Parents evening, should I complain about this teacher

How do they find Bristol, as a matter of interest? Considering it for DD.

If you were asking if he needed further maths for Uni, and she replied that you could do maths at Bristol without it (giving her DC as an example) - the you got an answer?

Well it sounds like she didn't communicate effectively for whatever reason and that you don't want to let it go, OP, so you probably should go ahead and email the HOY. Perhaps with the specifics you will sound reasonable - it's quite hard to tell from the information given here but I'm sure the HOY will get the situation resolved.

What was the question?

It sounds like either she's used an illustration to explain a point, but it's not been very effective or your take away has been about her mentioning her child rather than the answer she has given 3 times (which may well be that something isn't needed / don't need to worry about XYZ).

You will just make yourself look stupid if you complain to the HOY.

You should have redirected the conversation at the time if there were things that you wanted to ask. It would have been easy enough to say "sorry to interrupt but I'm aware that time is limited and there were a couple of questions that I wanted to ask".

As you missed that opportunity, you could email your questions to the teacher instead, or ask for a follow-up conversation. But emailing the HOY to complain about the teacher making polite conversation while you didn't engage properly by asking any questions... you will just look ridiculous!

They wouldn't though. When you only have 5 minutes if someone goes off on a tangent you redirect politely. "Sorry to interrupt but we only have 5 minutes so can we get back to talking about Jeremy please?" would work.
It's not rude, it is practical.

Anyway what's done is done. Email the teacher and ask for a call as you have some more questions to ask .

I’d be narked and tempted as a result to complain because teachers should know that the purpose of parents’ evenings aren’t to talk about their own children or to talk over the parents when they’re trying to steer the conversation back on track. I’ve been to many parents’s evenings since 2002 and all managed to stick to the purpose of the meeting. However, I’d give her the opportunity to rectify it and ask for a further meeting to discuss your child as the conversation went off track and you have some outstanding questions as a result.

Think I would have been tempted to sit tight at the end of appointment and say ' that's great about your kid, lovely to hear, now what about 'Josh', what areas....? ..made her answer...

You say what she was saying was irrelevant to your child. Are you sure your child hadn't already spoke with her and she thought was she was saying was actually relevant? Perhaps he had indicated an interest in her child's course and uni so she was under the impression what she was saying was relevant and useful.

This. No point going over her head. Just send a request to the HOY if you have their details asking to be provided contact details or to contact you on these questions... if you wish make a joke of "I feel I learnt more about your children than my own".

The only way you’ll find out how your child is doing, is to ask her. If you complain to her line manager, he or she will speak to the teacher and ask them to contact you.

You were sat right with her, why did you not ask her?

I don't have her direct email. Frankly I don't want to continue the conversation with her as I didn't get anywhere

So you want answers to your question and information about your child's progress but don't want to discuss this with the person who can give you this information?

Either your questions aren't that important or you're just looking to let off steam to someone else in school rather than get a resolution.

5 minutes is not enough. I would complain about that generally.

Please do not discourage the teacher. Maths teachers are not easy to find - it may be the last straw. At least he has a teacher! Can you think why she told you about her kids. There must have been a reason. Maybe she was saying her kids were in a similar position to your son but they did OK and you don't need to worry.

If you are worried about your son, you could ask for appointment with the head of maths for his key stage as they will be knowledgeable.

At the other end of the spectrum I had a 25 minute appointment the other day (supposed to be 15) with a 'chatty mum'. I didn't get a chance to tell her anything about her son, she was too busy telling ME about him!

Is she the only teacher your child has for this subject? A secondary school teacher in a core subject might be teaching 200 different students and if Parents' Evening is in the autumn term and it's the first year that child has been in that teacher's class they might not know them very well - especially if Year 7 or 8 as teachers will prioritise exam classes out of necessity. If it's a split class with two teachers, that's exacerbated further. But they should bring some data with them and be able to tell you your child's target grade and what they're working at right now. If the student is in Year 11 and has done mocks or has them coming up, they should have much more information and specific instructions on areas to work on and revision expectations.

End of term reports will be coming out soon that should state the target grade and current working at grade along with effort and attendance though unlikely to include a personal comment. So it depends on what you want to know.

You need to email the teacher or the head of the subject to ask for the information that you need.

I'm mystified as to why you couldn't simply say. 'Can I just ask a few questions...'

It can be hard to 'read the room' at Parents' Evening. Some parents are very detail oriented whereas others like to know that their child is settled and making progress etc - some teachers can fill the 'space' with chat.

I wouldn't complain.

No don't complain! Just ask for another chat - send an email with the questions you want answering. It's hard interrupting people especially when bound by time. But these things happen so just send an email.

There's nothing to complain about? You listened politely as she talked.

If you still have questions then you email her/your ds's form teacher.

Each appointment is there for you to guide - she may have thought her examples were relevant to you. if you disagreed then you should have interrupted her.

Then just email the school admin address with FAO chatty teacher, in the headline. Say you came away not sure of the answer to some questions, here they are, could she drop you an email or give you a ring to discuss them. You don't need to complain ffs.

Ask you son for her email.

Why email the hoy rather than the teacher directly if not to complain?

Why didn’t you stop them at the appointment and insist you only discussed your child?