AIBU to think that parents evening is supposed to be for the benefit of parents?

[EvilTwins]

I'll put this in at the beginning - I am a secondary school teacher. I also have twin DDs in Year 7 (not the school I teach at) and their parents evening is this week. Before half term, they brought home reports, which were really complicated (a whole other thread there) but each subject had a colour - purple meant everything was great, green was good, orange meant the DC was underperforming, and red mean there were real issues. The letter which accompanied the report said that if a subject had been marked as orange, parents should make an appointment with the subject teacher.

DTDs went into school with a list of teachers we therefore needed to see, but several have told them that they "don't need to see" us. My issues with this are:

1. If the letter says that orange = appointment needed then surely an appointment should be given, and
   
2. On parents evening, if I ask for an appointment with a teacher, I should be given one.

[WheresTheHooferDoofer]

We have an online booking system for parents evening. While DS was doing fine in most subjects, I wanted to speak to a couple of teachers in areas he's having issues. His Egnlish is fine, apparently, seems his own perception of how he is doing is worse than the teacher's assessment, bt it was useful to exchange information with the teacher on how DS sees things.

DS's report shows his general behaviour and attitude to homework is fine, so I haven't bothered speaking to the teachers for a couple of subjects that I know he's not considering for his GCSE options.

So I do actually view parents evening as a place not just for teachers to talk about the student, but also where parents can ask questions. DS is doing well in Maths and Science, but there were some tips and ideas on how he can improve even more.

[SashaSashays]

I too expect to be able to see every teacher and usually do. For me the green and purple subjects throw up an issue of coasting.

Yes it’s only year 7 but my DS was set for every subject on entering the school and was mainly in the top set. Looking at his report he was performing well BUT not actually to the best of his ability. Quite a lot of minimum effort and coasting because it seemed to be the schools view that he is in top set, getting good results why do better. In reality talking to the teachers I got a better idea of what was going on.

I’m not a teacher and I imagine it varies on the school, but there seems to be a culture now of dragging everyone up to a certain level and those natural at or ahead of that don’t seem to be pushed any further?

I would want to know if in green how do they get to be in purple?i think you should take it up with the school at a higher level.

[SweetMoon]

As a parent I would expect to be able to see my childs teachers for any subject I felt I needed to discuss things with them during a parents evening. Regardless of colour. But as they stated orange needs a consultantation they are very unreasonable not to allow an appointment. If my child had orange, I would still want to see the teacher even if they decided it was actually ok as there are clearly things which need discussing and which I may be able to help my dcs with.

[Piggywaspushed]

I also wouldn't respond very ell to being told who I should and should not see (as an English teacher I feel the burden there, too). I see all teachers at parents' evening and am always clear to my DCs that every lesson matters I even see the art teachers even though neither of them can hold a pencil the PE teachers always look shocked when I hove into view!

[EvilTwins]

Thanks for the responses. I have emailed the HOY again but have had no reply as yet.

I imagine this has thrown up the real problem, which is their reports. The reports seemed very work heavy - each subject teacher had graded each child 1-4 against a number of subject specific criteria, with 4 being top. The grades were then averaged out, and that is where the Purple/Green/Orange/Red came from. If a DC got an overall "score" of 2.67 or lower, it was orange. It seemed unnecessarily complicated and since there were different numbers of criteria for different subjects, it's not even possible to accurately compare performance across subjects.

I'd still like an appointment with the maths teacher though!

[Piggywaspushed]

As a teacher, I would add how interesting it is that so many people (teachers and non teachers) don't have a problem with adding to teachers'' workloads by arranging separate appointments/ emails/ expecting phone calls.

It seems to me that your DTDs' school ahs tried to address a problem common in all secondary schools, and there are teething problems.

I wish I had a solution but I really don't. The parents' evenings of yore no longer work in large schools, unless the number of evenings is increased, which is not a popular solution!

I had 8 people on my waiting list for a parents evening before half term (electronic booking) but haven't called them. If they emailed me, I replied.

[humblesims]

I would take it as an indication that they have recently done a test/assessment where the DC have fallen marginally below the target for green but the general trend is fine. This happens all the time. The reports are inflexible and computer generated but the teachers know who is progressing fine. It will just mean there is a slight blip into the orange and they will prioritise those that are really under performing. Ring or email the school and have a chat with the relevant teachers.

[Piggywaspushed]

Please don't literally push and shove : this actually happened at a parents' evening I was in charge of . I had to break up an actual fight...!

[AjasLipstick]

You need to push and shove OP. Don't take no for an answer.

