To hate online parents' evenings.

[Hcolhcsra]

DD's school and the one where I work are both sticking to online parents' evenings. I loathe them, both as a teacher and as a parent. Too many issues with connections, countdown timers adding pressure and a general lack of connection.

Am I really in a minority?

@VenusTiger

It's unfair that one parent can take up 40mins of your time. In some cases I've stood up and walked to the door and the parent still hasn't left. I've had meetings where parents have spent ages wandering round the classroom looking at displays and refusing to leave. It's hugely unacceptable to everyone.

The way you have spoken to @SionnachRua is out of order. You have no idea.

I teach a secondary subject that means I often teach a whole year group. If we do a 3 hr school cloud parents eve I can see 36 parents (assuming I don't build in a loo break). That's more than I would see face to face due to inefficient queuing etc and avoids the awkwardness of those who bustle up and shoulder in with 'X couldn't get an appointment but can I just...' I used o be last to leave at nearly 10pm sometimes.

I don't like them, find it awkward compared to talking in person but it is nice not having to trek to the school (doesn't make a difference to appointment time though, at DD's school they release time slots over several days rather than cramming it all into one evening so its not rushed). But better than the parents evening I had the other week (they do two kinds at DD's school, one in the autumn with all the parents together to talk generally about how the class is doing and get to know the teacher etc. and then individual ones in the spring to discuss your own child) where the teacher made us all run around and play tag!

Oh and I teach every year group.. As many secondary teachers do, so thats 7 evening a year, not one. Some of the parents who want us in school might like to remember that. That's 7 evenings I have to find childcare, don't see my kids at all and they miss activities etc.

I (like others) suspect that those that don't like online parent evenings are those that regularly over run their time slots.

I also think that they are those that swan off and leave a trial of disgruntled parents in their wake because everyone else is now running behind.

Hate it. DS is in Year 8, I’ve never met anyone there face to face. It’s awful.

I really like online parents evening, not only can the parents before me not take ages discussing pointless shit because they think they’re special enough to deserve more time than anyone else, but when parents are aggressive other children don’t witness it and there is an option to record so the incident can be reported.

We had ours almost two weeks ago, I had a rugby match so I could have my appointment when we arrived (away game), if it was in person I wouldn’t have been able to attend, so my choices would then be skip it all together, or ask for a call, email etc which would add to the teachers workload.

I just want to say that as a parent-I loved virtual parents evenings! Quick easy and no travel involved-so much easier. I haven’t heard if they are continuing.

My own primary is doing face to face though.

In general ours was great. I'd rather they got teachers to be in school to do it though as individual people's internet was very variable.

When they did them in person you got 3 minutes with each teacher and had to run around the packed hall like a headless chicken to find the next teacher. Plus people running over time made it messy, and people would jump in ahead of you.

Online ours was automated so at the end of your 3 minutes it switched you off. If the timer was running down you knew you had to stop. All of them said if you want to discuss further at a later date please email me but mostly the time was enough.

I much preferred it. In person all the teachers (primary) are in the main hall, it’s noisy and it’s difficult to hear. Also not very private.

Plus it's less hassle than going to the school which probably enables some people to go who otherwise couldn't.

It's far better online. Calmer - no frantic running round the school searching for rooms, no hanging around while a parent in front goes over their time by 10 minutes, no waiting in queues having to make small talk with parents you sort of know from primary school but not really, time to think about what you want to say to a teacher in advance, no noise in the background, can make a cup of tea if you have a 15 minute break...it is superior to face to face in every way.

Sorry I love them! See at one point I had 3 children at 3 schools. Primary school is fine and contained one teacher to speak to. Middle school/ high school an evening of running between halls and classrooms to meet each subject teacher, one overuns so you are late for the next, or a popular subject teacher has got hopelessly off schedule because they have too many parents to speak to. In the massive high school you need a map to find room 247a as your child doesn't know where it is! You have all the kids with you as DH is still on way home from work dragging them round the school like a bored entourage. So you are red faced and sweaty for each meeting and barely remember what was said by the end so what was the point.

So yes I love doing them from the comfort of home 😂

I love them. Actually times are adhered to otherwise you’re cut off. Parents evenings now do finish at 7.30 and not 8 ... 8.30 ...

Loads better having it remotely - so much more convenient as a parent than traipsing round school in the evening, having to sort childcare because you shouldn't bring your DC.

Much prefer online.

Love them. Never want to change back to face to face. So much more efficient.

I like them. At DD's secondary we had 5 minute appointments in person with 3 minutes to get to the next appointment. Except the next appointment would invariably be a long way away - not everyone could fit in the hall so they had some classrooms in use, the sports hall and the lunch hall. I'd arrive for my next appointment late, sweaty and flummoxed and then have to wait while someone without an appointment finished because the teacher was free. It would take ages.

Online appointments - basically it's finding out whether things are fine or whether there are any issues which require a follow up appointment - that's it.

They're WONDERFUL.

No rushing from work, I can log in from my desk. No sitting in a sweaty hall making small talk with other parents. And no selfish parents over- running. I hope they stay forever

100 times better online. They actually run on time, finish on time and you don’t have a queue of parents with unruly children (some seemed to make it a family evening out with mum, dad, gran, 3 siblings. Pfft) creating havoc while one parent rambles on and on for 30 minutes and totally ignores even the bluntest ‘your time is up and others are waiting’.
Oh and we (teachers) can hang up if some parent is shouting abuse at us. Which is handy.

I hate them. But that could be because our 2 schools both decided that 4 minutes was long enough for a parents evening slot. It really isn’t enough!

The last lot of secondary appointments, all the teachers were at school and the WiFi went down, so half of the teachers had no connection at all and the others decided just to do their speil and hope I could hear some of it. It was awful.
I hate that there is a timer and then it just cuts off half way through what ever it is you are saying.

I get that everyone in the hall is not ideal for all the reasons others have mentioned, but I’m really not a fan of online appointments.

Much prefer them. A lot more efficient use of time for parents and teachers alike. No sitting around waiting for your slot which invariably was late !

Disappointed that last year was the last year for my DD and she's at uni now. When I think back over the years, last years's parents evenings were the best.

The school I work in is also keeping them. After doing a parent survey, most preferred online.

Hate them online. Although it's more to do with the useless technology. We get a choice between phone call or virtual call. Then the virtual system won't work so we get a hurried phone call anyway. Every time.

I want to have a face to face interaction, don't care how it's done, but it seems impossible. Plus we get hardly any time as so long is spent faffing trying to get the tech to work

We preferred them. Parent's evenings were always crowded, noisy, appointment times all over the place and sometimes couldn't hear the teacher properly.

We had telephone calls, not Zoom. Focused conversations, timings good, no unnecessary chit chat and a large glass of wine straight after . I can imagine parents with transport issues or younger children in the house found it very convenient too.

If there were any specific issues which required more depth we were invited to book an appointment with the teacher separately.