explained the problem.
The child may feel that everyone is discussing their failures.
This is understandable, but blame rarely improves the diagnosis.
The central question should not be:
“Who failed to do enough?”
It should be:
“What is preventing this child from succeeding in this particular situation?”
That question allows several possibilities to remain open.
The child may need more practice.
The teaching approach may need adjustment.
The language demands may need to be made clearer.
A curriculum gap may need attention.
The family may need better information about the school system.
Several factors may operate simultaneously.
The purpose of the meeting is to identify them accurately enough to make progress possible.
What If the Child’s School Track Is Also Being Discussed?
For some families, concerns about performance eventually become questions about educational pathways.
This raises a separate issue.
School structures, transition procedures and track names differ between Swiss cantons.
In systems that use designations such as Sek A, Sek B and Sek C, parents need to understand the actual criteria, implications and available pathways rather than interpreting a label as a permanent measurement of intelligence.
The wider distinction is examined in Sek A, Sek B or Sek C in Switzerland: Is Your Child’s School Track Really a Measure of Ability?.
When a placement or transition is being discussed, ask which evidence is being used, how language development is considered and what options exist under the applicable cantonal rules.
Do not assume that one canton’s procedure applies throughout Switzerland.
When Additional Academic Support Makes Sense
Sometimes the school identifies the difficulty correctly, but the learner still needs more individual time than the classroom can provide.
That is where additional support may be useful.
However, the form of support matters.
If a child understands German but lacks mathematical foundations, general language lessons will not solve the central problem.
If a child knows mathematics but cannot understand German word problems, repeating calculations may produce little improvement.
If the difficulty is academic writing, conversational German alone may not be enough.
For families navigating these intersections, academic support for students in Switzerland can connect language development with mathematics and other school subjects where appropriate.
The objective is not simply to add more lessons.
It is to work on the difficulty that the evidence actually identifies.
Conclusion: Leave the Meeting With More Than an Impression
A school meeting can be reassuring.
It can also be worrying.
But its value should not depend only on how the conversation feels.
A useful meeting produces a clearer picture of the child’s learning.
It identifies what is difficult.
It distinguishes observed performance from possible causes.
It clarifies what support exists.
It establishes what each participant will do.
And it creates a way to recognise progress.
The parent does not need to arrive as an educational expert.
The teacher does not need to have an immediate answer to every question.
The child does not need to become successful overnight.
But the conversation should move everyone closer to understanding the problem.
Because a vague concern can continue for months without changing anything.
A specific question can reveal the first useful action.
“The purpose of a school meeting is not to leave with an explanation that sounds convincing. It is to leave knowing what must be checked, what must be done and how we will recognise a difference.”
— Tymur Levitin
Tymur Levitin
Founder & Director, Levitin Language School
© 2026 Tymur Levitin / Levitin Language School. All rights reserved.
