Do I have a legal right to see teachers at parents' evening?

I know this isn't AIBU, but clearly you have decided the school are in the wrong and you are in the right, as you are not listening to or taking on perfectly valid points made by others.

Twoterrors, your second paragraph is absolutely bob on, really made me laugh. I always feel so sorry for whoever has the misfortune to see me last - the conversation goes something like this:

Me: So. I'm pleased with the progress she's making, although attendance continues to be a concern.
Parent: But she's only had one day off! That was last year!
Me: Ah. Yes. Sorry about that! So... I'm pleased with the progress she's making! Keep it up! Bye!

parents evening IMO are hte biggest waste of a teachers time.

so inefficient - pointless - what has EVER changed long term from a parent's evening?

try going in another day - youd get better service anyway tbh

Excellent post by twoterrors.
It is a bit frustrating when you first get to secondary, and your child has moved from an environment when you see the class teacher and everyone is known to you to a big new place where you don't know any of the teachers' faces, and you feel a bit 'lost' in terms of knowing what's going on - I remember it well. However as others have pointed out, it's a logistical nightmare. There are only so many hours in the day. I know when dd started and the English teacher taught more Yr7s than there were slots, she made it clear to all the girls that she would prioritise who she saw, and if you weren't prioritised, then you were doing very well and she wasn't at all concerned about your attainment, effort, behaviour or anything. I thought - fair enough! - although would like to have been able to put a face to her name, I thought that was a sensible way of dealing with th problem.
I also put it to the school, that maybe it could be something taken into account when allocating classes on the timetable, that almost all parents of Yr7s are likely to want to see at least the teachers of the core subjects, so, where possible (and I know there might be reasons when it's not) the school should look at not giving one teacher more than 2 sets in any one year group - particularly Yr7.
The whole "legal right" and "Phone the HT" stuff is just going to alienate the school, when you would do your dc a lot more good, by working with them.
If you have any concerns then phone or e-mail that subject teacher, don't wait until parents evening, and, if they have concerns, then I'm sure they will contact you too.

The 'it's only once a year' comment makes me cross. Are people really so arrogant and self absorbed that they forget there are other year groups?

If you count all 5 year groups, plus 6th form, plus year 7 'settling in' consultations, year 6 transition evening, 3 commendation evenings, open evening, careers evening and a 6th form presentation evening, that's 14 evenings in a year that an average teacher won't finish work before 8.30ish. This does not take into account those teachers who are involved in sports, music concerts, drama productions etc. It doesn't count revision classes(often in the holidays) or after school clubs. Trips to the theatre, university trips, charity events.

OP, I'm sure any teacher would be happy to speak to you on the phone or meet you on another day if you feel the need. But expecting them to put on a whole other evening just for you is ludicrous!

I can be lovely on the phone too!

I'd have thought a phone call would be better that a parents evening slot anyway as I wouldn't be so mindful of the time. Or quite so harrassed.

I don't think there is a legal requirement to hold a parents evening with subject teachers anyway, as I think some schools have switched to tutor appointments only.

Well, it's like this. If my child comes home and says noblegiraffe is always mean and nasty then if I have met you face to face I can either say 'I don't believe you, she's lovely' or 'Yes, I agree, she's a right witch'.

I'm not sure you are coming over as massively supportive to be honest...

But concentrating on the issue at hand - if you haven't been able to see the teachers you wish to see, surely a polite letter asking for an alternative time for that teacher would be the way to go? I've seen parents on different dates to the parents evening, on another year group's parents evenings, at lunchtimes - whatever we can fit in. And if you have concerns about your DS I'm sure they will make it a priority.

If the school find, through their new system, that there are regularly more parents wanting appointments than can be managed, they may look at ways to deal with that - I know a school that closes at lunch so their parents 'evening' can run for longer. How long are the slots you get to book?

Some teachers will teach 100 kids in a year group. It would be impossible to see all of them in the time allocated, and it would be unfair (and difficult given contracted hours to work) to expect those teachers to work extra evenings over those who only teach 30 in a year group.

I didn't realise that some parents are so desperate to see my face that a phone call simply wouldn't do.

Teachers are contracted to do one Parents' Evening per year per year group, for a designated number of hours.

If I taught your child & he/she wasn't making progress, I would already have emailed you to make sure you had an appointment, tbh.

Computerised booking system sounds fab. I usually get kids brandishing dog-eared bits of paper at me. In fact, most recent letter from dds' school doesn't actually indicate which dd it applies to...

Legal right . Yeah, get a solicitor onto it. Parents' Evening would become Parents' Evening, Night and Dawn the Next Day if every parent saw every teacher. Ok, it would be nice (I suppose) to see each teacher but not logistically possible. Some of ours say don't book me unless you have a problem. They are always available to email which I think is fair enough.

Phoning and emailing wouldnt work if you had to do it for each parent, because you'd have to give each teacher a dedicated work station with either a pc or a phone. They will usually do phone calls or emails to be helpful, though: but I assume could not sit down and ring up every parent, though one parent who has asked for and is expecting the call would be different.

Do you want to see every subject? All the arty ones and PE and everything? Ive never known anybody do that (am a parent, not a teacher).

I think it's your son you should be getting annoyed with, he was the one who gave you the letter late

You surely don't expect to see EVERY teacher do you? Often a teacher might teach 2 or 3 forms within the same year that could be up to 90 sets of parents!!

If you want a 2 way discussion then you could always reply to the email from the teacher.
Or ask them to phone you?

Computerised booking sounds shit. As does a parents evening where every slot is filled. Poor teachers.

Drip drip.

So the issue is really some problems with the computer system?

Lots of teachers on here today
My comment about ringing the head was flippant, but it really annoys me how bad schools can be at communicating with parents. Failing to return a call is at best poor practice and at worst downright rude.
I also think that seeing the teacher once a year is not too much to ask. And if the poor lambs find it too tiring all in one night they should hold more than one session.

'Once a year'.... for each year group, plus Open Evenings, Concerts, Award Evenings.....................

They do stay late: they stay for hours and hours, the poor sods! I imagine they will email you after the parents evening.

Schools know not everyone wants to see every teacher: for example, I've never been to see PE or art.... So they don't create slots for each teacher to see each child, I would think.

Everything twoterrors said. And tell your ds to give you notes on time in future!

Thank you twoterrors - your second paragraph summarised very nicely!