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

[Jobseeker19]

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

I teach a bottom draw subject.
One of the ones that parents use to space fill or as an after thought at the end of the night.

Online is an absolute godsend for me and teachers like me that get stuck there at the end of the evening because other teachers or parents can't keep to the allotted time.

Not to mention those that just don't bother turning up to my slot but have been there all evening.

I would think the majority of parents and teachers prefer online. All the ones I know certainly do. I got my year 11 DS's parents' evening done and dusted in little more time that it would normally take me to drive to school, get parked and walk to the building. What would be normally a whole evening for us was reduced to under an hour. Obviously there needs to be some alternative provision for families who need longer meetings but there should be anyway.Over runs cause chaos for everyone. I found the online meetings very focused and efficient, probably because the teachers know that you get cut off when the time is up.

Our parents evenings are online as most parents said they prefer them, my only hang up would be time, we got 6 minutes and 30 seconds which wasn't long enough for some and was too much for others, so I think there should be some flexibility in length.

Parents aren't allowed in for plays but they're all online, and we can watch star of the week assemblies online too.

I really like parents evening online. So much easier. Must be much more efficient use of the teachers time too.

OP are you sure that they are not using this day from their 5 non-contact days? Whilst we would usually use these for training and development it may be that they are allocating one day for parent meetings?
I am really looking forward to returning to face to face events when it is safe to do so, and we really miss some of the fun and family-focused events that make school life so enjoyable, but locally our cases were rising high and fast before half term and we had already had to go to outbreak management in school.
The evening events and meetings question is interesting. I am currently working on fully implementing the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter and I have been giving some thought to what is a reasonable requirement for teachers in terms of 'out of hours' commitments. I know some people will read this and think we only work 9:00-3:30 and get endless holidays but I can honestly say that is nothing like reality.

Our school has returned to in person events slowly, last week we had an assembly that parents could go and watch, it was only my sons class so not loads of parents and limited to 2 adults per child. Each class will have a turn. Parents evening is in a couple of weeks and parents have the choice of online or in person.

Next month I'll book for my 63rd and final parents' evening.
It will be the second one online. Vast improvement on the hellish carnage that is a secondary parents' evening with multiple teachers dotted around different buildings and none running to time. It took two parents to manage this - I really feel for those doing it solo. Sixth form is better but better still online!

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.

What time do you suggest they happen? Teachers are people with lives and families and the need to switch off too. I’m not doing parents’ evenings any later than I already do.

Yes don’t forget that many teachers are in work from 8am or earlier so by the time 6pm rolls around they’ve already been in work for 10 hours. You want them to work longer than that, unpaid? Then do their usual work and prepare their lessons for the next day on top too. It’s too much.