Year 7 Parents Evening - Unavailable slots for core subjects

Working parents have holiday entitlement. Our parents evenings start during the working day. My dh has never missed a single one.Judging by the heaving hall we fight our way through other working parents don't have problems booking time off work either.

Like most parents I don't think the op gives a shit how it's organised so long as she gets to see her child's teacher. She isn't alone,having 3 children myself I know all the parents we are friendly with feel exactly the same. It's once a year and should be provided. She isn't expecting weekly feedback on her child,she isn't bothering her teachers re little Jimmys homework grades or complaints about teaching she simply wants to see her child's teacher once in an academic year.That is not helicopter parenting.

Re the op being laughed at and the child dreaded. I sit in a staff room every day( albeit briefly). Teachers do not sit and giggle about parents as that would be more than a little unprofessional and there isn't time.Most want a good working relationship with parents and will bend over backwards to accommodate it. The kids teachers dread ime are not those with parents who simply want a once a year parents evening appointment but those who are disruptive with parents who don't give a shit.

A reasonable alternative, perhaps, would be to hold them during the teachers' working day. Then they could make as many appointments as necessary and not be expected to give up their evenings.

Of course that wouldn't suit working parents like OP but who cares as long as she gets her appointment?

Also three minutes is insane

As i said up thread ours are 4 minutes

There are buzzers

I hate the buzzers

My older dcs are at 3 different grammars, we have experienced both paper and online systems. Pros and cons to both obviously.

A number of factors come into play - a major factor I would say, is how many of the year are taught by the same teachers. For DS2, there is massive duplication - most teachers have at least 60 students in the year so meeting every parent just wont happen. Last year I was late onto the online portal (due to being in A&E thanks to ds getting injured in a school rugby match...) and only managed 3 appointments out of 12 teachers, none of them core. I requested, and eventually received, online feedback.

Interestingly, oldest DS's school reverted to paper for his Yr11 parents evenings. Discussed this with a teacher who said that they prefer paper as they have more control over who they see and when they see them. If anyone specifically wants to see you, they'll arrange a booking.

You've mentioned your dc being disorganised, the teachers know the appointments are being negotiated and they generally do this in class. It's not up to the child to randomly approach them...

Children at grammar schools have problems adjusting to senior school life so I think you are a little off the mark in assuming that because it's a grammar there won't be academic issues.

User32243535 has already become 'THAT' parent. Headteachers try to fob them off, class teachers dread having the child in their class and everyone else giggles about the entitled helicopter parenting. It discourages teachers from going the extra mile, I feel sorry for the DC who will have to deal with the consequences. Lets hope they can escape their parents control before its to late.

Also three minutes is insane - introduce yourselves, sit down, say what, two sentences? And then on to the next one. Parents would quite rightly be pissed off.

Bonbon did you see where I wrote it would take 44 hours to see all the parents over the course of a year? Not sure how you work that out to be two evenings of three hours each!

This thread really needs a trigger warning for teachers

Must be end of half term exhaustion that has gotten me quite so annoyed reading it

I teach a core subject at a selective boys private school, I teach just over 70 yr7s.
Parents evening in this scenario is absolute hell. I start work at 7:20 having gotten up at 6am, I teach five hours of lessons plus tutor time on the day we usually have PEs on. I had a 15min break and then saw 36 sets of parents in 3hrs.
No chance of a wee, no drink of water, no respite and your body thinks it’s dinner time. Just three intensive hours of performing when already knackered. You run on pure adrenaline but you can’t afford to make a single gaffe or use the wrong name or appear not to be familiar with the progress and results of every single student.

Lots of people are being very patient with your busy bodying. In my opinion as someone who actually does these things I think you are asking for a moon on a stick.

Mistressiggi the answer to your question is, you could see all your pupil's parents for 3 minutes (the length of time our parents evening appointments were) in two three hour sessions (over two days perhaps). That doesn't sound ridiculously arduous to me (and as you say it's likely some wouldn't come anyway).

Our junior school teachers have parent appointments from 2.30 through to 7pm so not sure why our secondary school only offers 2 hours for the whole process.

Well, that is a bit crap @Xmas I agree! But if you then only have a potential 5-10 minutes to discuss it, still not helpful. Different issue.

