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

[OneUmberJoker]

I used to always go with my parents

I cannot remember a single thing, so I'm wondering whether one of my parents went and I didn't.

We didn’t attend with our parents, but could volunteer to act as a runner for a teacher, which I did every year. We were allocated a teacher and had to find each of the parents on his list and make sure they attended their appointment on time. If they were busy else where, then we had to track down some other parents on the list and swap appointments round, making sure the teacher knew that we had swapped, so he knew whose parents he was talking to! We also had to supply water, coffees etc when requested, and deliver messages to other teachers.

Depending on which teacher you were working for, you either got a ‘Thank you’ at the end of the night, or a small gift….chocolates or sweets usually. Some teachers were more popular than others because of that.

Sitting outside by the pegs with my sister waiting for my parents to come out, and taking the opportunity to peek into the boy's toilets to see what they were like 😂

Children didn’t attend parent’s evening when I was in primary or secondary. They were also in the evening whereas now my DC’s are during the day which is such as hassle.

My parents used to look incredibly cross and disappointed with me when they got home. They (and my teachers) thought I was very intelligent so why was I underachieving unlike my high achieving older sister? So I must either be lazy or naughty. I didn’t think I was either. Nobody seemed to think what else might be going on. I’m pretty sure I was/am adhd but nobody thought of that in the seventies/eighties; that was just the very naughty boys.

Never used to go. It was not a "thing". Usually one parent would go, and the other would stay with us at home. Both my sibling and I were good students, well behaved and high achieving so there was never any issue.

Late 1960s. My parents both went. I was eight/nine and left in charge of my brother aged five/six. 'Do not leave the house while we are out,' they said. As soon as they had vanished round the corner, I got my bike out to cycle to a friend's house. She lived on the road next to the school. Outside their house, I fell off the bike, sailing over the handle bars and cutting my chin open. The friend's dad took me to hospital to be stitched up.

Later, I learned that when parents evening ended, my dad went to the pub with the headmaster. The friend's dad took me home. My mum went berserk, doing frantic washing up in her nylon overall and rubber gloves, and ranting at me for being disobedient and at my dad for going to the pub. My dad heated up some milk and mixed it with two Weetabix, feeding me silently and carefully with a spoon because my jaw was frozen with anaesthetic.

That is the only parents evening I remember 🤣

None. Primary school didn’t have parents evening and in secondary it was strictly parents only.

Terrifying in the 80s at secondary school. Had a good few batterings when my mum got home. She was a teacher too. Probably more common then.

Don’t recall my parents ever going! I’m 50 and was a fairly academic pupil, so don’t suppose they were worried. Can’t say I’ve ever been told anything I didn’t already know at my kids parents evenings really, I found them a bit of a waste of time. Last year of youngest A levels here, so I’ve attended my last one. DH has come along a few times as they got older, but it’s mainly been me sitting through it!

Waiting at home while my mum and dad went up to the school and dreading them getting home with the usual 'we're disappointed with your attitude towards your teachers, you aren't doing homework, you talk all the way through lessons, you're capable but you aren't trying' spiel.

Yawn.

I have no memory of them in the 70’s

I would bin the parents evening letters on the way home. No emails then, so my parents never went

My dad used to take my most recent report and make notes on it and question every sentence.

the science teacher who basically used it as an extra lesson and went through every equation needed in the exam and over run massively

I remember my parents having to sit on tiny child size chairs as we did them in the classroom. I’d have to fetch my drawer and bring it to the table so they could look through my books.

My parents couldn't have cared less about me and my brother so they never went.

Literally nothing. Neither I nor my parents ever went. It wasn't their thing.

I remember feeling a bit sad my parents never went.

I never went. DM always did, and used to come home and tell me what was said. I remember in secondary school handing her a heavily annotated appointment sheet, where I had predicted which teachers would give good/bad/indifferent reports. I was highly conscientious and academic, so with the exception of PE (“we can’t fault her effort”) teachers gave positive feedback. I remember pacing the floor at home waiting for her to come home to find out what was said.

It was often held in the gym and they’d cover the gym floor with dust sheets and make it into a slippy-slidey deathtrap.

Weird. They had other rooms available…

I was at school in the 70s-80s (left high school in 82). I remember going with my dad to parents’ evenings. I used to want him to go because Mum looked about 15 and everyone would comment on it.

(she was actually older than Dad)