Teachers! I have an excellent parents' evening tip for you.

[OoozingCervix]

1. If you have a 10 minute slot and you are still talking after 25 minutes to a parent there is quite obviously an issue that needs to be discussed further at a later date.

1. May I suggest you get a timer? Put it on your table. Set it for 9 minutes. If after the allotted time you are still talking, hand over a card with your email on it and suggest the parent book a further appointment to see you.

IANBU.

No thanks Forty less parents would mean more time spent with them over more days. Err, no.

Teachers have other things to do after school on the days they don't have parents evening. And you just know that if you are only seeing two parents, one set will be late and the other will bang on for half an hour because you've got nothing better to do, right?

And then some parents will want you to stay till 7:30 because that's the only time they can make.

One year (prob new Year 10), my Mother asked me if I had any issues, I said no; they didn't have either so we didn't book any appintments. It was fine!!!

My dds last school would always offer to make longer appointments for problems at a later date.
Any general advice/info was displayed on boards in reception throughout the evening.
Y6 volunteers showed parents to seats, operated a waiting system and were strict with timings, they buzzed the teachers.
They loved the authority for the night.
Merciless, every one

didn't think that one through properly did I.

DC are both in different schools and there is 3 parents evenings per school year, I swear when i was at school there was only 1 a year.

teachers have a life outside of work.

I loved our most recent one with a timer and buzzer on the big screen in the hall.
it was my first experience of this system and I think it worked well. Well enough to know who we should now make an appointment to go and see after school sometime to talk about difficulties.

I would LOVE a Skype parents' evening.

We were placing bets last night about how long one mother would over-run. I think she may still be there talking about PFB

AS IF I would be handing out my email address to loads of parents!!!

They're just hideous, aren't they? I actually enjoy talking to the student and the parents, but the timing is so pressurised that it's unpleasant for everyone. Oh well.

Ours school is excellent -offeres a variety of different time slots of different lengths from 10 minutes to 30 minutes - so those that have more to discuss choose a longer slot, those that don't get a short one. The list of time slots is put up in the entrance hall and you simply sign up.

20 children over two nights for our year group - everyone finishes at a civilised time.

All very civilised not to mention the tea and biscuits made by the head as we wait.

Lovely.

Oh god I confess I have been guilty of this. At our school the headteacher goes round every ten minutes with the school bell so you know when your time's up. So was happily discussing my v. interesting and talented DD and noticed the teacher was getting a bit restless, standing up, etc. DH was doing the same. Annoyed me because the bell hadn't rung yet and we clearly had loads of time. As we finally left I said to DH 'we didn't get our full ten minutes' he replied 'oh yes the bell rang ages ago, we got about half an hour!' I didn't even notice . Sorry lovely teacher and undoubtedly put-out parents behind us.

There was one parent who always tried to take half an hour noone wanted to go after her as you knew you would be waiting. If you really want to talk to the teacher and have that many concerns then then book a separate time.
However a tip for teachers don't send out dates that people then choose and arrange their lives around then send out another letter two days later explaining that because of another class these dates aren't happening so people who cannot change their arrangements cant go anymore

with creepy wee brackets

Always tricky things, parents evenings.

I tend to get the greetings over, say something like "Now then..." And launch into the pupils attainment levels. I swiftly follow this up with where their keys skills lie, how hard they work and suggest some areas that require work.

I then ask if the parent has any specific concerns (I don't want to hear a long rambling monologue about how much they love/hate my subject) and after that I start rustling paper officiously and saying how nice it was to meet them.

Usually works!

Mind you in Secondary it's maybe better for us as parents are aware they need to get going to the next one.

I have had SMT patrolling the corridor discreetly "following" a famously "difficult" parent on more than one occasion!

AS IF I would be handing out my email address to loads of parents!!!

all the teachers give out their email addresses from the school my dd2 is at, if there are problems we can use the email and get things sorted and the teacher encourage this as a way of being able to communicate as the telephone can be difficult if the teachers is teaching and the parent is working etc.

I have used it a couple of times and the teachers have been remarkably quid at responding and things sorted very quickly - in fact far quicker than phone calls

OP are you Mrs. Robinson? If yes you're lucky I didn't smash that bloody timer with a hammer when my son was in your class.

We entered our dd parents evening 10 minutes late due to an over run, nothing unusual about that.

5 minutes in a parent swung open the door and exclaimed " are you finished yet? It's my time now."

Right in the middle of a CONFIDENTIAL discussion.

Rude cow

Parents evenings are a waste of time. The hassle in driving there, waiting around, driving back. And for what?5 minutes face to face time with a teacher. What can't they phone the parents? It would be much easier and quicker for both parents and teachers.

We are lucky to have 2 kids who perform well enough in class. ... what we do is write in their planners "Do you need us to come to parent's evening?"

Usual answers are "No - and thank you for asking" or "Only if you have any concerns, all is fine here" once we got a "Yes please - we will be discussing language options".

Has saved a lot of hassle over the years....

Phoning parents isn't free, especially not mobiles and on my school only certain phones can phone mobiles. Also, you can only talk to one parent at a time, can't show them anything, and you can't involve the child in the discussion.

Plus parents never bloody answer the phone when you need them to.

Sorry I've only skim read this thread, but are most teachers happy not to see parents where there are no problems? (DS' parents' evening is next week)

In his case there are only three subject teachers I'd really like to see. I'd love to have the option of splitting my time between just those three but I suppose the English and Maths teachers would be swamped if this was allowed.

I tried for over a month to find out if he was meant to be doing English homework and what the brief for a piece of work he was doing in class was - there is no way of speaking directly to anyone from specific depts - all contact has to go through guidance or the year head, who presumably act as middlemen - getting the info from the relevant teacher/dept then relaying it back to the parent. In his three years there it's the first time I've asked for anything - they've phoned me before to advise me about his detentions..... He has slight special needs, identified as a communication disorder. There are about six things I'd like to ask his English teacher......aaaagh.

My best tip:
Ask parents whether THEY have anything they'd like to discuss at the outset of the meeting. Once that's done with, you can squish your bit in - or thank them for bringing XYZ to the meeting and invite them back to chat through stuff you still need to cover.

Our system was run very well, Head rings a bell every ten minutes.

Last year DD teacher (in Yr R) told us not to rush off as no-one else had the appointment after us and was generally great. She was clear on DD learning and how she was working with her to build her confidence.

This year, the teacher doesn't seem to know much about DD or who her friends are (was guessing random names at one point). She also said DD is too terrified to answer questions in the class but gave no indication that she was even thinking of helping her through this (or that it was a problem).

Given I have only had a couple of parents evenings in my life it was a really stark difference and I can't work out if DD previous teacher was amazing or the current one is a cause for concern. Or if it was just a bad day after loads of meetings with other parents.

"Best one was the one where a parent asked me to write him a quick essay so that he could check I was clever enough to teach his son."

Spikeytree, that has to be one of the funniest things I've read on MN.