State secondary parent evenings - what does your school do?

10 appointments, going down to 7 in Year 10.
Online, 5 minutes per teacher.
First-come, first-served for booking appointments.
I think it will be in person in Year 11.

Speed dating online - absolute max of 4.5 minute appointments but usually the teacher is late anyway and if the teacher isn't organised its a complete waste of time - often they haven't looked at his book recently, some I don't think could identify him at all.

Only once a year, reports twice but very brief and they operate a stupid system where they only tell you if student is 'on track' or not. This target is based on their SATS/CATS even for things like art or history and doesn't include any assessment of their written English.

The reporting and parents evenings are a waste of time if your kid is actually struggling. They are just designed for parents of children who are doing fine to say well done, all targets met, very well behaved. Anything more than that and you run out of time.

I do sympathise with teachers doing them as I was a teacher and would usually lose my voice after these events, and they always went on longer than advertised and some parents had to be told very firmly to leave. But, still, if it doesn't actually achieve anything, why waste everyone's time?

Kids get a bit of paper with all
of the time slots on (3.30 - 6.30 I think). They are supposed to make appointments with all of their teachers.

Appointments are supposed to be 5 minutes long but some are quicker and others take longer.

In reality you just turn up as soon as you can and queue to see the teachers that you want to see. Getting there are close to the start as possible means you’re in for an easier ride! I take a couple of hours of lieu time and get there as close to 3.30 as I can. It works for us as I work pretty close to school.

Teachers are spread out around a few different rooms and have name labels on their tables but they’re quite hard to see. The first couple that I went to were quite overwhelming and I was glad to have DS with me. Now I can find my way around and know their teachers I can wing it by myself!

All subjects, online, 5 min appointments.
I've never had a problem booking appointments, but the Year group WhatsApp has always got the same parents moaning a coupe of days before the event that they can't get appointments.

I much prefer online, pre-Covid it used to be in person and was a nightmare trying to get round everyone.

• How many appointments you can book,
6

• How long the appointments are
5 min

• Is it online / in person / hybrid?
They do one week of f2f, one week online
Not all teachers do both, although most do

• Is it after school or during the school day?
First appt 4pm, last appt 6.55pm

• If you're in touch with other parents, are they generally happy with it?
Yes, there was a parent vote a couple of years ago about whether to keep it online or return to f2f., it was so evenly split they decided to keep both, but slightly shorter evenings (they used to start at 3.30 pm and run to 7.30).

Very large (almost 4,000 students) state school here.

Book as many appointments as you like, online booking system

5 minutes long, you must leave a 5 minute slot between each appointment to walk to the next one

In person

Range of times available - on appointment day, school closes at about 1.30pm or 2.00pm (instead of usual 3.20pm) for appointments to start, so you can book anytime from then up to about 8.00pm or whatever time it finishes (although not all teachers may be there for the whole time and they do get breaks)

Judging by numbers of parents there on appointment night and the appointments that are available, it appears that many parents do not attend, presumably because they don’t see value in it (and this is a school where parents generally are interested in their child’s education, people go to great lengths to get into this school). I personally attended the first year my daughter was at the school, and then seeing no point to it, only booked three appointments the following year. You can’t talk about anything in depth in 5 minutes and they only give positive feedback.

We’re in NZ so only just starting our school year now, I’m not sure if I will bother attending this year or not. Teachers are generally responsive to emails so I would just email if I had any particular issues instead of waiting for appointment night.

Can usually book all subject teachers
Online (although Y7 in person and Y11 have two, online and one in person).
Used to start at 2pm and students had an early finish but it has been moved to 4pm and students finish normal time.

2 schools. 2 systems

School A. Book online for f2f appointment at school, after school. Some teachers you cannot book an appointment woth because they have entered no onto a system for your child. I've learned that this means there are no issues. Some appointments are booked for you because the teacher has entered a yes onto the system and wants to be 100% sure they will see you. The first appointment could be 4 and the last 7. And you may only get to see 4 or 5 teachers. Parents get annoyed in the queues because it looks like you're pushing in of you rock up to that line 3 minutes before your booked slot and they have been waiting for 30 mins.

School B.
Turn up on the evening and wait in a line to see the teachers you want to see. If you get there early and do core subjects first you can be in and out in an hour and have got round a good 6/7/8 teachers. Turn up after 4 and you'll be there to the end and may have only got round 3/4/5 teachers.

One is a ss grammar, the other a small boys secondary school.

Online
After school (5-7 I think)
5 mins appointments with automatic cut off at the end

We book online: y7-9 you get maths, English, science and then after that it comes down to how quickly you book/ how popular teacher is as it's first come, first served for non-core subjects.
I think year 10 and 11 you get all of your GCSE teachers.

