to think that this Parents Evening needs an alternative?

I hope you checked all your correspondence from the school since ten started and/or checked with other parents that you didn't miss earlier notice of the parents evening, before you pressed send!

Yes. And I speak as a teacher. I taught for four decades and every parent's evening I ever attended, went on until at least 8pm. Likewise every parent's evening I attended as a parent. It's part of the job, and not the end of the world.

It's that sort of comment that really winds up other professionals who have to work long hours.

I taught secondary for 20 years and I am very surprised at the short notice. In my experience parents evenings, dates and times, were in the school calender at the start of the academic year. One school I worked in tried the idea of a parents day so appointments were available from 9am until 7 pm. This was in response to feedback from parents .It was tried for two years and then abandoned as everyone and I do mean everyone still wanted evening appointments.

If they're not capable of understanding grades then what support are they able to provide even with guidance?
Anyway there's no reason why there couldn't be subject teacher parents afternoons too, would just have to spread out over more days, the main thing is it doesn't mean teachers working extra hours and with many days to choose from its easier for parents to book time off too (obviously not guaranteed for every parent but parents evenings aren't guaranteed for every parent either as plenty of parents work shifts), its just not something that happens where I am because its not something that anyone has felt a need for.

I feel your pain I have 2 in secondary and Ive hardly made any over the years!

Ours is the same they open a booking system a week before where you book in with your child’s teachers but again it’s first come first served for one evening only - me and my husband both work for the ambulance service and annual leave needs 28 days minimum notice and we cannot leave early on a shift etc for obvious reasons i,e a patient on the back of the ambulance!

It’s unusual to call it so late, usually it’s on teachers’ directed time calendar and that’s published before end of summer term for following academic year. It’s unusual for a school to be that disorganised. What OP could do is contact year or pastoral office and ask them to ask teachers to email a few comments. Which is a pain in the arse for the but they’ll do it I’m sure.

How do other schools do it? Certainly mine have always had bookings 4.30 - 8pm. I have always had parents evening after 6.30 for both my children.

But not until 7 or 8 pm. If school finishes at 3.30, then a 7pm finish would count as 3.5 hours directed time. Let's assume a teacher teaches 5 different year groups, that's 17.5 hours directed time. An 8pm finish moves it to 22.5 hours directed time.

Your right, if they are not capable of understanding the grades then they won’t be able to provide support without guidance from the teachers at a parents evening….

DD doesn't need to know, join yourself online either from your car or a meeting room after work.

If you get in fast enough the computer system will give you the appointments back to back ours are 4min 55sec. So 5sec from one to the next.

yes. It only happens a few nights a year. It is part of the job. As part of my job I sometimes have to do evening events.

And if my child didn't do well I'd be able to see those results and contact the teacher and wouldn't need to wait until parents evening to find this out. If a parent isn't capable of understanding test results (no interpretation needed, the results are clear number grades, or x out of y) then are they going to be capable of supporting their child after parents evening either?

That is strange. My kids it is always fun from 4.30 until 8.30. When I last did it I had all my appointments in the 6.45 to 7.45 period. All remote as well. Your school seems very odd having such a narrow timescale during working hours.

Because it's totally reasonable to expect staff to work until 7 or 8pm?

So says someone whose child has done ok, whose child is engaged and communicates well, and who is themselves capable of understanding and interpreting the test results and supporting their child…

Presumably parents know their own children so they can judge from test results if their child is doing as they should or not. For instance on one occasion DD did badly, for her, on a science test, I saw the grade and knew she could do better and talked to her about studying and her grades improved. On another occasion she got a really bad grade on a physics test, again I saw it on the app and was concerned but DD got to the bottom of it and found it was teacher error which her teacher corrected. Finding out about those at parents evening would have been a bit too late really.

Sounds really good, lots of information for parents to know how their children are doing. If they had a parents evening with subject teachers here I'd go because it would be useful and informative but I don't find it necessary as there's so much communication from the school already and if I was worried I know I could message the relevant teacher on the school app.

Teachers are very careful about what goes in report cards because they are in writing and get seen by their line managers. They are often more truthful in parents evenings and then you can ask meaningful questions about support.

I wonder if some pp don’t see the value of parents evenings because their dc has done well in school so cannot understand why they may be important to others.

Should a parent worry if their child get a 7? What about a 3? Results mean nothing without context. I have DC for whom a 7 would have been a cause for concern, and another for whom a 3 would have been a cause for celebration.

I have done parents evening in a car park and on the train before, they don’t really care! You also don’t have to meet with every single teacher, just select core subjects.

Yes, we have those and I agree, completely rubbish, pupil performance data is an abstraction, PE are crucial to understand the human in the classroom and subtle observations by the teacher that a parent can support them on.

Unpopular opinion... but have you any issues?
Are the issues the same with every subject?
Is there a chosen career path?

DDs now 24 and 25 had no issues all the way through school, 7+ for every subject, behaviour decent, so we chose a few subjects if the timing was convenient - didnt go at all to 2 evenings as timings were impossible with work- one was wanting a STEM career, so sciences and Maths. Other, arts and English.

Kids liked being told they were model students for a couple of years, but by Y9 they were fed up and didn't want to go, just to be told, "doing well, wish I had a class full like them, needs to put their hand up more, thank you and goodbye..."

You are allowed to not go if it is difficult. (And in your position, would email the head to ask that they give more notice).

why are you quoting the OP?? It’s right above your post. Everyone knows what you’re replying to. Can you imagine if every single person commenting quoted the OP itself?