What were your memories of parents evening as a school child?

[OneUmberJoker]

I used to always go with my parents

None. My parents never went along, so I was spared that.😁

We weren't expected to go.

I remember my Dad telling me he had had a fight with my Latin teacher and thought he was an idiot.

I didn't go, even at A levels!

I can only remember a couple of times. I stayed at home. Dad went. Took notes and fed it all back to me at home later that day.

I think I kept my dad's notes somewhere as well!

We were not allowed to go until year 11.

Honestly, I think that definitely had advantages. I used to feel the parents' evenings with my dc were a complete waste of me being there as they talked almost entirely to the child.
It also meant on the odd occasions where I'd have liked to talk to the teacher without my dc I either had to ask them to leave (knowing that they'd be very keen to know why) or make another appointment outside the evening.
It wasn't normally much, but sometimes it is useful to give background information on your child, or something they're going through, which can help the teacher understand.

If they're going to just talk to the child, why don't they do this during school time?

1970s. I don’t remember them being a thing at all but maybe my parents just didn’t go. I need to ask my old schoolfriends

Sitting at home waiting for my father to return and tell me what had been said about me.
Children definitely didn't go to parents' evening back in my youth.

I got dragged along EVERY year. I tried, "Do you not think that I spend enough time there already?" and, "But they say the same thing EVERY year!"

Indeed, they did: "X does well academically, but needs to talk more". Internally, I thought, "You spend all lesson telling Y and Z to shut up!" and, "I get bullied for my teeth, so if I don't talk, nobody really sees them and they leave me alone!" I was a very shy, anxious and introverted child, and did not appreciate my silence being made a point of!

I don't recall any parents evenings when I was at school (1970s-1985). I remember report cards, perhaps my parents just didn't go - I was the 4th of 5 children so they were probably bored of them by that point - I can't remember them even being a thing.

Neither my primary school, nor my high school, ever held parents' evenings.

I used to LOVE going in Primary School.

Not because I went in with my parents to speak to the teacher, but because all the kids got to wander about in the school unattended.

We mostly snooped in the classrooms of years that didn't have parents' evening that night. Nothing too bad, we didn't rifle through the teacher's stuff. Just checked out their coloured pencil supply and sat in different seats really. Wild.

Waiting outside the mobile classroom on the steps or if you were lucky and your friend was there at a similar time playing on the playground. Never went in until secondary.

In primary we weren’t expected to go, so I remember my mum going whilst I was at my grandmas or something.

In secondary we were encouraged to go along. I just used to tell my mum which teachers to see (the ones whose subjects I was good at!) and sat there whilst they said how well I was doing.

Kids weren't meant to go in my day, 70's and 80's.
I remember my mum coming back uncharacteristically livid as one of my secondary teachers didn't know who I was. I wasn't pretty or neat so the teacher wasn't interested in me 🤷🏻‍♀️.

I remember very little. But at A level stage I certainly remember one girl being very upset when our German teacher had a go at her because her parents hadn’t come.
The girl’s father had died not long before - as we all knew - and she said her mother didn’t like to come on her own.
Whereupon the teacher had another go - ‘Ridiculous!’ or some such, and the girl burst into tears and ran out.
We all thought the teacher had been right out of order, but one girl stood up and said ‘Miss X, I don’t think you should have spoken to her like that!’
Cue a silent cheer from the rest of us. The teacher made no reply.

This was in the late 60s at a very well behaved girls’ grammar.

In primary school we were expected/allowed to go so I just remember being at home worrying while they were there. No idea why, my reports were always excellent with the occasional smattering of "a bit too chatty sometimes".

Secondary school I went with them and all the teachers were in the hall and it was mayhem!!

I remember dreading it. The fear of the bollocking and beating potentially coming my way when my parents got home. That shouldn't have been the case because I didn't do badly at school, but that was my parents. It was terrifying.

We're not in the UK and we don't have quite the same thing here but I love knowing I won't come home from occasions at my childrens' school and treat them like that - even if they did do badly. I don't know if they really are nicer and better than I was but if they are I believe it's because we treat them better. I genuinely look forward to talking to their teachers about them.

I remember going for my year 2 parents evening. DB was in year 3 and we weren't allowed in the classroom. So we were left in the library between infants and juniors. When the teacher came out I was merrily reading one of the books from the highest book bands.

No idea why I remember that.

God yes, so scary! I still have the odd nightmare about waiting for my parents to come back and bollock me about how I’d been in school.

Pupils weren’t allowed to attend the actual discussions with parents (70s/80s) so I just had to wait to find out what shit I had done that year

Children didn’t go when I was at school and they were actually held in the evening.

My parents, both of whom were only semi-literate and were timid people for whom teachers were unassailable and frightening authority figures, found them absolutely terrifying. My father refused to go. My mother never remembered a single thing about them when she got home. I was a clever child, but no one noticed.

At DDs’ senior school I well remember telling dh to go and chat up the DS/needlework teacher - nobody was waiting to see her, but there were queues for all the other subjects. Dd1 absolutely loathed sewing and was pretty rubbish at it, so I was hoping that Dh with his undoubted charm and good looks 😂 would earn her a few brownie points.

Almost the first thing she asked Dh was, ‘Has she done her side seams?’ 😂😂

I always hated it and found it embarassing. I was well-behaved at school (autistic and a bit of a "wallflower" type) and I really just wanted to keep my head down and not have any attention on me.

In secondary school I used to hide the letters, although I don't think my parents were too bothered to go by then anyway.