To be annoyed at this teacher regarding parents evening?

[Blownspeakersandvolcanos]

My dd is is in year 9 and had a parents evening tonight which she came along to.

When it was our turn to approach her art teacher, he had to ask dd what her name was again.

There was an instance in his class where she asked him for a fresh piece of paper and he had a go at her because he had assumed she had come in from the classroom next door and should have therefore asked her teacher

I get in secondary school that you obviously teach many children, but he also taught her during year 7 too.

I just didn't want to listen to his report on her because he doesn't seem to have a clue who she was!

In secondary schools, of course you need a seating plan for each class initially. My experience is in that sector.

user1489179512

Yes, because I walk around holding 15 pieces of paper at all times, with my seating plan (which incidentally wouldn't help outside of the classroom anyway, unless there were photos or every room was laid out the same) and even if I did and had to consult it to check who someone was, you would still say the least I could do was not glance down to look at it because I'm supposed to know them already

And at Parents Evening, I do have information sheets on all the pupils I have in appointment order but what we are all trying to say is, that a lot of the time, we don't see parents at the exact appointment times or we so rarely teach their child that, therefore, mistakes happen!

Incidentally, I returned from maternity leave this time last year and still had to do the Year 7 Parents Evening not having taught the pupils yet, as we had only been back 2 days) with only the data given to me by my cover supply. Is that a good enough excuse?

I'd be absolutely hopeless. Zeppo you must be on the other end of the scale from face blindness. Im not faceblind but it's not something I'm good at.

Primary school parents evenings were never a problem, especially as many staff knew me as I was then a parent governor.

Now, I have 1 DC at secondary (older one at college), and while I know (and am known by) several of the teachers both for being a parent and for being on the PTA, I do make sure I introduce myself at parents evenings to those teachers who don't know me, as the evenings always seem to clash with an activity that DS does, so he isn't there. And as I have a different name to DS, I introduce myself as X, who is Y's mum.

Especially useful because while we do book appointments, with different teachers taking different amounts of time with parents (and yes, equally parents can and do monopolize the teacher) the appointment system goes to pot for most people as you get into the later part of the evening. So quite often, if I see a teacher sat there with no one waiting to see them for a while, I do jump in, asking if they can see me at that point.

It's rare that I want more than a minute or two at these things anyway. A parents evening consultation shouldn't be a surprise and if there is an issue raised, I'll agree to make an appointment at another time. I've never had to do that though.

user1489179512

Yes, because I walk around holding 15 pieces of paper at all times, with my seating plan (which incidentally wouldn't help outside of the classroom anyway, unless there were photos or every room was laid out the same) and even if I did and had to consult it to check who someone was, you would still say the least I could do was not glance down to look at it because I'm supposed to know them already hmm

And at Parents Evening, I do have information sheets on all the pupils I have in appointment order but what we are all trying to say is, that a lot of the time, we don't see parents at the exact appointment times or we so rarely teach their child that, therefore, mistakes happen!

Incidentally, I returned from maternity leave this time last year and still had to do the Year 7 Parents Evening not having taught the pupils yet, as we had only been back 2 days) with only the data given to me by my cover supply. Is that a good enough excuse?

Oh dear me. It sounds such a chore!

@KittyVonCatsington

Thanks TalkingofMichaelangelo & Kitty for the info. That is a lot of students - your time spent marking must be incredible. Our teachers would go into a swoon! I'm in awe of your workload (won't stop me bitching about my office job though!).

I lived in Britain as an adult (& have loads of friends and family there). Not having gone to school there, though, some of the finer points go over my head about the daily routine, so that's cleared up. I know many people in the U.K. feel their education system's gone downhill but I think ours could do with a lot of improvement and in many subject areas could learn from yours (though my kids said they were ahead in maths when they looked at the BBC GCSE revision guides).

Someone mentioned not to come on a thread about British education, but I think it's always okay to ask innocent questions and also I thought it was more about teacher behaviour.

I was feeling sympathetic and then I thought about when I was working, retired now. I was a Senior HR manager, 150 staff on 7 sites, some I would see once or twice a year. I knew all their names, knew most of their kids names, knew who had a mum in hospital, who was getting married next month, who was keen for overtime, who tended to miss work after payday because they had a drink problem. I always thought I was bad at names.

150 names much easier than around 600, a third to a half of which will change every year as you get new classes.

I'm a teacher (admittedly on mat leave now!) and if I only taught the same 150 pupils every year grannytomine (that's less than half the pupils I usually teach each week and they change every year) then I'd know them all as well!

I don't think any teacher above is saying they don't know any of the pupils' names. However, they are saying that it is surely understandable if not every name is memorised to every face, all of the time.

and user1489179512 - what a nasty sarcastic response to a poster. Not helpful at all.

One of my favourite parts of parents evenings is where you suddenly spot sibling connections that you'd never known before

In my first year at my school it wasn't until the first PE in around October that I actually realised that Pablo Garcia in 3A was actually the fraternal twin of Jose Garcia in 3C and Maria Garcia in 1A was their little sister ... I just thought they looked vaguely familiar but because they had a fairly common name and I always saw them at different times I hadn't connected the dots and none of my co-workers mentioned it as they had known them since they started so didn't realise I wouldn't know until they both sat down with their parents at PE and asked how their boys were getting on this year, now they were in separate classes, and that their daughter loved my class

Mel I'm a twin myself (very, very different to my sister!) and used to get that surprised look from teachers a lot myself at school

Zeppo I'm glad I'm not the only one then!

