Online parents evenings

@McFuckSake the school I work in uses class charts too. It’s a great tool and is widely used by everyone. If parents check class charts regularly there really shouldn’t be any surprises at parents evening.

Did DD's parents evening last night. Online, which was a relief as I currently have covid. The booking system allows you to leave a note that the teacher sees beforehand if there are any specific issues or questions which was helpful.

Had one technical mishap where a teacher accidentally disconnected herself at the start of the call and didn't get back on until 40 seconds before the end. She's going to call me next week to give an update on DDs's progress.

Personally I believe you loose alot when the student isnt involved in the conversation.

Loose alot?! Teacher of what exactly?!

And why can’t the students be on the video call? Phone calls are not the same as online parents evening.

I'm a teacher and I hate the online appointments. My 5mins starts counting down as soon as the phone starts ringing so it's not even 5mins mins. Still lots of no shows. If I was in the hall another student would be able to take that slot. Personally I believe you loose alot when the student isnt involved in the conversation. Cant wait to get back in the hall

Does your secondary school not use a type of system where you can log in and see info for every subject on behaviour, punctuality, having correct equipment etc?

Dds school use something called classcharts, I know other local schools use it too.

Teachers feed information into the EHCP review though. I write a few lines for every student I teach with one twice a year.

I'm not really sure what else you're after? A longer appointment isn't appropriate face to face.

I’m a teacher and I much prefer online. I know the order so can have everything I need organised. Plus there’s no over running. F2F was very badly organised in my school, parents didn’t keep to appointments and those that didn’t have one queued up anyway. Teachers would regularly have queues of parents still waiting after the finish time because of this and we had to stay. We have an online system where teachers can log things like poor behaviour, non-completion of homework so parents would already be aware. We also send data reports too so parents know if their child is on track. 3-4 minutes is enough in the vast majority of cases.

@mightyducks for the sort of overview you are looking for, I would contact the form tutor and/or Head of Year who can gather this information on your behalf. This could be as simple as looking on his progress and behaviour records, or emailing his teachers for comment and then feeding back to you. You can do this at any point in the year. I have done it many times for the students I teach.

My ds had SEND and I've always emailed SENco, Form Tutor or Head of Year about anything other than the routine 'how's he doing?'

Or email teachers directly and ask to speak on the phone outside of parents evening.

I bloody love online parents evening. No loud, crowded hall, waiting for 20 mins while the previous parents overrun and leaving early because it's just all Too Much.

I'm with you op. I much prefer f2f parents' evenings. I fear these are here to stay though.

I loved the online version last year but tech problems meant that our most recent one this week was a bit of a disaster. F2f would be my preferred option even if still only 5 min per teacher.

We have found that attendance is much better on on-line parents evenings, no having to go out in the dark, rain, find a parking space, baby sitters etc. Plus I am warm, the heating goes off in the evening at school.

Utterly love them! One of the best things ever - no getting stuck behind the parent who wants to yak on beyond their appointed time. Easy to arrange follow up calls if you really do need a longer slot.

No travelling, no schelpping round playing 'hunt the teacher' across several rooms.

Have you actually been to an in person secondary school parents evening @mightyducks? There is no way you can get to see 14 teachers. You target the ones you need to see for whatever reason.

In person I've managed at most 4-5 appointments per child. The child had to make the appointments themselves which didn't help. One time I only had 2 appointments as that's all the child could get and they were 90 mins apart One child would only ever make appointments with teachers who had something positive to say... These last 2 years I've got to speak to all of their teachers for the first time ever. Without having to leave the queue for maths because some parent is wibbling on 15 minutes after their time was up, and i had to be at English for that appointment, and I was already late because someone cut in front in Spanish.

Online is fantastic. Gone are the queues and rushing from room to room, desk to desk, checking my watch and then not really ever knowing when to end, sense of unease the whole way through.

At least with online you can see the counter going down and you know how long you've got. All done and dusted within an hour. Perfect.

I prefer it to traipsing about the school I just email if I need to ask more and they’ll call me back if needed

As a teacher and parent, I too prefer the new online system. But what I don't like is that we are limited to 6 teachers maximum. So like the OP, my dd1 has at least 14 teachers and we have to narrow that right down to less than half. For 5 minutes each, I would like to see more than 6 teachers!

They are so much better. Our teachers were available from 2:30 until 7pm and you still didn't get to see every teacher.

Glad they are here to stay, get to speak with all teachers, face to face is frustrating, appts never on time because appts overrun, becomes a bit of a bun fight to get your time.

How long do you actually want with each teacher when you are seeing 14 teachers? And how long do you want the other children in the class parents to have?