School contact and parents evenings??

[Jigglypuffler]

Obviously, totally appreciate schools are doing the best they can due to covid, bubbles etc etc.

We are getting very minimal/next to no contact from DC's school (primary/infant), and this has been the case since March. We've now been told there won't be an autumn parents evening of any kind as normal (either f2f, phone or virtual), but we will receive a written report instead, and that if we have concerns we can contact school to discuss.

AIBU to feel that this isn't OK, and while I appreciate the restrictions this school is working within, that there must be some way of allowing more of a dialogue between teachers and parents? We have no idea how DC are doing - we're just guessing based on the reading books they're bringing home, there's no homework or anything similar coming back. I know a report will give some answers, but it gives us no opportunity to ask questions (both ways) or obtain any further understanding. I also think only having a discussion if there's a concern isn't particularly helpful for any of us - it feels like conversations will only happen in a negative context instead of with a more rounded and holistic approach.

I always worry I'm being 'that' parent if I object to their approach, even though sometimes I know it's OK to be that parent and to want to have more contact between us and the school... AIBU to want to say something?

My son’s school is having no parents’ evening at all. So I think any school doing something is doing amazingly.
I did call the school about an issue DS had and the teacher was available and spoke to me after hours, so I was happy with that. She is commenting on his homework online and he is so much happier and doing better than in his class last year. So the main thing I want to say to her is thank you, because I had real concerns last year and his teacher was very disengaged. I will email the school probably.

By the way, I don’t expect an in-person parents’ evening, I meant schools doing something on line in my post above. Just realised that was not clear.

Actually OP I don’t think that sounds good enough, and I would be concerned too. For comparison, DD’s (state primary) school are doing parents evening virtually with 10 minute Teams appointments. They have also been putting loads (photos, videos, updates, comments), daily, on Tapestry (for the infants like DD) and while obviously I haven’t seen it as my DC are not at that stage I understand they are doing similar with class dojo for the older kids. I feel like we have a dialogue going - I can add posts to tapestry too, they respond very promptly - and it’s reassuring. We also have had virtual pre term “meet your new teacher” and a class welcome meeting over Teams.

We use the class dojo app , it's been really useful for teacher contact . I'm happy to carry on with it , any concerns have dealt with and it's handy to fire over a quick message .

@NoIDontWatchLoveIsland

I dont understand why primary schools can't do socially distanced parents evenings. A single teacher in their own classroom, parents enter one household at a time and are seated 2+ metres away. These are adults, so masks can be worn and everyone asked to wash hands etc before entering. It's a very low risk scenario, lower risk that supermarket shopping etc. Its not a group scenario, there's almost no chance of physical contact, no sport etc so no heavy breathing.

If teachers can't manage that, they really are making excuses to sack off.

I completely disagree with this. I work at a large school and we couldn’t get all parents seen in a socially distanced way without due to the number of parents we need to see as a school. Parents ask to use the toilet etc we couldn’t say no. One entrance and exit and narrow corridors means parents would be in close contact. If we did it in the hall we would still be mixing too much due to limited space.

As a PP said in a lot of schools staff meetings are on Zoom and if additional meetings are required, we are only allowed to meet in small groups outside.

In my school we are not allowed to wear masks or visors anywhere in school even at collection time after school. I can see the situation where we ask parents to wear a mask to a parents’ evening meeting but some wouldn’t do it. We would have to sit alongside parents to do the appointment not opposite due to the risk.

It is far better to do these meetings on Zoom or over the phone. The same conversations can be had but it’s so much safer for staff and parents.

I'm a secondary teacher and this evening have my second parents evening of the term online on Zoom. It works really well and means I get to go home and do parents evening there so I love it.
OP if I were you I would call the school and see if it's possible to request a phone call with the teacher. Surely that wouldn't be impossible? If it were me I would want to talk to them too, I think that's totally understandable.

We did it via a 5 minute phone call. There's no reason to see the teacher face to face but is nice to have a chat and get an idea of how things are going. Its nice to ask questions and get a feel for what the teacher's actually like.

I would have thought a 5 minute phone call wouldn't be more work than a written report anyway.

We have had lots of email contact, a parents evening on Teams in a few weeks and the teachers will arrange phone calls or socially distanced face to face meetings as required.

Both the DC’s schools have asked us to book time slots for teacher meetings; DS’s (Y7) will be by zoom
, DD’s will be by phone.

Sorry, Teams not Zoom for DS. ⬆️

We've already had our first parents evening for our DC at primary school over Teams. Each class has 10 minute slots every 15 minutes over four nights so plenty of choice, easily bookable over an online Calender app, can't remember which one. Traditional phone calls available for anyone who didn't want to use Teams. All ran like clockwork and it was as effective as a traditional face to face meeting. I think YANBU, schools have had months to put these things in place and it was not rocket science. State school BTW.

