To expect an appointment with all my child's teachers?

I just picked core subjects English, maths and science then picked PE because it's an area he enjoys for my year 7. I know his geography teacher personally and he's never had any negative behaviour points at all so assume all is well everywhere else. The only teacher who seemed to give me personalised comments was his PE teacher who raved about his abilities and told me about all the competitions he's getting him doing 🤣 the others gave me the usual 'doing well, well behaved, no concerns' 🤷 pointless tbh. I think they should just contact you if they want to speak to you (for both good and bad reasons)

You ANBU but this seems to be how it is. My DS started ‘big’ school this year too and we had the same situation. The appointments I managed to book were on a timer and the meeting closed automatically after 5minutes so we didn’t really learn that much about how our son was settling in. It was disappointing, particularly given the new school setting and the variety of subjects studied in comparison to primary school.

I very rarely go to parents' evenings seeing as the school send me a million emails a day.

YABU unfortunately, teachers tend to be given a 3 hour slot to see all children in that year group, 5 min appointments. So if for example they have 2 or more classes in that year group, it's just not possible to see all the parents.

If it's an in-person parents' evening I'd go and see if you can catch them when free as people definitely book slots and don't show, or you could ask for an email update

I’d be quite happy with a 5min zoom if needed. If the report showed no issues I probably wouldn’t bother.

You absolutely should be able to see them once a year but sometimes it can prove impossible if a teacher has multiple classes in one year group (I once had 93 kids in one year group so couldn’t get through them even in a 3 hour parents’ evening!) That said, teachers are normally perfectly happy to arrange a 5 minute phone call if you haven’t been able to see them.

Pretty sure my parents didn't get to see all of my teachers in the 90s/00s either.

@T1Dmama most schools have different evenings per year group. It doesn't help you if you have more than one class in a year. Staffing issues and lower funding means this is happening more and more. All my full time colleagues have a year group with more than one group and we're a core subject. We can't see everyone in the time.

@VenusClapTrap agree with you! Yes ofcourse all kids should have equal opportunity for their parents and teachers to meet. Why should their achievements be ignored. Mumsnetters are mad sometimes

Our school prints off a form and the kids themselves have to ask teachers for a time slot and fill in the form… I only bothered speaking to the English, maths and science teacher.
our school also had different nights for each year group meaning teachers had more appointments

Hate parent teacher nights..I think they are a waste of time. I went this week and won't be going again.

Just chipping in to disagree with those saying that the high achieving children shouldn’t get slots. I have a ds in year 7 who really needed to hear his teachers say, in front of me, that he is smashing it. He had been coming home from school crying most days before that, saying “Everyone is better than me”. His confidence improved a lot after parents evening.

Agree . I used to teach four maths sets a day
that’s 120 children
plus two science . Another 60 children . It’s impossible.

if you are a subject like c d t or pe you could be teaching the whole school
that could be 20 plus classes of 30 children . 🥴🥴🥴🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️

Parents' evenings used to be turn up and queue, bad idea, now book appointments. I've only done face to face (as a teacher) and my bum had always been glued to a chair from finishing teaching at 3.30 til 6.30. Refreshments are offered but daren't drink anything as I will need the loo and would have to make them wait!

So zoom appointments now, wow, what a difference! Unfortunately as only so many slots available it's first come first served I guess. In the old days we used to squeeze in a few extra but say sorry will have to be quick, not possible with online.

All I can say is request a phone call appt, which should be offered, and the teachers will ring you. Xx

Our parents' evenings - online - last 3 hours. Appointments are usually back to back with two 5 minute breaks.
What is annoying is when you have no-shows, especially knowing that other parents would have valued those appointments.
If parents are unable to book appointments, they email us and teachers reply with details about grades, behaviour, attitude to learning & homework.

My son’s school still does this. I make a bee line for maths, English and science and then anyone else is a bonus… that said, Our school starts at 2pm (kids get the afternoon off) and it’s one year group at a time (yes 5 afternoons off twice per year, but because of the way their school timetables work it’s actually only 1 teaching hour each time). It works well for us… especially as some parents can make it so early in the afternoon (I work nights)

It is how it goes in high school. Is there any lessons your DC is struggling in? If there is, I would make an appointment to see them.
I didn't see every teacher of my sons, as we would run out of time, but luckily he didn't have any problems. If he had done, I would have asked to see them and not the others.

Four or five appointments is about the norm. Mine were online 5 minute only ones so theoretically I could meet all my Y7 but unfortunately I was often teaching more than one class so suddenly there isn't enough space for 60+ students in one evening.

If you feel you must meet with a particular subject then contact the teacher or the school via email and ask for a reserve slot. If this is not available, ask if you can Zoom or phone after school one day to discuss things. I was always happy to do this for parents who wanted it.

The time hogging and staying on schedule is exactly why so many teachers like me prefer online. People's appointments can't overrun.

Our last parents evening was at the school. It was like a speed dating event. I had to book as soon as the email was sent as I went straight from work and wanted to go from teacher to teacher without a wait in between as we had grandparents looking after our youngest. Booked everyone I wanted to see (5 mins per teacher) 2 whole weeks beforehand and I should have been there for an hour max. 3 hours later…… we had to leave having not seen everyone we wanted or needed to and we’d booked. Those parents that were lucky enough to be there from the off seemed to have their fill and more and created a huge backlog for the rest of us from 5pm onward. It was carnage and disappointing really and it was held over 3 days to accommodate the parents of each child in the year! We have another at the end of the year so I’m going to put a half day holiday in and get there at the start or we will have no chance.
Plus side, I emailed and asked for an email statement from the teachers I didn’t get to see and the school were great in doing that but it’s nice to speak face to face.

The question is, what good would it do to meet all 12?! You’ll get a snapshot from a few. YABU if only for your own sanity. They’ll soon tell you if there’s a problem, and I’m guessing you get termly reports with a green, amber, red or similar indication.

My kids have gone through the system and are long gone out the other end. My advice would be to make separate appointments if you feel it absolutely necessary with the other teachers later in the term. I never really found parents evenings that informative and worked on the basis that if there was a problem it would be flagged up anyway.

We could fund schools properly for a start so you don't have so many classes to teach. Maybe you could even be paid to do marking and planning rather than being expected to take it home. Perhaps we could stop burning teachers out so more stay in the profession.

I personally think you should be able to speak to all the teachers. I’ve always been able to get slots and haven’t ever booked instantly. Was at year 11 parent’s evening last night and the feedback was really useful. I was on a waiting list for one subject but was fitted in. The parent’s evening was 3.5 hours long though, but the school is very big.

The alternative is being taught by non subject specialists. Which is far worse than teachers teaching more kids.

I fail to see the problem with me meeting more kids per week; and I actually don’t think it’s problematic that I don’t know my pupils as well as (far example) a primary teacher does. It’s high school.