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AIBU?

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Original poster

To be dreading face to face parents evening Thursday

267 replies

IHateParentsEvenings · 10/05/2022 19:10

Going to get flamed to a crisp, never mind.

I am dreading it … teaching all day and then three solid hours between 4 and 7 talking to parents, some will be lovely but there will be some really difficult ones, won’t be able to be cut off after five minutes, will enjoy making me justify every detention since September.

Then home exhausted and still got the next days planning to do …

sorry MN, I dread it.

OP posts:
ICannotRememberAThing · 10/05/2022 22:00

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So ‘his’ staff are expected to be on call 24/7?
Is he available to take calls from parents and staff at all hours? 12.30am any good?

JollyWilloughby · 10/05/2022 21:59

Hate the new system anyway. 5 minutes is a tick box and half of the teachers were fully booked anyway so I have no idea how he’s getting on his half his subjects.

it was 5 mins though you absolutely were cut off after that point.

dotdotdotdash · 10/05/2022 21:58

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I 'totally disagree' with you Tolson. Endless flexibilty towards parents is not in the job description and frankly forcing that sort of ethos on teachers is likely to contribute to work-related stress.

I'm not going to flame you @IHateParentsEvenings . Face-to-face parents' evenings are chaotic and I've witnessed unruly parents kicking off and would not want to deal with that after a day's teaching with plan to do after!@

orangeisthenewpuce · 10/05/2022 21:57

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😂😂😂

ICannotRememberAThing · 10/05/2022 21:56

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Please do let us know where this school is so that we can all AVOID it like the plague.
TIA.

Caiti19 · 10/05/2022 21:56

Why do schools shove 30 meetings into a single evening. How can those meetings be of any real value to parents or teachers at 5 minutes per child? Whole concept smacks of box ticking. Having "parent week" with max of 5 meetings per day and a pre-selected option of online or in-person would put a bit of sincerity behind the whole thing. My last parent-teacher meeting consisted of 3 sentences from the teacher followed by "any concerns? no, great - bye!" - spent more time getting ready and traveling to it - it's all so silly!

SleepingThroughNight · 10/05/2022 21:55

Holy moly @Tolson there is no way I’d want to work at your DH’s school. It’s those kind of heads that create over-entitled parents and kids and overworked and over-stressed teachers

Tolson · 10/05/2022 21:53

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MadameMinimes · 10/05/2022 21:50

@Tolson Is that a joke? Imagine coming on to here to boast to everyone that your husband is a colossal bell-end.

Tolson · 10/05/2022 21:42

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gothereagain · 10/05/2022 21:41

My teacher friends loved virtual parents evening due to protection from abuse.

lunar1 · 10/05/2022 19:47

Online parents evening, especially for secondary was far easier for everyone! I don't know why we have gone back to the old random chaos.

FreezyFreezy · 10/05/2022 19:30

Yanbu. Parents are often the most difficult part of the job imo.

Fairislefandango · 10/05/2022 19:24

YANBU. Parents' evening is exhausting and can be really stressful. Fortunately I only have to do it from the parent side of the table/screen these days.

Hunderland · 10/05/2022 19:20

Persuade your school to adopt online parents evenings - they'll be cut off after 5 minutes whether they like it or not!

CoralBells · 10/05/2022 19:19

Yanbu. The parents at our school voted to keep it online fortunately

FourChimneys · 10/05/2022 19:17

No flaming from me. Parents Evenings are a logistical nightmare and I'm sure teachers find them exhausting.

Let's hope the majority of parents are appreciative. If any are not, a good trick is to imagine they are sitting on the toilet, pants round their knees. It makes them seem far less important than they think they are.