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.

I'm not proud of this fact, but I got banned from parents evening because they thought i might argue about the teacher's methods of dealing with my daughter who has SpLD.

Her method was to ignore her so they tried to ignore me as well.

New school is working so so much better but it's left me very nervous of parents evenings!

Hmm. I have to say, threads like this remind me why I found becoming a parent of a school child so intimidating.
Reading teacher threads on here I am always a bit shocked by the sheer vitriol directed towards parents.
Some of you teachers must be parents yourselves, so how does that work? Are you always perfect in that role?
I have a friend who is a teacher, and when her oldest started school she was quite freaked out by realising how different it feels on the "parent" side of the equation.
Not teacher bashing btw-I support teachers and know they work very hard.
I also bring biscuits to parents evening, partly because I am starving coming straight from work too!
I just don't like the the tone of discussions like these. It reminds me of how harshly I used to judge customers when I was a waitress. Especially the ones with kids, God help them!
We are most of us trying to do our jobs in the time frame we have to do them, and we most of us have kids, so can we ever drop the "us and them" attitude?

Like it! Just as long as all teachers at the school do it. Pity some other professions could not have the same so that appointments are on time for a change.

This thread has reminded me to put in writing the superlatives our DS (year 11) regularly mentions with regard to his teachers. I did manage to mention to his English teacher when I bumped into her how much he loves her lessons and apparently she was so chuffed she thanked him at his next lesson .

And more to the point - we aren't enamoured when his school's system of 5 minute appointments that overrun, but we've never blamed the teachers, just overeager parents. We're super-conscious of the teachers working a 12-hour day, especially how tiring it is doing so in such an intense setting - being switched on and clued up on dozens of students. I find it astonishing how much they seem to know about our child personally, despite being responsible for so many others.

At my school parents have 10 minute appointments. A senior pupil stands outside the door with a stopwatch and knocks on the door when 10 minutes are up.

If the parent doesn't leave, they give it another minute and then knock again and open the doorl

As the teacher, I stand up and thank them for coming and show them to the door.

Works perfectly.

Our school asks parents to knock and go in when their time slot arrives whether there are other parents in there or not!

I feel for teachers at parents evening my dds teacher was telling me she wouldn't be leaving school til after 9pm that's after being there since before 8am, I always make them quick just go over progress etc any issues and if I have any questions ask them, I am never there any longer than 10 mins.

Only time I ever used a watch, large dial watch, on the table in front of me, pointedly noted time next to the name on the list as the parents sat down .I also perfected the final handshake to a t by standing up , it takes a determined parent to carry on when you are standing and they are still sitting.....

Last time I went to parents evening at DD1 & 2's school 1 teacher ran 35 minutes behind. She was the last teacher we needed to see and we simply just had to sit there. When we finally got to her she said " Oh sorry about that but due to road works in x village we decided to see those parents first.

I was really irritated that they had decided to do this without acknowledging that some of us perhaps needed to go to work or have other plans. Additionally the road works in X village did not make it impossible to get into the village just meant they would need to take a 5 minute longer road.

I DID feedback and I compared the schools parents evening to DS and DD3's school (1 uses a bell system the other is usually more organised - wasnt last time but different story and only 1 teacher)

Sadly in this school I don't think they will see any need to change they are both in 6th form having been there since year 7 and it has often been a chaotic experience with waits.

Love DD3's school for this they use a bell We are almost never delayed.

TeacherAdam - have you really not had a better marketing idea than finding 4 year old threads on Mumsnet and then spamming them with links to your supply teacher agency?

Well noticed Hassled!

I'm so glad I'm out of this.

No sitting down at our parents evenings... then parents can't get entrenched! Works treat!

*works A treat... better than my typing 🙄

DD's school have a bell, that didn't help at the last one though as the bell had gone 3 times (10 minute slots) the teacher had walked to the door with a couple, thanked for them for coming, confirmed they had an appointment to discuss it further, looked round them, apologised to me and asked me to come through and they were still talking at her in the doorway, short of actually telling to them to shut up and go away (which frankly i wouldn't have blamed her for) there was nothing else she could have done.

At my DCs school there is a note on the door of each room being used for parents evening which says 'please knock and come in at the start of your appointment time if the previous appointment is over-running'

Our school use timers on iPads, keeps everything moving.

our teachers have a hour glass timer on the table.

at idea of teachers giving out email address to parents!!

That would NEVER happen at our school - for good reason.

Both my DDs had a teacher in primary school who had a wall clock on her desk to make clear we were timed. I couldn't look at the clock or DH as just the thought of it made me giggle - my reaction made me feel ridiculous, it was only a clock!

I'm a parent, always in and out in half an appointment - when they tell you your DS is a joy to teach and doing well in everything there really isn't much more to say... So the answer is for parents to have well behaved motivated children :o.

When/if I have an issue then I wouldn't be waiting for parents night to raise it and neither should the teachers. Parents night is really meant for a quick catch up and update on progress. Anything requiring longer than 5 minutes should really be raised outwith parents night.

High school is worse when you are trying to manage 10+ appointments. A friend has twins and is a single parent - it is her worst nightmare trying to co-ordinate that every parents night.

Primary, we turned up waited to see teacher, went in on our turn - always a bit late but hey-ho.

Secondary, Y7 we made 10min appointments to see all the teachers with 10 min in between each in case of overrun - everything ran late complete chaos, we saw almost everyone in the end, but my god so stressful.

And it turned into a "doing well, on the right track, good attitude, keep it up" fest...

Y8 onwards - emailed teachers - "do we need to come to parents evening?" "Doing well, so not unless child is unhappy or you have something you want to raise" - No... Thank you....

Haven't been to one since. Good school, great teachers, clever self-motivated kids (YES I know we are lucky on ALL counts) DDs both still top groups, doing well, no discipline problems, both prefects etc... I don't need to be told they are doing well - I know and can see it.