...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?

Also loved it. I was dreading secondary parents evening due to my poor health. But virtual was so easy to manage. A couple of technical hitches but all in all so much packed in to 5 mins per teacher.

I really hope this doesn't continue in future years. Would make me very sad to miss another example of in person communication on top of all the hundreds of conversations that have been replaced by video calls.

Same here, I'm a teacher and plan to keep my meetings virtual for as long as I can. It's much easier to boot a parent out of a virtual meeting when they're waffling on and eating into someone else's slot.

And on a slightly more serious note, I can think of a couple of dick parents who I'd have ended the meeting with as they were incapable of basic respect and manners. Much easier to do that virtually.

I much prefer it - both as a parent and as an allied health professional working in a school offering parents evenings. No drawbacks at all.

@StColumbofNavron

I think though if there is SEN or other concerns I wouldn’t wait until parents’ evening anyway. What I would like to stay are our 1:1 form tutor meetings that happen before term kicks off in Sept. Those are very useful. But main parents’ evening fine to be online for me.

Yes, absolutely. I've always gone by a personal policy of nothing that I say in the official parent meetings should be a surprise.

I really hope this doesn't continue in future years. Would make me very sad to miss another example of in person communication on top of all the hundreds of conversations that have been replaced by video calls.

There are so many other virtual conversations becoming live that I would pick over parents’ evening though. I’m not mad keen on doctor’s appointments being virtual. I don’t love conferences being online amongst many other things.

You should at least have the choice I think. I've seen the separated parents (or divorced ones) attending school events and often people who can barely stand being in the same room as each other, and at least in such circumstances teachers don't have to be witness to such hostility.

I love it as a teacher too.

There's no having go try for the 82nd time to close a conversation with one parent as other behind look at you with sympathy.
There's no trying to squeeze people in because your colleague in science thinks a quick slot needs to be a 15 minute appraisal of everything the child has done all year.

Sounds AMAZEBALLS

Our teachers do them from home so I also enjoy looking at their study decor. DS's French teacher was a source of great envy. We swapped paint recommendations afterwards!

I much prefer it. I feel like when a parent quite a few parents just dont show up, at least im at home and can talk to my children for 5 minutes. Nothing more frustrating than being in school until 8pm, and almost half the parents dont bother to attend their appointment.

Great in theory, but not in practice (for us), as we missed several of my daughter’s appts due to the system crashing. I do agree, however, that it is good for a number of reasons.

I have had 3 secondary school online parents evenings this year. So much better.

So good! And for the first time ever DH could be there too, because he didn’t need to take half a day off work to attend a ten min oarents evening (and also cos wfh).

We did encounter tech issues too, but I think that’s teething problems. I followed up with the teachers we missed for Y8 DC and they either sent an email or called me at their convenience. Y10 one small tech issue with one teacher which meant we didn’t get long. It was new and I can forgive some hiccups. I think it will get better.

I really liked it except our school gave you 3 mins !

Fine except we didn't have Parents Evening in Year 7 at all and 3 mins as first ever one where 2 days later child had to submit GCSE options was a bit fraught

Mind you I am soft as I booked a slot with Spanish teacher even though DS is not doing this from Year 9 as I was Ted to say thank you for her efforts (& it felt mean when I had booked to speak to all other teachers)

Loved it - wish I could cut (some) people off in real life after 5 mins too

I loved it. After being used to primary and we had one at secondary school which no one prepares us for, we were in the hall so long I felt like I worked there. Virtual was brilliant! Hope ours keeps it. First year my DD has attended as we separated and he usually is at work or just finishing and never makes it but logged in to so worked well

@BlusteryLake

Hated ours. My son is in Y7, so has made the transition during covid times. We have not met in person one single teacher at the school. Five minutes online is no substitute for meeting in person, plus two of the meetings the connection dropped out on their side so no discussion with maths or English teachers.

This - whilst I appreciated all the good points of appointments on time and ease of meeting the teachers. The time slot is brutal - if you have 5 minutes and they take 1 minute introducing themself I found I was hating it as that was MY time....

I have not met my sons form tutor since Oct 2019. There was no opportunity to talk to head of year, head of phase, and assistant head or the HT - I wanted to discuss the broader issue of motivation and mentoring. I have tried emailing the school but it isn't a successful interaction or a conversation to have back and forth by e-mail.

I like the fact you bump into your childs friends and their parents so we can say hello - as the kids get older this doesn't happen at 'play dates' anymore.

I want to see some of the extra curricular opportunities they usually promote at parents evening.

I want to feel a part of my children's school journeys.

(I actually think it works better for the primary ones - where you are talking to the one teacher you also talk to at pick up and drop off - so there is already a relationship there and the conversation feels like a continuation of a dialogue.)

I have not met my sons form tutor since Oct 2019. There was no opportunity to talk to head of year, head of phase, and assistant head or the HT

Tbf this is entirely normal for secondary and not a covid thing.

Yes it’s great, older child here and the privacy seemed to allow him to open up with his teachers more so total win on top of the smaller wins for me of not having to do the half hour drive to and from school and not standing around waiting and stuff

The teachers where I work much preferred it!

sure

We've forgotten or unable to attend a few (pre-Covid) and so the following week at the door at pick up I'd ask 2 questions:

• did she/he have any concerns about our kid (answer: no)
• is there anything to discuss that warrants booking in a longer chat or are they happy with learning progress and so can we consider this a parent evening done?

(answer: 🤣 yup, all good, we"re done)

I love those 20 secs parents' evenings the best.

I really miss it. Mine are primary age, and I still haven’t met one of my DC’s teachers face to face. I also really like to see their classroom and their workbooks, and just get a bit more of a feel for where they spend an awful lot of their life.