Not enough time to see all the parents on parent's night?

Like an earlier poster said if you teach many classes you will never get to see all parents. I teach 5 year 7 classes, approx 135 children. If I spent 5 mins with the parents of each child, not taking into account separated parents who want separate appointments, that would be 11 and half hours without stopping to go to the toilet. We obviously don't have that much time for parents evening.

Dh did have to kick me a few times! Unusually, it was him who was in nice mode and me in "won't suffer fools at all gladly" mode

var123 - the one teacher we particularly wanted to see and to whom we had asked specific questions during the booking question not that he read them also arrived late - the only teacher to do so. All the other teachers were there early.

As his was our first appointment, unfortunately for him it meant that the headteacher knows he was late, as I'd had to go back to the entrance area to ask where he was - and the headteacher asked what the problem was.....

It's not acceptable but also not all parents go to parents evening so maybe it usually works?

My dd is in first year and maths and english were allocated to the children having difficulties. I was disappointed we didn't get a slot but at the same time it's reassuring to know they are getting on fine.

Could your school be the same?

Our appointments are 5 minutes long and last year some teachers had too many to fit in so double booked some - meaning a 2.5 minute appointment . Needless to say they ran late, and ended up with a 2 minute rushed appointment, 20 minutes after it should have been in a room so croweded with people waiting for their appointment they were more or less sitting on your lap.

Completely useless for actually discussing anything.

Would have thought that with 10 minute appointments, they COULD double book some, or just accept that they need to stay a little later.

Parents evenings are chaos ime.

We had appts at our recent one. But nothing runs to time, you end up queuing, etc.

We'd got there 15 mins early and actually managed to see some teachers early but then got later and later. Some teachers by the time we got to them had gone home!

Interestingly and frustratingly, for the one subject that I had written a comment raising an issue (on the super duper new online booking system), the teacher didn't appear to have read it

He justified the fact that the other class was a module and a half ahead of this class by saying "they all get to the same place anyway" and "I've never had a class with such a wide range of ability"

The words, "So you're teaching to the lowest common denominator" may have passed my lips

He denied that but admitted he was just teaching to the middle. Even when we asked what we could do to support him by giving ds extension work so that ds keeps his enthusiasm for the subject (he's complaining about being bored), he just complained that it was the first time he'd taken kids through Nat 4/Nat 5. Eventually he said he'd have a think about what extra books he could give ds and another boy who is also not being stretched.

It's light years away from the attitude of the other teachers or of the school as a whole . All the other teachers without exception talked about ds (and the respective classes as a whole) achieving "X" result but that they wanted to push them to achieve more, to make sure that they had solid foundations not just for the Nat 5s but for the Highers the year after.

Dh and I were so unimpressed that we raised it with the headteacher when she asked how the evening was going (we had a wee gap before the next appointment). She's going to get back to me to say whether she wants us to put it in writing. (I'd already mentioned my potential concern with her in a low key way before Christmas when I'd seen her at a school event).

I usually start early. Still won't see all 64 year 8s or all 96 year 7s!
Sorry I can't see everyone, I try my best. I'd like to think that if you as a parent had a big issue you would already have contacted me. Just as if there was a problem that I had you would already know.

Just back from ds' Parents' Evening: the 5 minute appointments worked well - although a couple of teachers were a bit talkative The school had meant to put up posters reminding people (both teachers and parents) to keep to the 5 minute slots (rather than have the bell going every 5 minutes) but forgot.

Interestingly, for the core subjects I noticed that some of them had started at 6.30 (rather than 7) to try and fit in all the appointments.

10 min apts sound a bit OTT to me. 5 mins is fine IME. And in fact if they were 5 mins that would solve it.

It's a common enough issue tho - last year I taught 5 out of the 8 year 7 groups so I had a pool of potentially 150 students to see with 30 5-min apts in 2.5 hours.

I ended up staying for 3 hours, being there 15 mins early as well and grabbing students as I saw them and had a couple of mins spare. Still there were people I didn't see - everyone doesn't come to p eves but usually at least 50% will show up and want to see you.

In the end I emailed or phoned all those who had wanted to see me but not been able to. Hopefully they were all happy - I don't honestly know what more I could have done.

10 minute appointments according to the OP choclover - general consensus on the thread is that that is excessive. 5 minutes is the norm.

Haven't read the whole thread but why has she only got 18 appointments? that is only an hour and a half assuming 5 minutes each.

I'd agree that the 10 mins appointment slots sound very long. Surely they could have 5 minute appointments and see everyone

At dd's parents evening it was more the speed-dating approach. All the teachers sit at desks around the hall, no appointments, you just queue up to see any given teacher (or try to nip in quick to the ones with no queue!).

I don't think we spent more than 5 mins absolute tops with any given teacher, and with most it was a 2 mins 'yes, everything's fine'. As prettybird says surely that is plenty of time for either teacher or parent to raise a serious concern, at which point it can then be taken further outside of parent's evening.

10 minute appointments seem excessive. Yes, some kids/parents might require that, but the 5minute appointments we get at ds' school are plenty.

If you need more than that, there are really more serious issues that should be discussed out with a Parents' Night.

If he has SEN can you not get an appointment with the SEN department? I found I got a lot more out of the hour we spent with dd's learning support teacher & her guidance teacher than through the 5 mins with the subject teachers. It also enabled the learning support team to feed information back to the subject teachers.

We don't have appointments at our either. we managed to see 14 out of the 15 teachers. Most you only need a couple of minutes with, and those you need longer with, other parents don't need as much and it all balances out. All done in 2.5 hours. We had appointments for the form tutor.

Had parents' evening last week - y7. No appointments here. We collected copy of progress report and room locations and went and queued to see individual teachers. Saw all but 4 in about 2 hours (splitting up for some).

Predictably queues greatest for Maths, English and Science.

Worked quite well I thought. Poor teachers looked very tired but were still engaging and seemed to actually know who DS was, so I was impressed.

I emailed the 4 I didn't get to in case they had anything to share.

Appointment system sounds pants!

This has happened to us as well OP. The teachers have always been happy to answer any questions by email for parents they have been unable to see.
Unfortunately it's not just a Y8 problem, we also had problems in Y9 which was even more annoying as dd was considering taking this subject for GCSE.
It's not usually the individual teachers fault though as they are not responsible for deciding the teaching groups or timetable.