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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Will school plays and in-person parent evenings return post covid?

109 replies

Jobseeker19 · 29/10/2021 09:02

My children have parents evening online again this year and its not just the evening.

They have decided to close the school for the day and keep the children at home instead if doing it after school hours. No online work is being made available aswell.

This will be during the middle of November so not attached to a holiday either.

Is this going to be the acceptable thing going forwards?

All of the school productions seem to be for other pupils in assembly too. Not for parents to view and not online either.

YANBU Things should begin to return to normal or at least online parents evening after a normal school day

YABU teachers shouldn't have to spend the evening speaking to parents and some things should never return to pre covid times as it works better now for everyone

OP posts:

zafferana · 29/10/2021 10:04

I think it's fair enough to NOT do school plays and assemblies this winter - or at least to do reduced ones that don't include lots of year groups and parents mixing. Our area is a real Covid hotspot at the moment and a whole school assembly and swimming gala were identified as mass spreader events in the first half of term at one local school.

As for parents' evenings - our schools are online in the evening of a normal school day. Teachers are used to doing this once or twice a year and while I can understand that it must be a burden for them, IMO it's part and parcel of being a teacher.

BadlyFormedQuestion · 29/10/2021 10:06

@Sirzy

I hope this helps primary schools to take a step back from the having parents in for one thing or the other every other week. It’s disturbing for a lot of children and for those parents who can’t make it it makes them feel shit.

Less times for parents in school but better used wokld make more sense

I agree. Reception and KS1 felt very much like the school assumed that I was just sitting twiddling my thumbs waiting for then to ask me to come in/do something (rather than working FT).

Personally, I think online parents evening was far better than the ones where I trekked in to school, particularly for secondary school. I don’t really see the advantage of going back to what happened previously there.

In any case, my experience of parents’ evenings was that they were less evenings and more afternoons. 3-6 is not that helpful to working parents.

BogRollBOGOF · 29/10/2021 10:07

Our (primary) school parents evening is usually over a couple of late afternoons/ early evenings. I could see the case for a hybrid version where some parents get the convenience of 10 minutes on zoom, without denying other parents the opportunity to actually meet the humans who teach their child (and vice versa).
Human contact is important and helps to develop positive home-school relationships.

Having been the teacher at secondary parents evening many, many times, there have been many times where actually meeting the parent rather than being an anonymous voice on a phone has really helped with the relationship and push things in a positive direction. Being in school, having books to hand focuses the mind and stimulates the discussion about the pupil. It also engages the pupil in discussion about themself.

As a parent, sitting at the screen in my kitchen totally distracts my mind from being in school mode and makes it a far less productive session. I'm also less likely to talk at the 2d image and retain what the voice was talking about because of distractions like lag putting lip movements out of synch.

Going online might look more efficient on paper but the real world is more nuanced and society is based on human contact not living through screens.

DrunkenKoala · 29/10/2021 10:09

DD’s primary school are doing in person parent’s evening in mid Nov. Our LA case rates are rising but we are still under the (English) national average. Some parents were chatting about it on Facebook wondering if they’ll go ahead in person - we’ll just have to wait and see.

Our school has already done an event in which parents could come into school, it was done in year groups. Unfortunately DD was ill that day so I wasn’t able to go but other parents have told me it went well. I’m not sure if any parents think they caught Covid from it - I’ve not heard anything.

I’ve got a feeling if cases keep going up then Christmas plays will probably be live-streamed. I’m hoping Christmas parties still go ahead.

Haven’t heard anything about what’s happening with DS at his secondary school. Last year they did parent’s evening (online) in the spring so I’m guessing they’ll do the same this year.

minimecantrollerskate · 29/10/2021 10:10

They will return at some point, but at the moment, our school has had over 200 cases since September, out of 800 pupils. The school is closed to outside visitors. It would be madness to hold a performance for parents or hold parents evening.

They are still planning performances for Christmas and next Summer but we shall see what happens. It would not surprise me if the Christmas ones don't go ahead.

I hope they keep parents evening as online, it made life so much easier last year doing it that way. Parking is always an issue here and it was so hot last time and if they enforce the one way system then it will be a nightmare having to go round in circles to see teachers

Tink626 · 29/10/2021 10:11

I went to see my son in a school play last week. They requested that parents wore masks, but other than that it was just like normal. They have also confirmed that the next parents evening will be face to face. Events like the Christmas fete and Carol concert are also returning this year. The variances from school to school are staggering.

