Sick to death of online parents' evening

[noblegiraffe]

The Telegraph headline says parents are 'sick to death' of online parents' evening and are desperate to get back to face-to-face meetings.

On here I've read mostly positive comments and how parents never want to go back to sitting in the hall waiting in a massive queue to see the science teacher who always runs over, that it's so much more convenient to sit at home, click through and done. I was quite surprised to see such a strong headline against them.

What do you reckon?

YABU - Would prefer face-to-face

YANBU - Online please

As a teacher one big advantage is the safety aspect. Sadly I have had some parents I have not wanted to be alone in a room with, and being online makes me feel more comfortable in those circumstances.

“The slots are too short” aka spot the parent who took all the extra time in face to face parents evenings.

My oldest is still primary age. I would prefer F2F for parents’ evening, although online does have some benefits and I could see it maybe working out better for secondary when you’re seeing multiple teachers.

I shall tell them you said so.

Definitely.

i adore online parents evening. It’s so much easier and more efficient.

I much prefer online. I only did 1 Secondary School parents evening before Covid and it was mayhem.

So much noise, confusion about timeslots, over running appointments, not knowing what parent is next when a few of you arrive at the same teacher at the same time etc.

I did enjoy meeting some teachers face to face rather than online, as face to face does feel more personal. However, the speed and efficiency of online wins for me.

Being able to log on from home is also much more comfortable and if you do have a gap in scheduled appointments then that's time for a quick cup of tea, isn't it.

Despite our internet working perfectly 24/7 we always have issues with parents evening! The teacher says it must be our internet as it works for everyone else.... but likewise, our zoom works for all other parties except the school!

Last time we logged in at 6.59 for a 7pm slot and were incorrectly accepted in to the previous parents slot! We logged out immediately but then had issues logging back in. So I'm not a massive fan. A shame as it would be easier if it weren't for the technology issues.

I also miss the glass of wine we were always offered at the face to face sessions!

I don't think we've had one where there hasn't been some wifi or tech issue. I'll have just had meetings for work on Zoom or Teams which have been perfect, but my laptop doesn't like the school app or our firewall tries to block it or something. Embarassing and frustrating.

Online all the way. Ow having to take time off work to schlepp to school, and leave DH at home because we have no one to watch the kids.

DS' school asked for feedback and the vast vast majority wanted to continue online. Their plan apparently is to carry on offline and have some limited appointments for those who want to have one face to face.

As a twin parent in a school with a lots of floors I am all in favor of virtual.

I’ve loved online parents evening and hope they will continue. However it’s very patchy at our school. Some teachers seem to have terrible connection/laggy video/no sound etc and others are perfect. Invariably it’s the teacher you actually wanted to speak to who doesn’t appear for their entire 4 mins and then that’s it, slot over, see ya next year. If it wasn’t for the tech issues it would be great. I still prefer it over face to face though. Haven’t missed those one bit.

Online parents evenings are brilliant. Concise sticks to time. Can do from home without having to travel etc. Loads better

I much prefer the online ones, as both a teacher and a parent.

My teacher parents evenings are done from school so my children (and noisy dog) aren't around in the background listening in. Not that they're interested, but our house isn't big enough to have the space I'd want from them. Other teachers love being able to do it from home because the childcare isn't a problem (they set their primary children up on screens with a picnic so they don't disturb). We made the evenings longer so we can fit in a few extra appointments (when ftf I could double up on the quick ones and just talk faster). I can fit one whole class into an evening now, with 5 minutes each and no trying to wave at parents to come to me next from across the crowded hall.

As a parent I can sit at the dining table and see all dd's teachers without the inconvenience of getting there on time (it's quicker to get home than it is to get to her school). I don't have to wander the school looking for each classroom for each teacher (their hall isn't big enough to accommodate all the teachers so it's a trek between each appointment). I can let DD listen to an appointment or not depending on what I want to say to that teacher, whereas at school it's all or nothing.

