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Original poster

Booking secondary school parents evening appointments. What the fuck just happened?

118 replies

BoobiesToTheRescue · 26/03/2019 20:07

It was switched in at 8pm tonight.
I got in there at 8pm because I have a baby who has no interest in parents evening and likes to make his distaste known.

By 20.05 all the appointments for all the subjects had gone.

I managed to get a few in there but what the hell?!

Is this how it works?! (He's Y7, this is all new to me.)

OP posts:
EndoplasmicReticulum · 26/03/2019 21:25

It's like tickets for Glastonbury here too.

Almost impossible. With this in mind, I didn't book for year 9 son's parents' evening. I then got a phone call from head of year asking why I wasn't going!

JaffacakesAreCakesNotBiscuits · 26/03/2019 21:25

My ds old school was like that and apparently if u don't get in it's tuff as there's not enough time for each teacher to see all their students on one night.
I managed to get one lesson at 4.05..next 5pm. 2 more at 6pm and 6.25. One at 7.15 and one at 7.55.
I ended up emailing the head as I was 40+1. Due induction next day. wasn't gonna spend 4 hours in a crowded school. The core subject teachers either called or messaged me. Which was good.

His new school is, all teachers in hall and just t sit and wait. Was in and out within 1 hour.

topcat2014 · 26/03/2019 21:39

We got about 5 appointments in the end.

topcat2014 · 26/03/2019 21:39

And went to the pub afterwards!

lljkk · 26/03/2019 21:41

DS1 never booked any, we just crashed (most teachers had a few empty slots & we waited nearby for one).

other DC book the appts themselves. Sometimes the teachers limit spaces to only pupils who need extra support.

tillytrotter1 · 26/03/2019 21:46

We had a situation once where a Parents' Evening clashed with an FA Cup replay of their precious, much more important than their child, football team. Tons turned up at 6pm, start time, and tried demanding to be seen in the order they arrived, not their appointment time. Took great delight in seeing people in appointment order and managed to get home earlier as so many missed their slot. I also refused to waste time seeing anyone after school on other days, they prioritised a football match, their choice.
The other problem is that the ones you would really like to see rarely bother until Year 11, after mocks, these turn up and 'tell' you that s/he needs a C, or whatever it is now.

Findingthingstough18 · 26/03/2019 21:47

Am genuinely astonished that any schools have the parents of yr 7s see their subject teachers - my own school had a 'see your form tutor up to yr 9' system and so have both the schools DH has worked at so I assumed that was the standard. I've just asked DH how he would feel about it and he said 'I teach over 100 yr 7s, I would have something interesting to say about about 10 of them and I've already spoken to the parents of all 10 of those children'.

FullOfJellyBeans · 26/03/2019 21:51

I like the sound of you can request to see the teacher or they can request to see you. Agree that if the DC is trotting along OK I'd be happy to just read the school report feel relieved and move on. Only really has value if you or the teacher have something specific to adress. It's not like primary school where one teacher knows your child really well and might have a more detailed discussion.

clary · 26/03/2019 21:56

There might well not be enough appointments for everyone...school I worked in, p eve ran 4-6.30, so 30 slots. I often used to teach four yr 7 classes. You do the maths.

OP I suggest you email the teachers you couldn't see - or keep an eye out on the night for an empty chair due to a no show.

Sleepsoon7 · 26/03/2019 21:57

Online appointment booking for us. I try and book as soon as appointments go live. So far always got what we needed though we tend to go for latest appointments when we have finished work ( and everyone else has lost the will to live...) Mind you we learnt early on to avoid subjects DC has no interest in and had no intention of keeping on. The art, music, drama and IT teachers were never troubled by our presence......

puppy23 · 26/03/2019 21:58

Ours changed it so they have the full day from 9-7 for appointments, with several days a year so each only has 2 year groups in it. Must be hell for the staff though

Bumply · 26/03/2019 22:05

System used to be that child went round the teachers the parent wanted to visit and got appointments, which meant hours apart and risk of 'missing' the one your child didn't want you to see.
Now it's all done by computer program. Login , give child's details and desired time frame and the computer program works out most efficient set of appointments with the teachers automatically with option to untick ones you don't need/want to see.
Still the odd queue on the night if some parents need more than allotted time, but so much better than it used to be.