Finchall · 29/10/2021 10:12

Are they using the extra bank holiday day - entitled to everyone for the Queens Jubilee. Schools have that extra day to use up this academic year.

DietrichandDiMaggio · 29/10/2021 10:15

I can't speak for secondary schools, but online works much better for primary -parents have their 10 minutes (which is plenty of time) and then you move on to the next person, so no over-running.

Mummyme87 · 29/10/2021 10:17

My son (yr3) had in house harvest play. Hoping it continues

Fastforwardtospring · 29/10/2021 10:27

I hope on line parents evening are here to stay for secondary, it’s a bun fight trying to get your allotted time slot, parents before you don’t get to eat into everyone else’s time, don’t get to see all the teachers. For primary and junior it’s nice to go and see their work / boards / displays.

bizboz · 29/10/2021 10:30

The school where I teach is doing parent's evening in person - in the hall so everyone rammed in together. I think it's a really stupid idea and we should at least use the classroom.

Rooroobear · 29/10/2021 10:35

I had my dcs parents evening a couple of weeks ago. Totally back to normal in the classroom, able to look at books, both parents could go and the children were allowed to (stayed outside the class and played)
Assemblies are back to normal too, if our dc gets star of the week we can go and see them receive it.

toomuchlaundry · 29/10/2021 10:41

Some local schools wanted to have some assemblies with parents involved but cases have rocketed so they had to be watched online.

So where schools are doing things differently probably depends on their outbreak policy which will have a level of cases where they have to reduce the number of visitors to the school.

toomuchlaundry · 29/10/2021 10:45

@GoodnightGrandma our online parents’ evening for DS was brilliant. We got to talk to all teachers for our allotted time, they offered additional time to speak at a later date if we felt we hadn’t had enough time, but as it was so efficient we didn’t need that.

I don’t understand your comment that you only got to speak to one teacher. Was that for Primary or Secondary?

Kingfisher5 · 29/10/2021 11:05

Our school closed for a day for parents evenings but it was one of the allocated training days so not an extra day parents had to take off. It worked well and being online means both parents can attend without the hassle of finding childcare. I hope we keep it this way.

Hunderland · 29/10/2021 11:45

@Oftenithinkaboutit

I would be embarrassed to work for a school like this

Especially as they don't know how to use an apostrophe

CallmeHendricks · 29/10/2021 12:09

"No online work is being made available as well."

That's not what the message actually said. It said "no live online lessons," which is a different thing, and can hardly be expected if teachers are running back-to-back consultations.
Presumably they will set work for the children to do at home?

I'm wondering how many other professional bodies, such as NHS medics, solicitors and so forth, would run appointments all evening on top of a full days work? For no additional wage?
I think what some people are seeing here is that there are schools that are now articulating the fact that the pot of goodwill for many school staff has run dry. So, things that have been run by teachers in the past that take many many hours of their free time (frequently to numerous complaints and moaning on MN), are less and less likely to happen in future.

MrsHamlet · 29/10/2021 12:16

We're keeping online parents' evenings.

Ilovemyhairbeingstroked · 29/10/2021 12:19

As a parent who hates crowds - I love online parents evening and the fact that it cuts off after 5 mins must be a great help for the teachers to get through the appointments.

MrsAvocet · 29/10/2021 12:23

I hope to never have to go to another in person parents evening again - online is much better in my opinion. I agree that closing the school seems excessive though.

Amberflames · 29/10/2021 12:23

@wonderbegone

I'm another for parents evening online was so much easier and better.

Yep, agree with that here too. Best part is the meetings automatically ends after the allocated time so everything runs to time.

Really the clue is in the name, it’s called parents evening for a reason.

TankFlyBoss · 29/10/2021 12:24

@Jobseeker19
Education welfare officer here. I would just check with the school where they are taking this day from as they have to provide a certain number of sessions and can't just close the school for the day without making up the time

user1471443411 · 29/10/2021 12:25

Our secondary is meant to be doing an in person parents evening at the end of November. They've already done a GCSE information evening and nobody wore masks, it was really nice to see some of the teachers in person.

Draggondragon · 29/10/2021 12:25

Let's hope not. Along with hugging people you don't care for and being coughed on, let's consign these tediums to room 101. Does anyone really long to go and see a school play or talk to a teacher? We draw straws to decide who has to go

Theforest · 29/10/2021 12:27

Our primary school just did in person parents evenings.

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