to think I should have had more than one response by now?

[wootle]

Parents' evening at my DCs school 3 weeks ago. They have a system where DC book the appts with teachers. The evening is meant to run from 4pm to 7pm.

So my DC being a bit disorganised only booked 3 appointments with teachers - having not had lessons with the others in the week leaving up to Parents Evening due to the way the timetable works. Anyway so we turn up on the night just before the first appt at 1750 and expect to catch the other teachers I wanted to see in between the booked appointments.

Except that they'd all already left, other than one of the teachers we had an appt with. The other 2 teachers (who we did have appts with) were off sick.

I wasn't terribly impressed, as DC is in year 9 and I was keen to speak to their teachers about progress etc. Anyway I got home and emailed the main school email (didn't have email addresses for the teachers themselves, plus wasn't sure if someone might be covering for those off ill etc) politely to say I was disappointed I'd only managed to see one teacher, and would it be possible for those I missed (listed names and subjects) to either drop me an email or give me a call to let me know how DC was doing, any concerns, anything they needed to be doing to prep for yr 10 and start of options etc.

I got an automatic acknowledgment. Then about 3 days later a reply from DCs deputy head of year confirming receipt and advising that the email had been forwarded to all subject teachers. A few more days I got a lovely reply from one teacher, confirming what stage DC was at with her subject, prep they could do now for next year etc. Which was great and really helpful.

However I have had no further reply from any if the other teachers. I sent another email to the main address, copying in deputy HOY, and also rang and left a message with the school office for someone to update me. But nothing.

I appreciate end of term is busy but if one has managed to reply surely the others could have? School have now broken up for the next fortnight, so I'm not now going to get a reply until mid April, if at all. Not really sure what to do next? And aibu to have expected more replies?

they don't always come across a teacher
Maybe not but they could have given up some of their time to actively seek out those teachers.

TBH I think YABU.

Yes, it would be nice if the teachers off sick had emailed you to update you on children's progress but for the others you should have utilised the system that's in place to deal with those enquiries (the teacher appointments). If you don't use that system properly, you can't expect them to then go out of their way to compensate. It'd be nice if they did, but it's unreasonable to expect it.

Gosh OP, you're getting a real flaming here from people who didn't read your OP properly and/or teachers who seem to be determined to take out all their frustrations with parents on you.

The evening went on till 7pm. Therefore all the teachers had appointments available up till 7pm. It is entirely reasonable of the OP to have expected them still to be around seeing other parents up until 7pm. Maybe less realistic to think that there would be any opportunity to catch them "between appointments" since the reality of the evening was probably that appointments would run back-to-back, but she perhaps thought she might luck out with a parent not turning up, or a teacher who was willing/able to stay behind and have a quick chat with her after the end of his/her last appointment.

I am laughing a bit at the idea that school pupils are expected to make their own appointments - are they really going to make sure that they book slots with the teachers in their worst subjects or ones they don't get on with? I expect there are is a lot of "oh Mrs X had no slots left" or "sorry, couldn't find Mr Y to make an appointment". Though I do agree OP that you should have harsh words with your DC about the failure to make the appointments.

As for the ones who were off sick, I'd have thought that it woud ahve been polite for the school to have notified those with appointments that the teachers were not available (eg by telling the DC, who could then text the parents). Upthread, caboodle, who is a teacher, asks "As for the teachers that were off sick...what would you like them to do?. Isn't the answer obvious? OP would like them to reply to her email enquiry and I'd have thought that it was their responsibility to do so since they missed the pre-arranged appointment. Ifthey are long-term sick then the school needs to explain this to OP. Caboodle why do you think that they don't have any responsibility to communicate with the OP?

FWIW OP, if some teachers are too busy to reply now, I'd have thought that they coudl at least manage a short acknowledgement saying that either they are sorry but they just ca't give feedback outside parents' evenings, or alternatively that they are very busy now but will try to reply as soon as the end of term rush is over.

In summary, OP, YANBU and I am surprised so many think that YABU.

I think yabu expecting teachers to hang around on parents evening when they have no appts, but I don't think it's particularly unreasonable to expect a response to your emails - especially from the two who were sick (surely it's normal practice to make up work missed due to sickness?). It's not as though you were demanding an instant or lengthy reply.

This system of having the kids book the appointments is commonplace in secondaries but it doesn't seem very efficient to me. My DTs will be in year 7 next year, and I'm not looking forward to them probably making me all sorts of conflicting appts, if they make any at all... I'd much rather do it myself online, like Yournot.

YANBU that the 2 teachers you DID have appointments with should have replied by now.

I would have hoped that others would respond to a email requestion further information. When I did similar to dd'1 s school earlier in the month I had 3 out of 4 teacher reply. I felt this was fine.

