to be annoyed that Parents' Evening has been replaced

[BadZelda]

by 'a half-hour open evening where 'your child's report will be available for you to view'. (Primary) school has done this with one week's notice. In fact most parents that I've spoken to (including parent governors) were not aware that there won't be a Parents' evening at the end of this Summer term.

Personally, I think this is shocking - not just because the school will be failing to reach out to parents who are already disengaged from their child's education, but also because some of these children (e.g. Year 6) are moving on from Primary education, and it will be their parents' last opportunity to chat to their child's class teacher.

The school have presented it as 'trying something new'. Am I wrong to think it's a cop-out and sends a dangerous message of a school disengaging from the parent-teacher relationship?

Do your DC attend the same school as mine?
We had this yesterday. To be honest a parent's evening at the end of the Summer term seems futile at primary. Far better to talk about things that need doing / focusing on after a few weeks at the start of each term. If parents don't know what to expect in the last report of the year then the school has failed to engage them / parents are not interested far before then.

My dds school does this in the summer term and I think it's fine. The teachers are there if we want to talk to them and dds work is available to view if we want to.

If you need to speak to a teacher surely you can just make an appointment?

We only have one full parent consultation here. Usually around March/April.

The other two are as you describe. The teachers will make appointments with you inbetween this if they need to speak with you. Or a parent can make an appointment to see the teachers at any other time.

We had an open evening instead of parents eve too. It was nice to be able to see the children's work but would prefer a 1:1 chat with the teacher.

Have you already ha a sit down with your child's teacher this year?

We have something similar to Teabag, a proper set appointment parents evening in February then an open evening next week. In the email we were invited to attend open evening if we are not happy with the school reports, i.e if you are happy with your child's progress then no need to come.

I don't mind this, I'd make an appt with the class teacher if I needed to & had to pop into school this morning before the start to have a quick chat with DS1's class teacher about some trouble he's having with another lad in his class.

I see your point about not reaching disengaged parents, but maybe such parents would not keep an appointment at a proper parents evening either.

The point of parents evening is to discuss progress so far and understand what your child needs to focus on through the remainder of the year - not much point in the last weeks of the academic year when you've already got a report.

It depends how open the school is to speaking to parents the rest of the time. We have one full on parents evening, an open evening in the summer term during which parents can come a bit earlier and see the teacher on their own. However, we also have a completely open door policy so we see parents each and every day for chats in between. We communicate via email and telephone too. I think that's sufficient. If this school has a less open relationship on a day to day basis then I agree this seems a bit poor.

Have you had a parents' evening already this year?

And also when we did have appointments, mine was at 11am. They were 30 slots from 9.30am.

I was the first parent of the day to actually turn up. 3 children had parents that did not turn up or even attempt to rearrange their appointment. Nor did try let the teacher know.

Parents who don't engage, don't engage and probably wouldn't have even turned up.

We never have a summer parents evening. Only one in October and one in April. If you have any issues you can make an appointment to see the teacher another time.

Our Primary school seems to have a policy of not saying anything vaguely interesting or contentious at PE anyway, so I can't see what difference it makes.

Just make up a tape saying X is doing really well, X is a valued member of the class, X has made so much progress this year and play it on a loop whilst flicking through their workbooks.

We've just had a report and parents evening. I disagree with those that say no point having a parents evening so late in the academic year.

I came way understanding what would be the priorities for me to work on with DD over the summer to make her set up for next year.

We don't have a summer term parents evening. Reports are sent home, with a note to say you are welcome to make an appointment if you have any concerns you want to discuss with the teacher.

We don't have a parents evening, we have an open evening where you can see your dc's work from the current year, say hi to the current teacher then pop in to see the next years teacher and let dc see new classroom so there's a bit of familiarity when they start in September. Works well for us. We also get an end of year report.

For me, it's more about discussing how happy or otherwise she has been this term and managing the transition to the next class - plus a few questions about how next year will differ from this one.

Actually an edit to my post: the evening is for an hour and a half, not just half an hour. For me it's the contrast. My kids are at two different primaries (long story) and one agreed appointment times weeks ago, whilst the other sent home a letter about the open evening last Thursday (It's today). Thanks to the posters who've given me a good perspective with info about how things happen in your schools. I agree, there may not be a need for a specific meeting if the child's doing well at school and seems happy. I am worried about those that slip between the cracks though, or struggle to understand how levels correspond to their child's rate of development. I'll go along and see anyway!