...to love virtual parents evening

[LODReturn]

Just had my first virtual parents evening. Amazing! No standing round the hall trying to work out which teacher you need to see, no other parents craning to heart what is being said about someone else's child or standing behind the parent who wants to take 20 minutes to discuss their cherub when it is a 5 minute slot...

You log in, get connected to the teacher at your appointment time & the system boots you out dead on 5 minutes. There is a timer that lets you know how much time is left if you need to prioritise questions.

AIBU to hope that parents evening always stays like this?

YANBU so much easier!

It's great

I love it. I hope they don’t go back to the old way. This is so much calmer and more relaxed.

It is good!

Love it!

YADNBU!!
Both my husband and I like to go to parents evening, which means organising (and paying for) babysitters and a mad rush in the evenings.

It's amazing isn't it. DD1's school is moving to this system from now on, even post pandemic. Result!

Yanbu
I hope that they are here to stay

It is 1000% better for all the reasons you describe.

I knew it would be more convenient: run on time, no queuing, all done within an hour.

What I didn't expect was how awesome it would be to have the teachers full attention, the quiet and the privacy.

I must remember to send emails to my kids schools in case they are thinking of changing back.

Our parents evening was just a phone call. Can't wait to get the old parents evenings back. I love being able to look through my kids work books before the appointment and getting a much better feel for what they've been doing in school.

YANBU. I believe they will be keeping Parents evening online at my son’s school which I’m very happy about. My friend is a teacher and also prefers them - she doesn’t know yet whether they will keep them but it looks likely as the response has been very positive.

Totally agree, I just picture the ones who would usually take 20 minutes in full flow and then zap! they're cut off.

I bet teachers love it too

Our school is currently considering whether to keep it. From the viewpoint of both a teacher and parent, it’s far, far less fannying around.

The only concern is if it means some parents can’t access it due to lack of technology.

Love virtual parents evening. No having to find a babysitter.

Only down side is that you can't see the kids work until they bring it home end of the year.

loved it - i booked every other slot to give time to chat about the next slot and any questions and could take notes.

I like this: much less stressful in terms of trying to get childcare or sort kids routine around it, it actually feels private and DH could join from work

DH is deputy head and says all the teachers also love it. Everyone gets a fair amount of time and much better attendence.

We had ours with a phone call which I didn’t mind too much either

I love it too, dd is at high school and it meant I could speak to seven teachers in half an hour without any waiting around or queuing. All from the comfort of my sofa!
No going over the five minute slots either. No stressing about collecting the other dc from football training.
Really hope schools keep it, I know it won’t suit everyone but neither did the old system either

I bet the teachers must love the fact that parents evening actually finishes on time - I can imagine how late some of the old ones used to go on until...

Absolutely love it, I hope it stays! So much easier and no overrunning for aaagggeesss

I was really pleased that DS's school decided to do in-person parents' evening. I spend all day on Teams. I would have been very disappointed if it had been online.

Also love it. Some of the teachers had clearly stayed at school, some had made it home. Better work/life balance for everyone. If there are major issues they shouldn’t be waiting until Parents’ Evening anyway.

At the primary we got 10 mins instead of the usual 5. If looking at books is important to you our school has always done Open Evenings where for 30 mins after school you pop in and have a flick through.

But overall, I can give up the books for a much quicker, easier parents’ evening.

We had the choice of phone call or zoom great I don’t know what will happen next year as she’s going to high school same one as my boys went to but that was pre pandemic

I agree however 2 off our calls were unsuccessful and they were the 'important topics' we managed to catch up with one teacher but not the other. Otherwise I do agree much easier.