AIBU to expect an appointment at Y7 Parents evening?

[Allotment123]

I'm new to this whole secondary thing, lovely tutor who responds to email but apart from that one report with random levels (no explanation though lovely tutor then tried to explain over email).

We now have first parents evening coming up and have been told this,

"SUBJECT EVENING APPOINTMENTS - I think the best thing to say here is a famous British saying: Keep Calm and Carry On. Many parents are worried they are not getting appointments with teachers, I am sorry - it is honestly just not possible. I promise you that I am encouraging your child to set them, some teachers just do not have any slots left. Also, if your student is doing WELL in the subject the teacher will specifically not give them an appointment so they can speak to parents of students who are struggling. What does this mean? YOUR CHILD IS ACADEMICALLY AWESOME and WELL BEHAVED!"

Is this normal that you don't get to see teachers at parents evenings and does this continue up the school. Also told appointments are only 3 minutes anyhow.

At a school I (briefly) trained at year 7s had appointments with maths, science and English teachers, and form tutor who covered all the rest of the subjects using reports from those teachers. I thought it was a bit bizarre but I think they were just saving time in a huge school. I would be more concerned if EVERY single teacher insisted on seeing you tbh.

If your child is progressing and behaving well, why do you need an appointment?

Could you call and ask to speak the teacher on the phone if you can't get an appointment with them on parents evening?

We get to choose who we see. Lots of teachers teach more DC than there are appointment slots though, so you wouldn't be guaranteed an appointment if you wanted one. I personally wouldn't be that interested in a teacher saying my DC was great and there was no issues, so prioritising other DC does seem to make sense.

I teach in a secondary school and I teach all year 7 pupils, approx. 130 students. There is no possible way I could see more than 30 parents during the session. Many of my colleagues are in the same position. Therefore I try to target those who are struggling for whatever reason.

You should usually be able to see maths, english and science teachers, but not necessarily all of them.

It's normal for there to be not enough appointments to go round. And it's good that they are prioritising those who really need to have an apopintment. However, I'd be really annoyed at "academically awesome and well behaved" as it tells you nothing much about how your "academically awesome" child can continue to grow and develop in that subject. And I refuse to believe that a year 7 child has nothing they could be doing at home to support their learning.

One of the things I've particuarly enjoyed about parents' evenings at my children's secondary is that all staff consistently have something useful to say about what they are studying, how my child is getting on and what they should work on next - regardless of whether they are brilliant at the subject or find it hard. It's been such a refreshing change from primary, where all anyone ever said was "fine".

Are you able to contact subject teachers by email and ask for a brief report on how things are going.

It ‘s normal. Otherwise teachers who teach more than one class per year group would be there all night.

I would want an appointment. I think it should be first come, first served. Whilst I agree that it isn't always possible to see everyone, and I understand that children who are struggling need the appointments more, that doesn't mean I as a parent of Child A have any less right to discuss their progress than the parents of Child B. I might not feel my child is being stretched enough. I might not agree with the teacher's assessment.

My kids aren't at that stage yet, but I hadn't realised that you didn't get to see teachers at least once a year.

I think that's pretty poor. If your child isn't struggling how are you meant to support them to improve without feedback? Are you just expected to rely on you children's account?

If your child is struggling you speak to the teacher(s) concerned by phone/email/face to face meeting. You know if they are struggling because they have a constant stream of assessments, and reports every term. My 2 secondary DC both have parents' evenings in May this year - even if I could see all their teachers, I wouldn't want to wait till then to find out they were struggling.

That’s pretty poor tbh say the parents evening runs 4-9 for 2days say 5 min slots with 10 min break an hour that’s 100 appointments.

What kind of school do your DC go to Dipitydoda?

10 hours of parents evening for every year in the school? I'd hate to teach there, that's expecting far too much of the the teachers imo

Haha at that suggestion. So staff should work a full day, then another full day straight afterwards twice in a week? Teachers are leaving the profession in droves as it is!

No appointments are either of my son’s schools, just get in line for the teachers you want to see. Supposed to be 3 minutes. Last year (yr8) we waited and waited for 1 teacher, we gave up after he was still talking to the same parents after 20 minutes.

I would be annoyed to not b able to se my dc’s teachers.

I also don’t agree with the reasoning given - no parent should be finding out for the first time at parents evening that their child is struggling (and, quite frankly, if a child is struggling, here is bigger all that can be sorted out in a 5 min parents evening appt). If they are not finding this out for the first time, hen they have clearly had contact with the teacher before this event. Whereas the parent of a child not struggling hasn’t. So should be given the slots for parents evening. Surely everyone wants to be able to put a face to a name etc?

YANBU op. At all.

so the parents of kids doing great should all get appts to validate themeselves and their parenting, and the parents of the kids struggling should not?

;hmm]

Thanks. It just seems a huge leap from the primary school parents evening where you really get to see the teacher. I guess my concern if my child is 'doing fine and behaving' that's all they see, rather than how can they help that child excel. I appreciate the teachers teach all day and there's lots of kids but to only get negative feedback rather than positive feedback seems the opposite of primary. (I've never got good merit phonecalls, postcards home etc from the secondary).

so the parents of kids doing great should all get appts to validate themeselves and their parenting, and the parents of the kids struggling should not?

I have never seen all my child's teachers - I just pick the subjects I want to hear about and its nice for my DCs to be there and get good feedback from teachers where they are doing well. If I have particular concerns I email the teachers or arrange a phone chat. They always get in touch.

We get two reports a year - one a summary of grades, the other is a longish paragraph about each subject with a point about how they can improve their performance. When I looked back at my school reports from the same age all they said was my mark in the end of year and something like "good".

Our school has 330 or 360 kids per year. Particularly in the lower years, some teachers may teach 3/4/5 classes Inna year group. Parents evening is 5 mins appointments and each teacher only has 36 slots so if they teach more than 1 class there will never be enough appointments. If you want to speak to a particular teacher though, you can phone or email the office and ask that teacher to contact you. Not a problem.

As for the pp who said have 2 evenings per year at 5 hours each evening. That could potentially be 14 evenings a year. An extra 5 hours on top of a full teaching day each time. On top of staff meetings, planning marking, assessing, pastoral care, extra curricular clubs that the teachers already do after school. No, just no.

At my children's secondary school we get a notification of parents evening then book appointments in with the teachers on a app. I think in yr7 it's good to be able to speak to the teachers as it's a big step for the children going from primary to secondary.

That's a very poorly written communication.
Refer the school to the Plain English Campaign.
www.plainenglish.co.uk/

It’s perfectly normal. If your child is performing well, and you’ve had a written report, what’s the problem? DD in year ten, has already been told she probably won’t get a chemistry appointment because the poor teacher has three classes, ie approx 90 pupils. Clearly no way she can see everyone on the same evening. Based on the written, termly, reports DD is doing fine in chemistry so no real need. If that changes the teacher will contact us by email and we’ll go from there.

If you are going to see a teacher only to be told- they are doing really well no problems, what's the point?

Leave the teachers to see the parents of kids who are struggling.