I think Karma wanted to get me though because a couple of years later we had a record number of 7 sets of twins - one set of identical boys, two of identical girls, one set of fraternal boys and three sets of fraternal boy/girl - and a set of triplets come into 1st grade in the same year. We had three first grade classes and various combinations of twins being separated/kept together depending on their parents' choice and one triplet per class, it was a nightmare for the first term as I tried to keep straight which twins were in which classes and who was with each other!

In Year 9 most schools have Art for 1 hour a week.
The Art teacher is likely to have (approx) 3 x Year 9, 3 x Year 8 and 3 x Year 7 if not more.
Add on to that GCSE groups and your DC's Art teacher has between 11-15 groups each week.
That's 275- 375 different students each week. Most seen only once a week.
YABU.

I teach drama and have 225 children through my door every week.

I do know all their names when they are in my classroom, but as I said in the post above, I was out with my own kids this week in London (not where we live) and saw one boy I teach. I looked his name up (can access our online praise system on my phone) to avoid embarrassment. His older brother was with him too. Older brother no longer does drama, though I taught him last year. I had totally forgotten his name.

For a few years I taught ethics to 750 medical students. On Wednesdys i saw all of them in a horrific timetable nightmare where I taught from 9 to 5 without a lunch break. By the end of the day I couldn't remember my name, much less anyone else's!

Yes, yes to surprising sibling connections!

By a complete fluke I have 2 Y7s who are sitting in exactly the same spots as their Y9 same sex and very similar looking siblings. I couldn't understand why I kept getting their names wrong all the time!

I'm a teacher (admittedly on mat leave now!) and if I only taught the same 150 pupils every year grannytomine (that's less than half the pupils I usually teach each week and they change every year) then I'd know them all as well!

If it was the same 150, never changing you would have a point but staff come and go, students in the holidays, recruiting new staff so interviewing dozens of people and I didn't see them every week, like I said 7 sites and staff working shifts so even if I visited their place of work they might not be there. I didn't just know their names, that would be pretty basic and as for not even recognising the child in the correct lesson and classroom, well surely you can see that isn't great?

Teachers have planning time so bit disingenuous to make out they are teaching a full timetable every day, some classes will be smaller and even with subjects like art students studying for GCSE and A level will be having more than an hour a week.

Two of my kids are teachers so I hear all about it. My daughter learns the names of all her new students in the summer holidays, she has photos of all the new students and within a few hours can name every one. Now I wish I could remember names like she can, as I said I have always considered myself bad at learning names.

Teachers have planning time so bit disingenuous to make out they are teaching a full timetable every day, some classes will be smaller and even with subjects like art students studying for GCSE and A level will be having more than an hour a week.

Every estimate I've seen on this thread has taken planning into account/underestimated numbers.

If a school has a 30 period week a full time teacher will have 24/25 lessons. If even 10 of those lessons are unique KS3 classes for an Art teacher that is easily 300 pupils. The other 15 classes may well be 3-4 classes of GCSE or A level, so maybe only another 50-100 I suppose,

And many schools run 2 week timetables which can mean way more unique classes per teacher than the above.

I have known PE teachers with over 500 reports to write in the summer term. It's not disingenuous, it's fact.

My daughter learns the names of all her new students in the summer holidays, she has photos of all the new students and within a few hours can name every one.

Wow, she gets class lists before September? If only! Ours chop and change until a couple of weeks into term.

Lucky you! Ours chop and change bloody constantly at the moment! And we also seem to have children coming short term as their parents move from one country to the next. Ive never know that to happen more than once every five years or so, now it is several students a year.

grannytomine

But that is still only 150 names to learn at any one time-I can do that! And I do! I know more names than that in fact, every year. But I don't know all of mine. Does that make sense?
And I don't spend my planning time sitting down and memorising names. I spend my planning time, planning lessons, marking work, writing reports, doing admin etc.

Two of my kids are teachers so I hear all about it
Please please don't think I am doubting you or that your children are not great at teaching. However, every teacher teaches in a different school, different subject, different procedures and even though I am a teacher, I wouldn't dream of presuming I know exactly what all other teachers' experiences are. Just like I would not profess to tell anyone in HR how they should do their job and I have experienced plenty who made mistakes in my previous private sector profession! Because that's what they are. Mistakes. Not something to get outraged over.

Anyway, the OP is clearly not coming back ever since some teachers have given their experiences, so this is all a bit moot anyway.

grannytomine
Your daughter is very clever learning names in the summer holidays! I have tried and was able to name all the kids in the photos. I was, however, unable to make the connection between the kid in the photo and the student in front of me. Luckily I only wasted one summer on that experiment

Teachers have planning time so bit disingenuous to make out they are teaching a full timetable every day, some classes will be smaller and even with subjects like art students studying for GCSE and A level will be having more than an hour a week.

Ok... So here is my actual timetable per week. Not full time and non- core subject. KS3 have ace. 25 students in each class.

4 x Year 7 - 1 hr p/w (100 students)
3 x Year 8 - 1 hr p/w ( 75 students)
3 x Year 9 - 1hr p/w (75 students)
1 x Year 10 - 2.5 hrs p/w (21 students)
1 x Year 11 - 2.5 hrs p/w (26 students)
1 x form 1.5 hrs p/w (24 students)

Total : 321 students are taught by me each week

Disclaimer (incase I haven't added that up correctly, can't be bothered to check). Friday night, in bed, f'ing knackered. Feeling very sorry for myself. 8.45pm. Sad life.