I don't think it is all that possible to just get an ad hoc appointment for parents evening. I dislike the system of students having to book exactly for this reason. DS managed 3 teachers for his simply because the others got booked up. (also admitted that the one I did wish to talk to he had deliberately waited as he didnt want me to talk to her - some issues)

What is the point of an appointment system if the teachers are criticised for sticking to it and going home when they're finished?

My DC had to arrange their own appointments from Year 7. They managed fine and we saw who we needed to see.

Your DC should have tracked the 'missing' staff down and arranged the appointments.

Little bit of initiative...

The evening went on till 7pm. Therefore all the teachers had appointments available up till 7pm. It is entirely reasonable of the OP to have expected them still to be around seeing other parents up until 7pm.

Just because an evening may run to a set time, doesn't mean all teachers are available until that time. Ours goes from 3pm up to 8pm over three days. I only stay to 8pm on one evening, the other days I leave at 6.10 (exactly!) in order to get to my sons daycare for pickup. I schedule my appointments accordingly. Just because some teachers might be there until 8pm e wry night, doesn't mean we all stay that late (with permission from our principal of course).

End of term is a very busy time and emails will be missed.

As for the appointments, if there are no more booked in and no one has come to visit by a certain time, I'd be out of there too. I have my own DC at home so I wouldn't miss bed time when as far as I'm aware there's not even anyone else coming to see me.

Yabu. It's up to the pupils to make the appointments, even if that means actively seeking the teachers out. If they don't, then that's tough. Teachers have enough to do without hanging about on the off chance that some entitled parents whose dc haven't bothered to book an appointment may wish to speak to them

frikadellen - your example of your DS playing the system is exactly why it is a ridicuous system!

Also, if most of the teachers only had enough appointments to fill the first 2 hours of the parents' evening, that would suggest to me that an awful lot of DC failed to make appointments.

It seems a bit weird though - with working parents, wouldn't the later appointments be the ones that filled up first?

UnderEstherMate

End of term is a very busy time and emails will be missed.

You're kidding, right? I must try that in my job with my clients - "sorry, I was busy, I missed your e-mail and still haven't seen it 3 weeks later". Way to get fired in any other job, why should a teacher be able to be that sloppy?

Maybe the emails are prioritised rather than missed especially at the end of term, I'm sure you do that in your job too when you are busy jessie Maybe an email to a parent who's DC couldn't be bothered to book and appointment is low priority when you have dozens to get through.

From another teacher's point of view,

YABU to expect teachers to stay beyond their last appointment (although I am a little at the number of teachers who appeared to have finished by the time you arrived, are parent's evenings generally poorly attended?)

YANBU to expect email contact from those who were ill. I missed a parents evening through illness recently and made email contact with each parent I had an appointment with to check. It took bloody ages and nearly made sitting through the original evening with flu a more attractive option, I can tell you! But I felt I should because they had taken time to make the appointment with me

YANU to email staff and apologise for not making an appointment (I assume you did this) and ask for feedback via email.

The system of relying on students to make appointments is age old (well, at least the 23 years I have been teaching) and renowned for lacking control for teachers or parents. We moved to an online system for that reason.

Finally, one plea is to realise that if a teacher has been ill they will have got behind with all their marking, planning etc and it might have taken them sometime to recover. And teachers are right in the middle of all their exam class coursework marking and moderation and revision preparation. Teachers are only human and they may have not had the chance to reply for that reason. (Although I do agree that a holding email would have been my choice)

Jessie teaching is not an office profession. So yea, emails will be missed with all the, you know, teaching and stuff. Parents evenings are there for a reason and we are not expected to respond during holidays.

(I mean "so yes", not "yea". I must maintain my professional standards!)

The system of relying on students to make appointments is age old (well, at least the 23 years I have been teaching) and renowned for lacking control for teachers or parents. We moved to an online system for that reason.

Exactly. This is why everyone getting judgmental about OP's DC has the wrong end of the stick. They had this system when DS was at school (and he's 23 now) and even then it infuriated me - he made appointments with the teachers he thought it was safe for us to see, and there was no way I could catch up with the others. This was a school that described itself as a maths and computing college, but they were apparently totally incapable of setting up an online system so parents could book direct. Seven years on, there really is no excuse for schools not to have got their act together on this. You have to suspect that some haven't bothered because it keeps the number of appointments down.

I once worked on a school that had what i thought was a fantastic system. The parent/s arrived and sat down at an exam desk (hall set out like an exam room). They had a name plate with child's name. Each member of staff who taught that child took turns to sit down with that parent then moved on to the next parent. Parents who arrived at the start could be out in 20mins! They didn't move. One member of staff checked which teacher parents were waiting for and got them, in case someone missed one. It was really effective.

Now it is the appointments system. I have appointment sheet. I eventually tell children who for days and days dont know what time their parents are coming to just come anytime before my last app. We get 5 mins per parent and i rarely need 5 mins.

15 mins max after my last app i leave. Unless i can see the parent nearby. As it is an appointment system.

