yr7 parents evening - first for us

Assuming no 'issues' or problems (and let's face it, parents' evening isn't usually the time or place for discussing those), we usually do maths, English, science and another of our child's choice.

In Year 9 (options), we reverse the trend - we don't see the 'normal' suspects or those whose subjects are compulsory, but only see any teachers whose subject our child is thinking of taking but unsure about or wants to know more about the course or whatever.

Our children make the appointments for us.

Ours expect all of us to see all of them & it is a zoo (esp for the poor sods who teach several forms )

I've always thought they should tell us if they want to see us, & if not we can assume things are OK!

You will do the teachers a favour by not requesting any other than the ones you feel you really want to discuss/find out something. Yr 7 parents evenings are notoriously difficult for teaching staff as they are the ones where more parents feel obliged to see more teachers. Trying to fit them all in becomes so difficult. When I was still teaching, some years I taught the entire year group. Imagine trying to fit in about 130 sets of parents into 2 evenings (150 in the year, some not requesting and some double sets for separated parents so 130 is not unusual). When you apply 10 mins for each set and the two evenings run for 4 hours, even with a break, it is clearly impossible: 24 slots for 130 requests with not breaks in 4 hours.... So we would resort to 5 min interviews and be told to phone interview the remaining!! It was HELL.
Imagine 5 min interviews non stop for 2 evenings for 4 hours each. This is on top of a full working week, and then trying to fit in loads and loads of follow up phone calls for those who requested but you were unable to see. Logistical nightmare.
So, if you do not really wish or need to speak to a teacher, they have not requested to see you, please don?t bother

(7 yrs on and still the thought of yr 7 parents evenings haunt me so much that I can write a frantic long winded post on the subject without drawing breath!)

Twinset, that sounds a good idea to me. At my DCs secondary school we get 10 mins per teacher but we still invariably end up waiting for some annoying parents who are taking 20 mins or more - I just think what on earth is there to talk about! These parents are the ones who insist on seeing every single subject teacher, plus form tutor, plus Head of year .

I agree about just seeing the big 5, that's all we normally do.

Appointment evenings at my new school are carefully organised to the point they become bizzare.

There is a bell every five minutes to tell people to move on. Under n circumstances do you see someone with no appointment or keep people waiting.

roisin - ours is on the 4th. No idea what to expect. Am sort of dreading it.

We won't have to go throw the parents evening scrummage till May but I'll bare all tips on here in mind!

snorkle - yes it does seem to work with buffers.

One of our year groups gave out alternating time sheets to the kids so some kids had 5 min appointments at 10 past, 20 past etc, the others had appts on the 5 mins. That one was the best one of the whole year!

There are always one or two teachers/parents who overrun. If as a teacher you only have one or two classes to see you can also try to factor in some 5-10 min breaks for catch up time but I know this doesn't work for all teachers esp if they have a lot of groups in one particular year. Last two parents eves I did ran early, but maybe I just don't talk enough ;)

We've just had the pupil progress day as described by kiddiz. 15 minutes appointments though. Hard for me to get time off from work, but it was the best parents' meeting I've ever been to in terms of information. Teacher had a screen up with results and targets and printed it all of for us at the end. Our pov was noted and we were promised that dd's request
(for extension maths) would be seen to. Very calm and uncrowded and the admin/directing people to the right place was done by pupils.

The thing that really had dd rolling on the floor was finding out that she was on a level 4 for PE (she is disabled and takes a wheelchair into school). Be entering her for the olympics next

At dd's school they have a pupil progress day. The year 7s get the day off but have to attend with their parent/carer (ie granparent/aunt/uncle if parent can't go) for a 10 minute appointment during the day with their form tutor who has feedback from all their teachers. You can arrange to see individual teachers separately if you like.
It's great for me as I work evening shifts but does mean dh never goes and tis hard on parents who work.

Ours isn't a scrum, and there are chairs, so the queues are sit down ones and not bad, you just sit down until it's your turn, which is based on when you joined that 'queue' rather than what's written on your card.

Sounds a good plan then roisin - hope you enjoy it. Shame about the sports guy - there do seem to be rather a lot of 'that sort' around unfortunately.

runningmonkey, do you really find a buffer helps? I agree completely consecutive is bad, but we always find we're lucky to see a teacher within 15mins of the appointment time and we spend most of the evening queueing. No good having a 5min gap if you're still in the queue for the teacher before last.

unless your school operates a really strict 5min policy (rings a bell or something) to change over, the appointment time system just doesn't work.

Another tip: get your dc to leave space (at least 5 mins) in between each 5 min appointment so you have time to get to each one, our year 7's seem to try to put all their appointments in consecutive order which makes it a nightmare for parents trying to run between teachers in three different buildings

Other thing is it will give you a buffer in case a teacher is overrunning with the parent before you.

I find it better to get there at the start before they start running late!

Big 5. Then any teacher your child particularly doesn't like. Any subject that your child has done less well than you expected. Any subject, particularly new ones since starting secondary school, that he finds hard. And Form Tutor.

We find the trick is to figure out which teachers are likely to be very busy & either see them right at the start or leave it to the end & hope the queue has died down.

The busy teachers will be those who teach multiple classes in the year; those who teach the more important subjects; and those who are incapable of sticking to anything remotely approaching their 5 min timeslot per parent. Worst are those teachers who fall into all those categories.

We found that going towards the end of the evening helps... if you go in the first half it is a scrum, if you go in the second half, things have quietened down a bit.

At the dcs school the children don't go until year 10 so it might be worth checking what the norm is for your school. Agree 100% with SEA about the worthlessness of appointment cards. I'd see the main subject teachers as priority, but if there's time speak to a few others too (it's always interesting). I wouldn't avoid PE if that's his weak spot either - useful for you to know what the teacher's view of him is & what opportunities there might be in the future. You might well be surprised at what will happen - at dc's school they have to do the main team sports for 2 years, but in year 9 there is more choice to do other things which is brill for the non-sporty ones. It might be nice to know if there is light at the end of the tunnel for him, so to speak, and to size up if it's a sympathetic-to-non-sporty-kids type teacher (a few do exist) or the other type.

I think it is important to have them there as part of the discussion.

IME at secondary the child is usually part of the discussion - they're old enough to take some responsibility for stuff, and it's not a question of the "grownups" discussing them in their absence any more.

Big 5 fine unless you have concerns about anything else. You'll need appointments for popular ones but sometimes you can sneak in earlier if there's a gap.

We didn't take our dd last year because we thought we were meant to leave her behind. We were about the only childless parents there!

Is the child supposed to listen to what the teacher is telling you? At our primary they have to wait outside the classroom.