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

That sounds like a great set up! It is asking teachers to give up two evenings, but then instead of one year group on one evening you could do two across two evenings?

Online forever, please. Secondary ran like clockwork, done and dusted in under 1.5 hours. I had a note of the subjects in order and had any questions ready. Primary was done via phone call, I chose early appt times, and the teacher has rung right on time. Perfect!

YANBU.

Parents' evening was chaos pre Covid. There was always one parent hogging time.

With the online version they were cut short as it was someone else's turn and were told to make a proper appointment if there was an issue.

What kind of relationship can be formed with a secondary maths teacher during a 5 minute face-to-face meeting who you see one year then maybe never again?

It's more a relationship with the school rather than individual teacher, obviously teachers are the face of the institution.

I see people through my work who didn't have a good experience at school themselves and therefore will engage as little as possible with their child's school. The child is the one who loses out here.
It can only ever benefit a child if a parent feels comfortable and familiar with the school and this facilitates 2 way communication.

Not saying this has to be done through parents evening but equally so an annual concerts isn't going to work here either

The vast majority of our secondary school parents and staff prefer online. However parents still come in for far too face meetings if there is a specific issue or to eg do an EHCP review.

Having said that we have chosen online to review our son's ehcp with his school as there are no specific issues and it us do much quicker!!

I think 5 mins for secondary per subject is probably plenty.

But I really feel the 7 mins for primary is far too short. No time to ask any questions at all.

Primary age DC and online is generally perfect, we can both attend without worrying about childcare and schedule when after school activities are finished. The only caveat is that we do not get to see their work at all, would love to have a time where we can view there books and see what they have been doing all term.

Online every time. Face to face was always a complete waste of time for everyone involved.

Online means no special trip, no use of fuel if you drive to one, no need to get a babysitter. Face to face should be an option (opt in) for those who feel uncomfortable with online or fear their children may hear things that they don't feel are for their ears, but online for those who want it.

Face to Face gives a chance for it to feel like a partnership between the child, parent and teacher. It gives both child and parent chance to clarify anything. I feel face to face is much more productive than the two phonecalls we've had intended that were hard to make into a real 3 way conversation..

Online makes it a lot easier for schools to cover up their inadequacies, and to gloss over details they've missed or don't want parents to see.

Also this. I requested a follow up meeting f2f after a completely useless online parents evening. I got far more from that meeting, in the classroom, than from the 5 minute monologue delivered online, where from chats to other parents,the teacher did a very generic run through that was the same for 90% of the class.

Parents' evening are not meant to deliver surprises, so if thee is something that needs more in-depth chats that should have been done outside parents' evening

We get all the books home on Friday, to look at over the weekend and return on Monday, for parent consultations that week. It works well as we can sit on the sofa in a relaxed way with DC and they show us the bits they’re particularly proud of, but it’s a naice school. I don’t know if that approach would work everywhere, or if there would be a problem with books not coming back to school.

Online makes it a lot easier for schools to cover up their inadequacies, and to gloss over details they've missed or don't want parents to see.

Also this. I requested a follow up meeting f2f after a completely useless online parents evening. I got far more from that meeting, in the classroom, than from the 5 minute monologue delivered online, where from chats to other parents,the teacher did a very generic run through that was the same for 90% of the class.

I don't see how virtual consultations result in cover ups. If you have questions about your child's progression, ask. If you have concerns about learning outcomes, ask.
If you don't get answers, take it further.

Last time we had both - one evening was for face to face appointments and the next two evenings were for online.

Personally I wanted online. They’d take my school aged child into late stay for the parents evening but I have no one to look after my younger one. Attending would mean I’d need to ask DH to leave work too early. I could do online no problem.

I know that the face to the face appointments were snapped up first however so apparently I was in a minority. When I discussed what time / days we all had at the school gates people seemed surprised I’d online gone for the zoom option.

The option of being able to offer an evening online or a different one face to face would be easier in primary where teachers usually have one class, but difficult for secondary, where you can teach every year group. As it is, each year has parents evening at a different time of the year in order to space them out and for some year groups they are at strategic times e.g. just before options for year 9. There are 5 or 7 evenings already depending on whether it's an 11-16 or 11-18 school. You'd can't suddenly double the number of evenings so this is not necessarily the easy solution for secondary that it could be for primary.

One of mine doesn't need the full five minutes.

The other, they ring me up or email if necessary. A lot less now appropriate support is in place. They all say email if you want anyway. (Poor sods)

The only difference with face to face is it is better for those who struggle with IT, or who want to go beyond their allocated time.

What’s obvious from this thread is that some people think going over the allocated time is fine. You are fucking up things for everyone else.

Being cut off after 5 minutes - if it’s a negative for you, it’s a pretty big positive for all your fellow parents!

I think 5mins per subject in secondary should be plenty.

7mins to discuss everything for a primary child no where near enough time.

Five minutes is enough to establish whether you need to arrange more help.

Depends on the school, at ds's secondary we get lots of no shows at f2f parents evenings. I book slots 20 mins apart and I have always been able to have a good 10-15 min chat with most of ds's teachers as they are twiddling their fingers waiting for parents to show up and actually look pleased to have someone to talk too! The discussions have always been very useful and enlightening as they tell me things that they wouldn't put down on the report card and I can give them insights into ds, things that we wouldn't get into in just 4 mins.

The next parent queues in seats along from the desk so I just leave as soon as someone else appears.

That is why an online cutover after 4 minutes has been such a shock for me. But I guess it isn't as big a change at schools where parents actually show up!😂

I love them. 5 minutes and done. Any gobby parents who want to bang on about little Tallulah's genius get disconnected so the rest of us can crack on.

If people need a longer chat with the teacher they can go through the proper channels, rather than saving it all up for parents' evening. I was once still sat around waiting at ten past 9 for a 7.30 appointment, just because every imbecilic parent just HAD to whinge for 30 minutes about why Drekson is just misunderstood.