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.

[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.

[AjasLipstick]

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

[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...!

[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]

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.

[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]

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!

[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.

[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.

[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.