I didn't have any kids in secondary pre-covid, but comparing it to my own chaotic in-person secondary parent evenings, I think this system is better. In person for primary and online for secondary I think works best.

We've gone back to face to face and we are alloted 5 minutes for all of their subjects.

After school, all on the same evening, from about 4 till 7 pm.

Oh and they are 4 until 7 or thereabouts

We have our first ever secondary school parents evening this week

we were on the ball with the appointments, booked online

5 minutes each, we have 10 of them in a row. I predict chaos. Apparently nobody keeps to their appointment time. We are prioritizing 5 or so teachers to see and as both dh and I are going we will divide and conquer if necessary

Very large state secondary comp. It's 5 mins each with appointments for all subjects (so 9/10 appointments). We're on School Cloud at the moment, but I think we'll go back to face-to-face next year; I'm not massively happy about this because it takes me back to the days of sitting in a windy, freezing hall knowing that I'm staying a good hour over the directed time because the appointments overrun. Whilst its been online, we've just arranged separate emails or phone calls if we need longer with a parent.

Very large state comprehensive, system is all online with 5 minute appointments

You book the appointments the week before (I block out space in my diary and set alarms as it's first come first served). You can book as many appointments as you like - some subjects have multiple teachers but only one available to book, some have both teachers available. You can book with both.

Appointments start at 4pm and run till about 8pm iirc.

Think everyone is pretty happy with it. You can arrange calls with teachers who aren't available or if there are issues that need more than 5 minutes to discuss.

Personally I love the system. It's always worked really well and much better than traipsing into school and queuing.

Ours is up to 8 appointments, 5 mins each, in person after school. I much prefer in person, it allows you to connect with the teachers much better. I find 8 appts is fine because eng lang and lit is the same teacher, science is only one in KS3 and we never bothered about PE, art, music etc.

Academic review with form teacher, 10 minute slots in Autumn and Summer term to discuss term report

Parents Evening, in person, all in a hall everyone talking at once a nightmare for autistic DD. 5 minute slots, you can book as many slots as you like.

Both start at 2pm and end between 7-8pm.

As a teacher the online version that cuts you off at 5mins was better, you could have a proper conversation with parents without the wittering of the person next to you and you couldn't over run.

5 mins online automatically cuts off. I've got twins so h and I divide and conquer he does one child I do the other.

Ballot for what subjects you get.

Completley pointless exercise. Not teacher bashing h is a teacher.

Ours is the same. Spread over 3 days after school as some teachers work part time. So not all teachers available on the 3 days. Those quick to book get best choice.

The school brought in online parent meetings during Covid when my dc was in year 7 so have no other secondary formats to compare it to.

We like it as we can be at home and be assured that we will see the teachers at the correct time. Other parents find it a pain because they forget to book online and want to just turn up on the day!

@fruitbomb

Yes I think it is unusual that we do two. Lucky parents I guess!

Ours are:

Online
After school
5 mins ( and you get cut off promptly)
One or two appointments per subject (depending on how teaching is divided).

This is vastly preferable to the pre-Covid system, which was in person- still the same time allowances and slots, but you never got to them on time because so many parents kept going over their time limit, leaving you wondering if you should just give up on the possibility of a chat with the English teacher and go straight to Mr Frog the Geography teacher. It was very stressful 😂

I'm a secondary teacher not a parent. We do:

-unlimited apps from 3.30-6pm
-5 mins each
-1 online and 1 in person per year
-booked online

Everyone seems ok with it!

Unlimited appointments as long as there are time slots available
5 minute appointments
In person
After school
Not heard any complaints

Main complaint from me would be some parents must not bother booking appointments or the appointments run out and school always say turn up anyway. Then a couple of teachers always overrun which throws out the whole schedule. I've always seen the teachers I wanted to but sometimes it's a case of waiting until they're free. I think they would be better off getting rid of the appointments and parents just turn up and wait their turn with each teacher. It's in the school hall so you can see who's free.

I wouldn't want it online, I prefer having face to face contact. It's only one a year so it's not a big deal to leave work a bit early.

All subjects, 5 minutes, online. Can usually book slots from 3pm onwards.

Works much better than in person where you’d be hanging around for hours as appointments overran.

9 appointments.
5 mins each.
In person.
After school and evening.
The online booking system allows us to say when we want to go, who we want to see, and then arranges the appointments within that time. ie. Within the hour that I select. I was happy with it. Haven't heard of people being unhappy but there might be people who are who I don't know