The teachers at my school who want to go back to ftf are the teachers who are not so good with technology anyway, OR are the teachers who like to talk a lot and are the reason the rest of us are always running late at parents evenings (mildly joking, but a kernel of truth)

As a teacher I find the online ones more awkward but as a single parent it does mean I don’t need to get childcare and I have grab a snack or drink in between.

As a parent I absolutely love the online ones.
I do like seeing the teachers face to face but parents evening is never fun and it always runs way later than it should.

I honestly don’t know how parents cope when they have multiple children.

Online so much more efficient in every way. Bookings get organised by the computer system and you don’t get behind schedule because someone prattles on and doesn’t give a crap about who else is waiting. Have a cup of tea during gaps and don’t need to worry about organising childcare in the evening, can’t think why anyone would want to go back to doing it at school. Must be much easier for the teachers too.

I can only imagine the Telegraph article was written by Rees Mogg.

Maybe the Telegraph represents Independent school parents where they don't have queues and see face to face parent6eve as an opportunity to network???

“The slots are too short” aka spot the parent who took all the extra time in face to face parents evenings.

Yes, this. I love online parents evenings. Ds2's school has a very efficient set up for this- unlike the previous f2f mayhem:

3 separate rooms, all with an overwhelming air of tension and quietly grinding teeth. And HEAT. So bloody HOT. Evil glares at the backs of the heads of those parents who thought their slot was 'just too short' to talk about Johnny's progress (or lack of) and therefore instead of making a separate appointment (as we are all told we can do, every year, on every communication about parents' evenings) will rudely gab on and on over their allotted time, while all the parents behind them in the queue fret about deciding whether to just miss that appointment (to be on time for the next) or persevere.

Nah. Online all the way for me.

So much less stress. Dh and I can log on from work (separately) and join taking 10 minutes break rather than booking time off. For secondary I’d heard nightmares of parents overstaying so appointments running over then you miss the next teacher because Mrs jones was getting an earful from the family before you. The strictly timed slots are wonderful. I’m not always a fan of online and at work I do face to face when I can but for parents evening? Bloody love it. Life got easier for me, especially with twins so fitting in double meetings for their year group’s parents evening.

The only thing I don't like about my sons secondary school online is that the slots are 3 minutes - I don't want ages as I appreciate teachers haven't got all night and there's a lot of parents to get through but 5 mins would be better especially when you are discussing GCSE options

Ours was done really badly online - one meeting that random parents kept joining (ie no waiting room), ran completely over time, we ended up just being told DS was fine and were booted out in under 3 mins - didn’t get a chance to ask about his speech impediment, his social development (he’s in reception, we had specific concerns raised by nursery which we wanted to follow up on). Really unimpressed.

the F2F one last term was totally different (same teacher) - had the full ten minutes, uninterrupted, were able to see his workbooks, got him referred back to SALT, asked for specific interventions to help his social interactions. Totally different.

Oh and the outcome of the last parents evening zoom session was that we should have a face to face meeting! As the internet was so crap.

But - she idoes have some (potential) SEN issues so the face to face was gratefully received.

This

That's a good point. I remember a post on a thread about drinking at work saying that at their private school, wine and nibbles are served at parents' evening.

I imagine that's a very different experience.

Interesting on this thread to see the difference between secondary and primary too. I can imagine that if you only have one appointment and you want to see your child's books, then face to face would be good. But for secondary where seeing all the teachers is more like an endurance event than anything else, doing it without all the schlepping from teacher to teacher and where waiting around for one teacher means that you miss another, the efficiency of online is preferable.

As at teacher, our first couple of online evenings were plagued with technical difficulties but they have vastly improved since then. It's very rare now to get failed connections, I guess SchoolCloud have massively upgraded their servers.

Much prefer online. There is a greater chance of seeing all the teachers, and the appointments running to time. The last in person one we had , had apts scheduled in different buildings but immediately one after the other - the choice was run late and risk not seeing teacher b or miss out teacher a so you could see teacher b on time.

I'd be disappointed if they went back to f2f and I'm sure a lot of teachers prefer online apts too.