Parents of some children who are not coping with the appointments system check their progress, then phone school to ask the year tutors to help them. Year tutor then makes the appointments / or encourages the child to do it and they check every break for progress. Some children need more structure to achieve things.

Children and parents who are both lacking in a bit of initiative end up frustrated and complaining on the internet how school expects their child to think for themselves and isnt that unreasonable!

Jessie teaching is not an office profession. So yea, emails will be missed with all the, you know, teaching and stuff. Parents evenings are there for a reason and we are not expected to respond during holidays.

Not an adequate response these days. OP sent a perfectly reasonable request which the deputy head endorsed. If teachers routinely ignore emails from senior management they can expect to have their cards marked. OP wasn't asking that they drop everything and reply, simply that they do so within a reasonable period. Replying would probably take them considerably less time than they would have spent with OP at Parents' evening. Liaison with parents is part of the job description, teachers just can't get precious about this.

For those surprised that DCs are expected to make their own appointments, I was at school in the 90s and it was the standard system then. Appointments were made with all teachers because we had a print out of all our subjects and were expected to make appointments for all of them. This was checked by form tutors.

OP, I am sure you will eventually receive responses from the teachers. You weren't unreasonable to email asking about your DS in the first place, but you were being rude by chasing up so quickly. If your DS couldn't be bothered to make appointments in the first place, don't expect the teachers to prioritise making up for that. Give it until the end of the holiday and make sure you apologise for your DS being rude (you may already have).

Hear hear icmoi. As shipwrecked, a teacher, confirms.

No excuse for just not bothering to monitor your inbox at all, which is what "missed" suggests.

Prioritising is fine, as are holding emails, but a 3 week delay in even acknowledging is not.

I dint think yabu in expecting a reply to your email, even if it was just to say they would contact you after the holidays.

My kids high school had this system of kids making appointments,it's stupid. Super organised ds1 can do it but he is freaking organised for a teen

Ds2 yr8 has high functioning aspergers, there is not a chance in hell of him making appointments. Because of this I emailed the school before parents eve to say that we were coming and let them know so teachers could make us an app etc. Ad it is despite appointments these evenings turn into a mad melay of queuing etc. We got to see all but two teachers who weren't there due to illness. I filled a slip in to say could we have feedback please and have had a phone call so we can arrange it after the easter break.

The school isn't great academically and I expect yes, there were lots of parents who didn't attend. That said the early start time may have been a factor, in previous years I know when I have turned up at 5.30/6 (and iirc parents evening then started at 5) there were already huge queues for some teachers, and often we didn't get seen anywhere near our allotted time. It normally ends up being a case of having an appt with teacher X, who is 20 mins or more behind, and rather than waiting, seeing if teachers A, B, C, D or E (who I might have appts with an hour later) were free, and seeing them out of turn if they are.

The school is locked at break/ lunch times so students aren't allowed to go in looking for teachers to book appts then, it has to be done in the lesson. As another poster mentioned upthread, my DCs school operate a fortnightly timetable, there can sometimes be over a week between certain lessons. And if teachers are also away due to illness, meetings etc so their lessons are being covered by supply teachers, again appts can't be made. In my DCs case all these factors, plus DC also being absent for a day due to a school trip made the booking of 3 of the 6 appts fairly impossible.

I'd prefer an online system, having everything on paper seems ridiculously antiquated to me, much as having to go through a central email address. Which apparently then got filtered to the deputy HOY, who then had to pass on the email for me (I'm sure she has better things to do than act as a postbox!) I'd have preferred to send a separate email to each teacher. Or even to leave a voicemail but again,the school only has one phone no/ one email that are made public. So if I call, I can only leave a verbal message with the school reception which I hope is passed on.

I appreciate also responding by email can take time - hence saying in my email if it was easier I was very happy to just get a quick call (or even a voicemail!). It's been over a year since last parents evening so coming up to yr 10 I just wanted to get more of a handle on how DC was placed, what we should work on in readiness for gcses etc. At the moment I have no idea exactly how DC is doing in the 4 subjects where I haven't had a reply from teachers (Maths, Science, Geography, French)

seems to me that their entire set up for parents evenings is not conducive to encouraging contact with parents tbh. Either it's not a priority for them or they don't really believe it's a priority for their parents.

No student can get contact with teachers at break/lunch/before/after school?

Tbh the whole thing sounds mad. We have parents' evenings 5 - 8pm, and I'd never leave before 8 unless I was certain I'd seen all the kids in that class. It is annoying - a couple of weeks ago I was stuck hanging around for half an hour just in case any more parents wanted to see me, but it is part of the job.

I personally don't think teachers should have to deal with emails from parents, because their focus should be on teaching - the round of monitoring grades, parents' evenings and reports already ensure parents are kept informed of pupil progress. That said, if parents do email then I do reply.