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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to think that if you are allocated a 30 min slot to see your sons teacher you should get that time

42 replies

cuteboots · 21/03/2013 09:33

Ok so went to see his teacher last night regarding his school report. As I sat down she said sorry Im running bit late and then proceeded to set some sort of timer on her desk? Id been with her for ten mins when this went off. This really really annoyed me as there was lots of stuff I needed to talk to her about and I felt this just really took the piss. What is the point of giving 30 mion slots if they dont happen! Should I complain to the school ? Am I being a bit precious?

OP posts:

DonkeysDontRideBicycles · 21/03/2013 09:37

Were these 30 minute slots per pupil? It sounds like a long evening following a day at work unless your son's class is very small. At our DCs' schools they used to give 10 minutes maximum, any further discussion was going to require a separate appointment on another occasion.

PandaG · 21/03/2013 09:38

was it really a 30 min slot just for you? IME you ask for a timeslot within a half hour or hour window, and get allocated a 5 or 10 min slot within that.

If you really should have had the entire half an hour, or even if the 10 min slot was right, then I would ask for a follow up appointment to discuss further issues.

BringBackBod · 21/03/2013 09:41

A thirty minute slot seems a very long time for parents evening.
If it goes on for a couple of hours, she'd only be able to see four parents.
If you're concerned about anything, wouldn't you be better off making an appointment to see her another time.

Naysa · 21/03/2013 09:52

30 minute slots? How many children are in your son's class? 3?

Mrsrobertduvall · 21/03/2013 09:54

We got 5 mins last night with ds teacher..yr 9.
To me parents evening is just getting an overall view....if you have concerns, it's not the place for those to be raised. It's not private, and you shold be having separate meetings.

MammaMedusa · 21/03/2013 09:55

Agree with the others, are you sure it was a 30 minute slot? It is much more the norm that you request a shorter slot within a 30 minute window. If you have more to discuss, just ask for another appointment.

If this is a normal state school, then parent's evening would last 15 hours if you got 30 minutes each!

Doyouthinktheysaurus · 21/03/2013 09:56

30 minutes

Are you sure they didn't mean you would be seen at some point within that slot? We get 5 minutes normally.....

My god, 30 minutes with the teahcer would kill me tbh, never mind the poor teacher!

DeskPlanner · 21/03/2013 10:47

We get 5 minutes. Wouldn't have a clue what to talk about for 30 minutes.

GraceSpeaker · 21/03/2013 11:25

Cuteboots, I honestly think you must have misunderstood. If this is a parents' evening, there shouldn't be any unexpected issues that would take 30 minutes to discuss. If there were anything that serious, surely you would already have been contacted? If you had very important things to discuss, why didn't you contact the teacher separately? Why did you wait until parents' evening?

The teacher had probably been told by senior management to keep to her timed appointments as much as possible, hence the timer. Parents' evenings always, always run late and some effort needs to be made to make sure teachers can actually get home the same evening and have time to do all their marking and planning for the next day's lessons! If you complain, please make sure you ask what teachers were told.

However, you don't actually say explicitly that this was a parents' evening situation... And what age is your son? Is this secondary or primary?

IloveJudgeJudy · 21/03/2013 11:45

Have 3 DC, all now in secondary, where you get 5 mins/teacher. In primary it was 10 mins/teacher. Never known it to be 30 mins. How could it be 30 mins? Teacher would only be able to see about 6 parents.

IloveJudgeJudy · 21/03/2013 11:46

Wanted to add, in both schools there are bells to indicate the end of each slot. That works much better as it's completely independent of the teachers. One time recently the bells in the secondary school weren't working and the evening was very a tad chaotic.

GreenShadow · 21/03/2013 11:53

5 mins max per teacher here.
30 mins can't be right.

If there are major issues needing to be discussed, a meeting outside of parents evening should be arranged.

thegreylady · 21/03/2013 11:53

I'd be very surprised if it was 30 minutes-much more likely to be an appointment 'between 5 and 5.30' perhaps

BrigitBigKnickers · 21/03/2013 11:56

On the forms DDs school sends home has options to choose which 30 min slot we would prefer our appointment to be in but the actual appointments are ten minutes at the most.

Surely you don't expect a teacher to do parents evenings lasting 15 hours (30 mins x 30 pupils)

Has your DC got specific special needs? If not I could not see any reason that a parent would require a half an hour slot with a teacher.

GreenShadow · 21/03/2013 12:01

Good point Brigit.

Choosing a 30 min slot sounds like that could well be the case here.

SavoyCabbage · 21/03/2013 12:06

30 minutes! That's madness. There must be a misunderstanding.

CitrusyOne · 21/03/2013 12:06

We offer ten minute appointments but parents tick to indicate which half an hour time slot they want this in. How on earth do you think the teacher has time to spend 30 minutes with each set of parents? We'd be there all week.

CitrusyOne · 21/03/2013 12:07

Even our iep review meetings are only 15 mins long.

Catsdontcare · 21/03/2013 12:08

I think you have misunderstood the time slot tbh.

Pandemoniaa · 21/03/2013 12:08

YABU.

I don't know any schools (other than very, very small, independent ones perhaps) where a teacher could possibly allocate you 30 minutes to talk about your child. Instead, you choose a time within whichever 30 minutes is most convenient too you across the evening. Your actual discussion with the teacher will take up no more than 5-10 minutes. Using a timer is a very sensible way of keeping on schedule too and giving all the parents who've made appointments a fair share of the teacher's time.

Can you honestly not see how impossible it would be for every parent to expect to take up 30 minutes of an individual teacher's time?

peeriebear · 21/03/2013 12:10

If every child got 30 minutes the teacher would only get to see 4-5 sets of parents per evening over a couple of weeks! And then the teacher would want to kill you all.

Original poster

cuteboots · 21/03/2013 12:11

do you know I think this was me being a bit of a numpty as its a slot between 5-5.30 therefore you get 1O mins. I think you are all right and I still need to book an appointment to discuss further.

Brigitbigknickers- Nope he doenst have specific needs

OP posts:

undercoverSAHM · 21/03/2013 12:12

A timer at parents' evenings is a fab idea and not just from the POV of the teachers. There is nothing more irritating than being kept waiting so long because someone is overrunning that you then miss other slots with other teachers and/or, in my case, feel so guilty about the NEXT person in the queue that you feel obliged to keep it to about a minute. It was just as well there was a timer as otherwise you might have sat there for 30 minutes by mistake! I agree with the others that, if it was a parents' evening then it will most certainly NOT have been a 30 minutes slot just for you. With 26 in a class, that would take a teacher 13 hours (assuming they only taught one class).

undercoverSAHM · 21/03/2013 12:13

Sorry, cross posted. Yes, book a further appointment if you have issues

Sparklingbrook · 21/03/2013 12:13

In my experience after the ten minutes the teacher just stands up. Once a couple of years ago we were mid conversation and DS2's teacher said 'Moving on'...... I thought were on to the next subject but no, we were moving on out.

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