[needmysleep75]

I had this last month, DD is yr11 so very important to see her teachers. I booked appointments online to see all teachers, only have some of my appointments cancelled. I was the annoying parent who went and spoke to them anyway on the night. The one teacher who couldn't be at parents evening through illness actually rang all the parents to discuss progress. I would tell the school straight that you want to talk to them.

[EvilTwins]

It is an academy, yes, but all the secondaries in our area are. This one is not part of a MAT.

[AjasLipstick]

Is this an academy by any chance?

[Zaphodsotherhead]

My kids' school ran the same system as gabdot. Admittedly a smaller secondary school, with around 600 pupils and no sixth form, but the teachers did see every single parent. We were each given a three minute slot and told to make an appointment if there were any issues that weren't covered in that slot. The school I worked at (different school) had the same system but was bigger (1000).

I assume schools that don't do this are bigger still?

[HopscotchShots]

Maybe send them in with a letter requesting to see the teachers?

[TotHappy]

I used to teach secondary RE, at least 600 kids every year, and one year i did have 5 year 7 classes. Yes the colour coding has not been done by teachers, most likely automatically generates if they are 'below target', in Humanities in y7 this is utterly meaningless as the data from y6 is totally unreliable to generate their targets. So they probably are not actually underperforming and the teacher knows it. I might have said to a child 'i don't need to see your parents' in a case like that, its a reassurance not a dismissal, but of course if you need to see them, you should. If a child had said 'mum wants to see you thought of course i would've made an appointment. Maybe send them in again to ask and tell the teacher you really want to see them anyway. I'd be surprised if they refuse.

[Spikeyball]

Sometimes I taught 90 children in a year group. There were 25 slots in an evening so I couldn't see them all although I did offer telephone appointments or to see parents just before or just after school.

[roundaboutthetown]

Seems like a good indication that SLT and teachers do not see eye to eye and they are making this obvious to the parents. I would be a bit concerned about the morale of the staff at the school and thus about the teaching and atmosphere in general. It hardly indicates a united front, does it?!

[wrenika]

It does seem daft that you can't get an appointment with teachers who marked their subject orange.

I can definitely see the advantage of a 'traffic light' system, because there's really no need to see the teacher if the child is performing well in the subject. My parents never went to parents nights from the 'parent' side of it. They were both teachers and since I was performing well, they didn't see the point.

[gabsdot]

My son has 12 different teachers and we got to see all of them at parents evening. Each teacher had a table set up in the gym hall and we had a list of who we needed to see and we just queued up and had a chat with each one in turn. It took about 3 hours.

[Piggywaspushed]

Oh dear. This sounds like a disaster waiting to happen!

The trouble is , as schools have become larger, parents evenings are unsustainable for the teachers ( I teach 3 year 10 classes , 80 students : it's not going to work!)

What you can bet is that the red, orange , green codes will not have been input by the teachers themselves...

But, yes, as a parent, you should be able to see the teachers you want to see, where possible.

[EvilTwins]

Zigzag I emailed the HOY when we first got these "you don't need an appointment" responses - I wanted to raise issues I have with the report anyway (it's full of numbers but they are meaningless - it seems the school has created a life after levels system that no one understands - the DC had no idea what it all meant, DH couldn't make head nor tail of it) and also to ask about the issues with parents evening. She hasn't got back to me yet. I emailed a fortnight ago - granted, half term has been in that time and I don't expect her to get back to me during her holiday, but I'm pretty sure the girls are telling the truth about the teachers. DTD1 is a proper geek and likes following rules, so even if DTD2 was in trouble in Maths for chatting and therefore not wanting an appointment in case this came out, DTD1 would not be in the same position.

[EvilTwins]

Sirzy - no, not aware of any underperformance at all. I really want to see the teacher to find out what the issue is and what we can do to support our DDs at home. I'm pretty annoyed that the teacher has told both my DDs (they're in separate classes) that she "doesn't need" to see us. I need to see her!

[ZigZagIntoTheBlue]

Have you tried emailing the teacher and copying in their form tutor or hoy? I'm wondering if they actually asked and got those answers or have just told you that as they don't want you to find out they've been repeatedly told off for chatting or whatever

[Pengggwn]

I think this is very poor. As a teacher I don't expect to have to make myself constantly available to parents - I'd rather spend my time on the students - but for one evening a year, it's not too much to ask that you, the parent, get some one-to-one time with your child's teachers so you can discuss what you would like to discuss.

That said, the school may have something to answer for here. If they have timetabled poorly and have one poor Geography teacher taking three Y7 groups, there is no way that person will have time in one evening to see everyone.