Online booking for parents evenings?

Our school has standard parents evenings for everyone, then 'off-track' evenings (coinciding with another year group's standard evening) where you get summoned if DC are not on target in a particular subject.... thankfully have not had one of those invites yet!

I totally disagree DrNick.
I have 3 dc, eldest is in Yr 13, so have been to a LOT of parents evenings. One of my dc is actually one of those lovely girls that the teachers only ever have nice things to say about lets not talk about my other two for the moment but that is actually important both for her self esteem (they don't tell her these things daily in class, fortunately, as that would hardly make her very popular with her peers) and it's also an important opportunity for me to put faces to the teaching staff - which made a HUGE difference to me when I had to go in and talk about something upsetting - but also it give the opportunity to ask questions of them.

Oh, and I am a (Primary) teacher, so do understand the correlation between parents that never show up and parents who you think it would make a real difference if you could talk with them, but I don't think that then means that it is pointless for parents of dc who have a great attitude and are capable, likeable children.

once you have done a parents evening you realise how largely pointless it is for 80 % of the customers,

for the ones whose parents cba to come it would make SO much difference to have frank conversations
Its bizarre that in 50 odd years parents evening are the one thing that have barely changed in education

I cannot prioritise those but students who Parents I really want to speak to

Have I fundamentally got the wrong idea here then? My understanding is that it's called Parents nights as it's the opportunity for parents to see teachers to discuss how their child is doing - surely whether the teacher wants to see a particular child's parents is irrelevant for this event?

If a teacher wants to see a particular set of parents for some reason then surely they should be contacting them and making suitable arrangements?

We have a list of empty timeslots on the outside of the classroom door and a pen is left for parents to choose the time inwhich they would like. Normally works out really well.

Online booking is all very well and good for most but can't be good for those that do not have internet access

We have online booking, it is good in many respects but I do worry that it favours the organised/middle class sah parent over others due to booking opening at 9 am on particular days, and it does not allow me to mAke extra appointments eg I may teach more students of a particular year than there are slots. Under the old paper system I would double book them, squeeze them and speak to all. No option for that online, and I cannot prioritise those but students who Parents I really want to speak to

He will have to narrow down 11 subjects to 7 soon, it would be could to have a third parties view on whether the ones he is thinking of taking forward are the ones he should be.

I still don't think it's fair if only parents of children who are struggling /misbehaving get access to see teachers on parents night. My oh and I both work full time, we don't live local to the school, the kids do a lot of activities. Our preference would be to clear one evening and see as many teachers as possible. The school reports we get are only a tick box based on effort, so don't really give any specific information. For example, I know my son is working hard in class, he tells me he finds it too easy, I'd like to know what the teacher thinks.

The other thing is that 5 minutes is more than enough for a pupil doing well, other parents may need longer. If the whole parents night is only with those parents, it will invariably last longer and run late.

I also don't see the problem with asking an experienced teacher why the subject doesn't seem to be grabbing an able pupil. I'm not saying it's her fault, it is more than likely the curriculum so it would be good to know if there was anything we could do to help.

..slendergirl I do think it is fair

just ask the teacher - email, phone... at a time that is convenient rather than have to up sticks for a whole evening of stress going round teachers who may (in our case certainly) spend 2 min saying "all going well, puts in effort required" next please

["I'd like to hear from the teachers pov how she engages the class in what should be an interesting topic" that sort of comment makes me "itch" - and I'm not a teacher....]

Dr nick, I don't think that is fair. I'd like to know how my child is doing socially and academically as well as knowing that he behaves and works hard which is all the report tells me. He will be choosing his subjects next year, we'd all like to know now what his prospects in those are. He has one subject that he hates although still seems to do well in. I'd like to hear from the teachers pov how she engages the class in what should be an interesting topic

DrNick - there are several online systems - we use this one at the junior school I work at.