It's not good enough. It's lazy, frankly.

We've had a google meet parents eve this term - codes were sent out and parents clicked at the relevant time. Easy. All it requrired was the teacher having a classroom and access to a laptop. Astonishing to think this would not be possible!!

I seriously don't know what you expect. Ring the school if you want to talk to a teacher. Don't come on here complaining which achieves precisely nothing - just pick up the phone.

Our junior school has been amazing so far. Our class teacher comes out to the playground at the end of the day and you can speak to her there and she can also raise any concerns. Emails are welcome as are phone calls. I have just booked his parents evening for next week via zoom. The overrunning which is normally experienced should hopefully be easier to stop - calls cut off due to "technical difficulties ". I feel that they are doing everything they can to stay in touch as they always have done.

Thanks everyone. It's reassuring to hear from teachers who won't feel put upon by those of us who do want more than a report, and from those whose schools are able to accommodate more.

@biggerboat1 I haven't actually been complaining, have I. I wanted to get some understanding of whether my gut reaction to the situation was misplaced before contacting the school. My DH hadn't even met DC's new teacher, couldn't pick her out from a line up. That's not really OK, IMO. But not everyone will agree, I get that.

We haven't heard anything about parents evening, either online or on the phone for ds (yr 10) I presume we wouldn't be having anything

Ours are doing 10 min allocated phone calls. I expect I’ll get my call 20 mins either side of my time as per the usual face to face set up.

Our school have been pretty on it tbh, setting up GC for all 600 odd kids and if you have any questions you just email and they come back to you- normally the same day. They also make a point of emailing/ calling to let you know positives.

OP sounds like your school are lacking any drive or desire to do anything other than the bare minimum. Really, there’s rarely a reason why one school can do something like this but another can’t- you just stagger the appointments over a few weeks if phones are an issue. Their attitude just shows a lack of willing and initiative.

PE isn’t just about airing problems which some seem to think with comments like “if there’s a problem they’ll let you know”. They are to give an all round update. The good, the bad what’s needs work. They help keep the dialogue between home and school open which in turn helps kids feel more supported.

Thanks @Bamski. I love the school normally, they are very supportive in other ways, but they haven't managed very well in terms of opening up communication from home to school during this, which is disappointing.

Doing parents evening over the phone. Brilliant idea!!!!! I wish it could be like this ever year as we struggle with shift work and have no childcare support so missed the last two parents evenings

*I dont understand why primary schools can't do socially distanced parents evenings. A single teacher in their own classroom, parents enter one household at a time and are seated 2+ metres away. These are adults, so masks can be worn and everyone asked to wash hands etc before entering. It's a very low risk scenario, lower risk that supermarket shopping etc. Its not a group scenario, there's almost no chance of physical contact, no sport etc so no heavy breathing.

If teachers can't manage that, they really are making excuses to sack off.*

This is just daft! How on earth are they going to get the parents in and out of the class rooms without running into each other in corridors (unless they leave a long window between appointments and stay there all night). Why is having a conversation with a teacher from a 2m distance wearing masks going to be more illuminating that having a zoom meeting?

I think you need to grow up a bit and move with the times. You can find out everything you need to know over zoom. So stop trying to recreat a model that doesn't work anymore.

Hmmm - not sure. Are they many kids? We have our video time catch ups with the teacher one a month for 15 minutes.

We are doing ours via zoom before half term.

There will be as many parents evenings as there would be during a normal year but just done on video call rather than in person.

I dont understand why primary schools can't do socially distanced parents evenings. A single teacher in their own classroom, parents enter one household at a time and are seated 2+ metres away.
Hell no! That teacher’s health is all that is between my child‘s education and wellbeing and chaos. Even a tiny (not so tiny given how idiotic some parents behave) is too much! i would be absolutely appalled at a head teacher risking her staff like that. Phone and zoom/teams are perfectly acceptable.

I agree that trying to run it as normal but socially distanced is a bad idea. I wondered if they might spread it out over more days/weeks over a term to do it in person, but don't understand why a phone call or zoom isn't being offered. Our spring parents evening was cancelled, and I get why it wasn't don't remotely at that point - but as others have pointed out we're now 8 months into this new way of things, surely there's been time to find a middle ground between normal parents evening and nothing by now.

@lioncitygirl there are c. 20 kids in each year at our school.

I dont understand why primary schools can't do socially distanced parents evenings. A single teacher in their own classroom, parents enter one household at a time and are seated 2+ metres away

Except parents won’t only come one household at a time. Parents don’t all have synchronised watches, both parents may be coming from different locations, they’ll wait around between meetings if more than one child, they’ll shelter in the building if it’s raining when they arrive....

I’m much happier with Zoom