Parents Evening Bookings

At my DD’s school, they still have to go around and make appointments with each teacher (sharpening their elbows for future parenthood).

They do back-to-back five minute appointments and it seems to work well enough.

KS3 in and out in 90 minutes, KS4 one hour, and sixth form 30 minutes.

DD's school is pretty painless tbh. We get an email saying booking is open. I log on. Click on the teachers I want to see. DD is Yr9 and just picked her options so I've only asked to see those teachers (6 in total) I would have liked to have seen all 3 science teachers but we only get offered 1 name. I have opted to leave 5 mins in between and learnt from last year that certain subjects seem to be in 1 room and other subjects grouped together in another, so I've picked them in order where I "think" they will be. I have left her form teacher who teaches History till last in case there are any problems flagged up or I have any further questions. DD is a good student who always works hard etc so 5 mins is generally enough time. I was impressed with last years Parents Evening as it ran very smoothly, not much waiting time and every teacher gave her something to work on, I didnt' just hear the same old doing really well, working very hard no problems and that's it. It was refreshing to hear how she could do even better if ...

My DC's school sets all the appointments for you, and they are often back to back in different parts of the school. I am in my 9th year of them now and just tend to treat them as an order to go round in.

The year it was hardest was when DD was at a school activity and couldn't accompany me. The teacher's tend to look out for the next student on their list, so I was overlooked a couple of times.

I believe if your child is on SEN support, you’re entitled to termly meetings - this is a statutory requirement under the children and families act 2014. Re: EHCPs, you may be entitled but think you’re not eligible because of pushback from school. I took my dds case to tribunal for an EHCP. Around 80% of cases fall in the parent’s favour as LA’s have acted unlawfully. If your child is on SEN support, you should be aware of the extra support your child is entitled to and if they are meeting their outcomes.

Ah, our school use something different.

Only if you have statement or echp, imip and most SEN children do not get an echp. My DS gets really good support for his SEN but we don’t get contact outside of parents evening and we tend to hear about the support via individual teachers at parents evening. We can email or phone school if we have concerns but they certainly would not arrange a regular review as a matter of course just because he has SEN. I’m not saying this is ideal as some of the support has involved quite big decisions eg. he has dropped 2 subjects without us finding out until we asked DS why he doesn’t have those subjects in his timetable....

If you’re child is on SEN support or EHCP, I’m sure you should be getting a separate SEN review termly?

This is all very civilised sounding but I’d have a back up plan for the possibility that they make appointments but don’t actually stick to them - your only hope at my dcs school is to turn up at the very start and queue for the teachers you particularly want to see.

I wouldn’t worry in 18 years of teaching st secondary I have yet to see everyone at the correct time. Some teachers will teach so many kids it’s imposdible to see everyone.

The people who do them back to back - do you realise that you are part of the reason that the teachers can’t keep to time? I leave 10 mins between appointments & this seems to work. Especially as they aren’t usually all in the same room.

It's only in the last couple of years our school has done it. It's a website they use, not their own software. Works pretty well, only issue is that you have to get in pretty quickly once the website is opened for making appointments or you get stuck with appointments with huge gaps between.

Software? I wish . Dd has a list of times on a bit of paper and has to arrange a time slot with the teacher. We couldn't get a slot with some last year

Doesn't the software do it for you? At my kids' school you log in, tick the teachers you want to see, tell the website your availability (5.30pm to 7pm) or something, and it generates them all automatically.

I do them back to back because at my dc's school they create an order for teachers to see parents but they don't actually mean you'll see the teacher at that time. It's a bit like a doctor's appointment in that it just says who'll be called next from the waiting room.

My dds' school had the teachers spread out around the school. You do have a better chance if you live bigger gaps, but, tbh, you get to know which departments are rubbish, and always running late, and book them in first if you can.... it's all very strategical.
I'm also fortunate that I can take time out of work, so get there for the first appts at 3.30 (in their school) when quite a lot of other paretns can't make it, so it isn't so bad.
It does take hours though.
The difficulty is, when one appt is running behind, knowing if you should wait there, or go to the next one and hope to get slotted in later with the one you miss.

ds's school was much better - all sat in the hall and you just queued (or I sent dh to queue, say for English whilst I saw PE and Art, then I joined him for the English appt and we'd start the system over again with, say, maths.

Ds' school's booking system allocates 5 minutes slots and doesn't allow bookings less than 10 minutes apart.

It works well in principle but in practice there can be problems if teachers and/or parents don't stick to the 5 minute slots or let other parents jump in ahead of you

Ours has an automated online system where you say the time span you want and who you want to see. Works fine. I just checked and it leaves 4 minutes between appointments.

Ds school do it like speed dating

You click which teachers you want to see, you get your slot, gap, slot etc. Then they have a computer system that counts down and the bell rings, everyone gets up, swaps with next person and has the gal to find the next teacher!

Everyone is in the hall so no traipsing around the school!

Ours automatically give a 5 min gap between appointments though when you get there it's a free for all and you jump in when you can!

Just come back from a Parents evening. We had to queue for each teacher and no allocated slots. And everyone in the dining hall, so incredibly noisy and crowded. Its a bloody nightmare. Be grateful you can book your slot. And 5 minutes in between should be fine.

Our online booking systems automatically give you a 5 minute gap (also 5 minute appts). This has always been fine, even with ds's school which have teachers scattered all over the place.