This is the second year we've used it and the parents and teachers like it a lot. Teachers can see the appointments and can indicate if there are pupils they particularly want to see. For anyone who can't get online the office staff will make the appointments. When we started it, we thought of making a computer available in the reception area so they could do it themselves, but there aren't very many so it's always been easier for the secretary to do it for them.

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a way of stopping parents overrunning, but last year one of our teachers had a look at the appointments early on and blocked out the session after one of the worst offenders so no-one would book it! (Only works if you have more sessions than pupils, and can get there in time though!)

Our system goes live at 12 noon a couple of weeks before the evenings, with a link on our website page, which is timed to appear at 12. The system always seems to cope well with multiple logins, though we have had parents who sit waiting for it to open and then forget to refresh the webpage and ring to complain that the link hasn't appeared (even though it's explained in the instruction letter)

Teachers should prioritise kids IMO. No point seeing the good ones

I think I'd like to try an on line system. My son got his sheet to get appointments on Wednesday. They were told not to use them until Thursday. He had English 3rd period and by then all appointments were gone! no-one in his class got one. Then there were none for science, social, French..... ended up complaining as seeing only maths and tech was not on. English teacher had 28 slots and 2 classes of 30 kids, how they ever thought thas was going to work I don't know!

Online booking at ds2's school. Only problem was slots disappeared quickly as soon as it went live. I work from home on the computer so had no problem booking to see the teachers we needed to see but some missed out. Year 7 though - people may be less keen in later years?

Sounds like a brilliant idea to me, having gone through some seventh circle of hell parents' evening experience recently.

Is there an app that makes the parents who just keep talking despite the growing queue behind them and despite the fact their 5 minutes ran out 20 minutes ago suffer some hideous misfortune?

Dwe the issue of the uninterested parents and parents evening has been there for years

What web programme is if?

OMG that sounds amazing. Does online booking exist ?

people gradually get to realise that all the parents evening stuff does not matter one jot at a decent school - because the tutor or individual teacher will get in touch if there is a problem (or if there is a fab piece of work etc).

The only time you need to worry is when the teachers are ASKING YOU to attend....

Haven't had experience with on-line booking. I'd quite like it, but would have worries for people without easy access to log in.

My ds's school have always had the 'all sit in the hall and you queue for who you want to see' way, and I find it MUCH better than my dd's school where they get appts in advance.
My dd is actually very organised and also quite happy for me to see everyone, so gets most appts (although does have to really chase some teachers) but if my son had had this system it would have meant we got 2 appts with teachers he got on with, and nothing else booked!
At the ones where there are time slots though, it only takes 1 teacher early on to be running late, and it throws all the rest of the appts - no-one knows if they are supposed to hold their ground there and turn up late for the next one, or go to the next one on time then have missed the one they were waiting for, etc.
Give me the free for all in the hall any day of the week.

We have an online system for all 3 of mine.

Primary school. Works very well as you are only booking 1 teacher.

Secondary school worked very well for dtd1 as I booked early, got appointments with all of her teachers. It was very nice to be in control.

Dtd2 I was a bit late booking appointments, so trying to get well spaced appointments was hard, and I had to miss some.

I love it (but will book straight away next time). I do, however acknowledge negatives, the biggest one being lack of internet access.

Ours has a form for the kids - they fetch it home - you tell the kids roughly who you want to see and a general time you are attending in the evening, they go round the teachers you want to see and the teacher fills in any time slot that is free within your available time...

works well.

seeing or not seeing any particular teacher on the night is not the be all and end all - they have email and telephones, and are happy to use them...

In DS's school they have an appointment system which the DC are supposed to book. But no-one ever seems to stick to this.I don't think an online system would make any difference.

The staff are all either in the hall or drama studio, and staff encourage parents to jump in if they are free, and you are waiting for someone else! We have never seen the teachers in the order of our appointments

One thing I have noticed is that parent's evenings tend to thin out over the years. Year 7 is packed, but by Y11 only half the parents seem to be there.

'Conclude' not con life