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

[BoobiesToTheRescue]

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.)

Kids make their own appointments here. That was a fun evening in year 7 with twins.
Now they're in year 9 we've fine tuned the system and it's like a military operation.

Top tip, get there half an hour earlier. If you see a teacher without a parent just plonk your self down and get on with it. If you miss anyone out, Phone and ask for a telephone appointment. Also, don't hog the teacher, it all falls apart when parents don't know when to move on.

Some kids get, in essence, "priority booking". At our school the children who receive pupil premium funding are able to book earlier than others. This is because they are more likely to have difficult home lives and it's a way to encourage those parents to attend.

Year 7 parents also probably book to see every single teacher even when they don't need to.

I log on at 0:06 (system goes live at 0:05) to get appointments for DT's. The sleep deprivation is worth it.

Our DC have left school, but at theirs you put in your preferred time, you had to put your subjects in order of preference, it was all put into a computer er voila! The teachers were in the hall in alphabetical order, a bell was rung after the end of each appointment, every 5/10 minutes. As painless as it could be b

Ours is an online booking system, I've always gotten an appointment for every teacher....although in reality we just queue up and see who's free to see us, nobody sticks to the list

What suggestions do people have for managing it when some teachers teach 60+ kids in one year and 5 mins with each of those would be a 5 hour evening?

I’m a terrible parent. Didn’t attend year 7 or 8 parents evenings. We have reports every half term and a huge one end of year. They get behaviour points- good and bad and what they are for, all on the system. So unless there was an issue, I don’t see the point. He’s in top sets and achieving on or above target.

However we have year 9 shortly, and I’ve booked in for all core subjects plus those subjects he’s hoping to take at GCSE. As I feel I need the teachers feedback now, and I can ask some questions I have.

Personally I think parents evening should start in the day during school hours.
I know this won't happen in many schools due to lack of learning time but I don't see why teachers should be expected to stay so long ,unpaid, after school.

Parent's evening is a nightmare. The children book the appointments for us here. English, Maths and Science are always the most popular. The teachers are either in the hall or upstairs in one of three floors. We spend hours going up and downstairs waiting in queues. We have my Dd's next week. She has tried to get appointments with some teachers only to be told they are only seeing the children who are behind in school.

Last year DD's maths teacher (Y7) was new. He had two classes, so he booked one child from each class in for the same time slot🙄.

Absolute mayhem!

It'll be interesting to see if he does the same this year 😆

I had twins and it was a nightmare. Felt like I was doing a sprint all evening. Some classes were together but most separate. This is not taken into consideration in system. Felt I was being discriminated against have two in same year. Now I would demand time with the teachers I didn't get to meet on the evening.

I used to be at the other end of this and tried my hardest to give all pupils a fair crack of the whip with appointments that fitted in with other subjects. However, it is impossible to fit everyone in perfectly. Being a bit OTT about education, though, I used to sit the whole evening out at my own children's parents'evenings to see all their teachers though I realise that would be nigh on impossible with a baby.

What about focussing on the core subjects and anything you have particular concerns about?

My DS is also Y7 so new to this but I was very impressed with his school's system. He booked the appointments and then it was like speed dating, with an actual clock on a screen with a loud beep at the end of the 5 mins. The only slight hickup was that we didn't realise the science teacher was in another building so didn't have enough time to get there in time. Next year we will be pro's though

The children book ours. I managed to see all the teachers and her head of house despite only having appointments with a few booked in. You hang round in the gaps between appointments and see if you can slot in for two minutes.

Next year will be easier, starting GCSEs early so fewer subjects.

I wish we had this ring the bell/speed dating system. Our schedule fell apart when one parent spent 15 minutes with the geography teacher.
I have a friend, went over and tapped a parent on the shoulder and told them they were using his time and so move on. His son nearly died of mortification, fortunately friend has no shame!

WombatChocolate - DS' school closes for the whole day. It's badged as Parent's Day. Slots are still like golddust, plus you have to take annual leave if you work. Not sure it's any better!

Wombat chocolate - when I was teaching secondary we had two evenings per year group for parents to choose from. I taught almost all year 7 at one point so 200+ children. It wasn't possible to see every child and I made that clear at the start. It was a case of prioritising, and if a parent who really wanted to see me couldn't get a slot I'd send them a slip of paper home with a comment or two, or speak briefly on the phone. But it was a nightmare and if you taught all 5 (or 7 with sixth form - only one night per year group) years it was so many parents evenings - 12 parents evenings.

Just email the teachers