To be dreading face to face parents evening Thursday

[IHateParentsEvenings]

Going to get flamed to a crisp, never mind.

I am dreading it … teaching all day and then three solid hours between 4 and 7 talking to parents, some will be lovely but there will be some really difficult ones, won’t be able to be cut off after five minutes, will enjoy making me justify every detention since September.

Then home exhausted and still got the next days planning to do …

sorry MN, I dread it.

Tolson. Is this school based located in the U.K.?

I think she is as well.

@waterrat I don’t think that’s what anyone is really saying. It’s not that anyone doesn’t understand the need to communicate with parents and how important it is, it’s just that it’s a very tiring evening after a long day at school.

I actually quite enjoy them when I get started but they are very tiring. I have always had ten minutes a child but maybe that’s primary

It’s also a week a couple of times a year where I barely see my children. I understand it’s part of the job but does add to my stress and emotion that week.

I am only a lowly parent but I don't like online parent's evenings. If I've got to do it I'd much rather do it in person. Perhaps if you hate it so much you could send a note to those parents you don't need to see 'your kid's doing fine - no need to come' to save everyone's bother. It evens out though, there were hardly any parents at my dd's school for parent's evening, and the teachers said that the parents they wanted to see didn't come. In year 11.

Sorry to hear that OP. I don’t see the point of face to face parents evenings at all, so old fashioned.

innovative and exciting right out of a marketing handbook. Sounds like a pitch written by a first year doing a business degree. I presume a windup as no adult talks that way.

Omg what a shockingly horrible way to treat teachers — they are professionals not skivvies !!
ps I don’t advocate treating skivvies this badly either

Are they asked to clean the school as well?

At secondary it’s far more often than that there are 5 or 7 year groups and the exam cohorts have two in the year and then there are the other information evenings that our school ran. There was at least one week my DS was with the babysitter until 10 three nights on the trot.

I’d suggest that parents evening isn’t the best vehicle for asking difficult questions if your child is struggling anyway. Email the class teacher if in primary or head of year or equivalent in secondary.

Yes I think Tolson is a troll too - I don't know any state schools where boaters are part of the uniform.

I was thinking the EXACT same!

You are. Agreed it's tough work wise and makes a long day, but having spoken face to face to my dc teachers for the first time since Covid, I feel I've got a far better understanding of where he is at .

Excellent post.

Teachers appreciate the innovative and exciting culture and ethos within the school.

I thought the first post was ridiculous enough, but she is the poster that goes on giving........ £19K being a competitive starting salary, my arse.

Sorry OP that your thread has been hijacked.
YANBU at all.
I can't understand why any school would go back to in person Parents' Evenings, after experiencing the efficiency of on-line ones.

@Tolson is winding us up. No one is wanting to be on call 60 hours a week for less than 20 grand , especially when the boss has decided he doesn’t need to be!

This, this and this again!!!

I think I know the school @Tolson dh runs - loads of the info ringing a bell. Is the school located just under a bridge @Tolson ?

I don’t really understand the point of parents’ evenings.

If there are any issues then 5 minutes isn’t long enough to discuss them and in any case if there are any major problems then the parents should already be aware. And if the kid is doing fine then it’s just a case of telling the parents they’re doing fine.

Each parent could visit the teacher at home. They could discuss their DC’s progress at length over a leisurely evening meal cooked by the teacher.
Has your DH thought of that @Tolson ?

Perhaps limit of 10 minutes each, limit of 5 per day, and on 3 days of the week only - so meetings are spread over 2 weeks. Online by default, but anyone who wants an in-person meeting turns up on a the designated night. During restrictions, 28 out of 30 parents at our school opted for phone call versus in person. I don't think it was just for safety - it's so much more convenient to be able to just lift a phone or log into meeting from work. I am not a teacher. Perhaps my suggestions sound awful to teachers. I am extrapolating from my own work, where giving coherent feedback to 30 people in a single night sounds like a total nightmare. I don't blame the OP for dreading it.

If all the info is known prior to the meeting, what is the point to the meeting?

Remember teachers are only there to serve the customer (parent) @icantrememberathing so surely a leisurely banquet as a bare minimum? Preferably with harp playing, some intellectual entertainment and an oil portrait to commemorate the momentous occasion of being told 'Little Johnny is top of the class!' when in actual fact you told them Little Johnny did really well in 1 single piece of work with support

@Tolson Are you trying to ad place here? Stop saying innovative and exciting. You sound brainwashed.

Caiti19
but that would only work for primary.
I teach 150 students so that would be three nights a week for 10 weeks!
many secondary teachers teach 300 students so three nights a week for over half the teaching year….