CordeliaEarhart · 26/03/2019 22:21

In my last school the kids had to make an appointment. I'd tell them in advance that I had no chance of seeing everyone and everyone above yr7 knew the system didn't work. So I'd tell them (privately) if I wanted to see their parents and asked the rest of the class to let me know if their parents particularly wanted to see me. Then I didn't go home til I'd seen everyone on both lists. Sometimes meant staying an extra half hour or so, but it meant all the important conversations happened on the night, thus reducing additional workload later on.

Current school spreads the year groups (so you'd never teach more than 2 classes of the same year group) and has small classes (max 20 - private school) so I manage to see pretty much everyone who comes.

MotherToMany · 26/03/2019 22:24

I gave up in Yr10 with my twins.

DTS1 would only get a few appointments, sometimes one after another on the opposite side of the school, or 1 hour apart! DTS2 would get none as he forgot (SN) so I'd have to race round and see if any of his teachers were free in between DTS1s. It was my most loathed school event. In the end I said teachers can call me if concerns (I was in constant contact regarding behaviourally challenged DS2 anyway).

It was stressful enough doing it with oldest DC with parents trying to push in or going well over time but there was only one of her! DH will be doing youngest DCs in 2 years!? Sad

MotherToMany · 26/03/2019 22:26

No idea where that Sad came from. I'll be delighted when DS3 starts secondary school and 20 years of waiting of the school gates will be over Grin.

KittyMcKitty · 26/03/2019 22:29

Parents Evening bookings are a nightmare and not for the faint hearted!

Our system has a “choose the time for me option” and this is the way to go - select the subjects you want and push the button and it does the rest!

bellie710 · 26/03/2019 22:31

Our parents night is like speed dating, all the parents make appointments but if you walk in and a seat is free you jump on it! Can waste a whole evening if you don't know how to play the game!

CandyflossKid · 26/03/2019 22:33

I have twins - booking parent's evening appointments is an absolute nightmare!!
I

MirandaWest · 26/03/2019 22:38

Our online booking system opens at 7am. By 7:05 all the appointments were gone. Only failed to get one of year 10 DSs teachers and had them all within an hour Tbh if he had to book them we would probably see one at 4:30 and one at 7 and he’d forget the rest...

dreichuplands · 26/03/2019 22:39

candyfloss I share your pain. Our after school clubs are also done the same way. I have to sit with two devices open at the same time, each one set to a different DC. System always crashes multiple times.

BlitheringIdiots · 26/03/2019 22:53

I picked the subjects that I had something to discuss. Didn't see them all. This year (8) I hid from the languages teacher

PookieDo · 26/03/2019 22:58

This year DD14 only managed to book 5 teachers and one ‘forgot’ about her so we ended up seeing 4 in 2 hours. Total waste of my evening and everyone else’s TBH

MoaningMinniee · 26/03/2019 22:58

YY as a couple of PPs have said... twins ... dear lord! There were six sets of twins in our daughters secondary school year, four of whom we'd known since ante-natal anyway. We became accustomed to travelling in a sort of weird double pack, a load of dads in one lot and a load of mums in the other.

Jcsp · 26/03/2019 23:04

As a teacher I’d spend some time explaining the system. (Particularly y7s)

  1. Sort out appointments ASAP. Find out what sort of time your parents want to come in.
  1. Leave a gap between each to allow for previous parents overstaying their welcome and travelling time. ( like 1 slot not 30 mins.)
  1. Sort out popular/‘important’ subjects first.

Those who followed my advice had relatively stress free evenings.

Towards the end of the evening I’d go round and find parents who were late for me/missed their slot. I’d do my bit whilst they waited for another missed/late running slot.

The evenings never run to exact timings.

iolaus · 27/03/2019 13:16

Makes me glad by the time the kids get to comp their school just do a system of all the teachers are in the gym and the queue up and see them all in the order you want