Virtual parents evening

It’s also great if one of you is at work and the other has a small child

That was always tricky before

Totally brilliant. We've had them over schoolcloud which is the one with countdowns and automatic appointment making and it has worked so well. We've also had the child makes the appointment (or not) and the teacher calls on teams version and it was crap in comparison. One teacher never called - twice - one over ran our appointment and another was late to our appointment. Schoolcloud was bish bash bosh job done.

It’s really good I agree

Oh yes OP. Ours too was brilliant as you say. Last PE I was so angry as the teacher and parent before us sat chatting about golf despite the fact their time was over and I was sitting just right behind the parent and in the teacher’s view. I don’t like when the system allocates you appointments back to back because it meant there was no time to get from end of the building to the other and up and down stairs but because it was virtual, that wasn’t a problem at all.

Any over chatting just got cut off and the next one started. Brill!

Speaking as a teacher they are ideal. Parents book direct so there is no ‘but Johnny said my appointment was now’ nonsense. You can have a frank conversation without worrying another parent is listening in and it’s much easier to end a conversation online at the appointed time than it is in person.

Best thing is if the timings work out/it’s convenient for the teacher they can do it from home too (god bless the virtual background).

We don’t have automatic shut offs but even so they are one aspect of changed protocols that I really hope stay forever.

Yes, we've had these for both DCs secondary schools this year, much easier and less stressful, I liked the fact that it was private and quiet, the DCs liked it too (they sat in).

Yes ours was similar. 7 minutes with each teacher with a countdown clock showing how long was left. Much better than going in to school and leave all frazzled 2 hours later!

I agree. Ours wasn't quite as well organised as yours - there were ten days of stress trying to get the appointments lined up as different teachers were using 5 or 6 different methods to book or assign slots. There was no automatic cut-off after 5 minutes and some teachers did run late by a few minutes but compared to the nightmare of the crowds, noise levels and queues at a normal parents evening it was an utter delight. I did miss the cake though. There is normally really good cake.

I think it worked well, the timings have never gone better. But, it took our attendance down from 45% to about 30% and another year group from 50% to 40%. Which isn’t ideal. Did avoid the yearly punch up between two families though.!