I have read the thread, but not sure if I missed - how soon is parents Eve after receiving reports? At DD's school ( also y7) the online booking opened jus taffeta reports had been sent (by email). When I had got home, read the report, decided who we might need to see, 1hr 20 mins after opening, some sessions were fully booked. However, the 3 areas where DD feels she struggles ( also reflected in the report) were avian le, albeit spread out.

At my school ,we have similar but days between the reports and the booking opening. I only wish that parents of students who have amazing reports didn't book to see me. There are only so many ways of reiterating how g rest they are plus the improvement strategy that was on the report anyway. We do 3.30 till 8pm, it is exhausting after a full day of lessons. Nothing is reserved for any student, but I do phone and encourage if I see those I really need t one hAvent booked.

Oh, and I plan very quiet lessons for the following day as I nearly always get a croaky voice!

No, I don't feel like leading a campaign. I think Education is underfunded, but it is free, and I think schools do very well with their limited funds, and our school at least prioritises parents evenings and pupil interventions etc well to get the most bang for their buck.

I feel very lucky to have accidentally ended up in Hants with our, on the whole, very good comps.

OP please post the response to your email, I'm sure many of us would love to see how it goes.

Parents' evenings are a relic of the days before t'internet & day to day communication. Not a good use of anyone's time.
I really need parents evening, as the school absolutely refuse to put any exam results except GCSE and A level, in writing, ever. So all I have is my DDs vague view on how its going, and school reports that say homework is better/worse and the last exam was encouraging/ disappointing. Target grades at specified, but for one subject that is 2 grades lower than the teacher says she's heading for (also says he has no idea where they come from, and to ignore!).
Parents evenings are the only time they will hint at what results they're actually getting.

Well I agree re funding shimmer .

But I don't think this is about being grateful for scraps. The OP wants to change to a system that is more expensive and will advantage her (or him), but at the same time will disadvantage other parents. Who if anything are likely to be more deserving, not less.

The OP is already in a grammar school which I believe tends to have the effect of disadvantaging some of the kids in the non-grammar schools. This threads reads to me very much like she/her family must have priority even within that system.

Campaigning for more funding for all would solve the parents evening problem properly.

Well when you open the system is states HOY has booked you an appointment at X time - please amend to a more convenient time or see you at X time

You then book other appointments round it

So yes teachers can mark them as priority if they want to see certain parents

SO 36 appointments could be narrowed down to 10 free spaces

The thing is teen many people me included would be quite happy with paying more tax for better funded education. Teachers are massively overloaded and underpaid, but it doesn't mean that parents should be grateful for the scraps that they are thrown.

But the online system still doesn't solve the fact there aren't enough appointments. So a different set of parents will miss out.

The only way we could make this 'fair to all' as Toomany says, would be to fund education better so that teachers could teach fewer hours and thus fewer pupils. In that way they would have the time to do parents' evenings and meet all parents without overloading them.

So OP, you should go into politics under the 'raise taxes to make parents evenings fair' banner.

The school I worked out just operated a queueing system and didn't bother with appointments. So if you had 2 classes in a year group then the queue would be long and some people chose not to bother but everyone had the choice of waiting it out. It actually worked OK. Tbh the worst parents evenings were the ones where I had a single class once a week of the other subjects that I taught and no one bothered to come and see me. They felt twice as long as being busy.

www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/1437/regulation/6/made

Schools should be giving parents the chance to discuss their child's report once a year. Surely that doesn't mean put on an evening that by name infers every parent gets to discuss their child's subject reports but in reality only a few they pick do.

Parents' evenings are obsolete imo.

My students' parents email me if they need to talk to me. I email them if I need to talk to them.

If we can't sort out whatever it is by Email, we arrange a time for me to call them OR for them to come in for a proper meeting.

Parents' evening is a bun fight of 10 minute appointments - nice enough to put a face to the name, but if you actually have something to resolve, it's not an effective forum.

& I say that despite teaching in a private international school, where I have class sizes between 6 & 24, & we close the school for the day twice a year for each Key Stage, so I do actually have time to book everyone in!

Our system is online, & teachers get first access so I book my 'concern' students in before opening booking to parents.

Absolutely no chance of me seeing my own dc's teachers - they are pupils at my school. If I need to discuss anything, I arrange a stand alone meeting with the relevant person.

Parents' evenings are a relic of the days before t'internet & day to day communication. Not a good use of anyone's time.

How could teachers book priority appointments without knowing the availability of parents ?