To think the school shouldn’t have to close for the afternoon

[Autumncold]

Open evening 5-7, school closes at 12. So students miss two lessons. How would you feel about this?

Dd1's was last week. Finished 1hr early & went in 1hr late the next day

Fairly standard round here. They probably get the cleaners in early to make sure things look good. Some also organise a training day for the following day, which means staff can leave the clear-up until then.

All the secondaries here do that. Dd will be helping and also in school for the very long day. Her school is huge, it takes a lot of effort on the part of the staff. The school looks amazing for it though, and is always oversubscribed so I guess worth it in the long run to be able to offer everything that they do.
They also have the day after as an inset day. Which we love as it’s so random no one else is off and we get to go somewhere fun.
A planned half day really is nothing op, sorry.

We have lots of pupils coming back to help. If we didn’t finish early we’d be working straight through with no break

Standard practice at local secondaries. DD was never involved so loved early finish.

ds's school never closed early for parents evening in the 6 years he was there.

Guess they don't want to let 250 teenagers (per year group) out roaming the streets all afternoon mid week while their parents work.

ds says they usually spend the last period of the day moving chairs etc about, but it is all pretty slick, done very quickly and then the pupils leave at the normal time to catch school buses.

This isn't parents evening, it's for open evening.

My kids school close early and open late the next day.

They also close for a whole day for each year group to have parent-teacher meetings say the teachers don't need to do it in an evening (if you're teaching 90 Y8s music that can be challenging!). So that's 5 days per year. I think it's a good idea. It means you get to see all teachers and that they actually have the time to see everyone. It sends the message that communication with parents is important.

I am not sure Op is a teacher, unless they're some sort of martyr.

I am perfectly happy to do another 3hrs work in the evening, put up all the fun stuff, put it away, organise and move my room round twice but not without a decent break beforehand to eat, get changed and sort things out.

And it needs to be on a Thursday so we only have Friday to limp through. DS's secondary has an inset the day after so staff can at least go in on own clothes and it's less manic than a normal teaching day. Sensible!

I’m not a martyr at all - just want to teach my bloody exam classes!

So set them the work and let them get on with it at home. Exams aren’t until next spring

I'm astonished that a teacher thinks so poorly of their working practices that they think working 14+ hours in a day is acceptable. What kind of example does that set to pupils? Don't rights, or reasonable employment matter? This kind of complaint sounds much more like a parent who objects to their child not being in school.

Have you not adapted your long term plan suitably OP? Obviously you couldn’t do that for a child taking a random day off but for directed time you can. Considering there will be staff that would have a full day teaching/duties/no time for lunch I think it’s a good idea, it also helps release trapped times.

It's the morning after I need the extra time.
Between 3 and 6 I can get everything set up, but the next morning is brutal (and no, after 13 hours, I really don't want to be shifting the tables and chairs back again)

@Quveas - I wouldn’t be working a fourteen hour day, although open evening is a long day. So are parents evenings.

830-3 teach.

5-7 open evening.

If people are doing really elaborate things they need to spend hours (how many really?) preparing fair enough, but priority should be given to teaching, especially delivering the curriculum to exam classes.

So complain to the Head, not to mn. I’m sure you’ll be popular with the other staff

My DDs school used to close at 1pm for open evening, so they just missed 1 lesson. But the teachers knew it would be happening so not a great surprise. it gave time for setting up for the open evening and to have a break beforehand as open evening was pretty full on.

Ours never used to close either, it’s a disappointment.

You need to chill out. They will be fine, more than that they will be happy lol.

YANBU they need to just make it an inset day.

Its so annoying when they do these half days.

Thankfully, my dc's school doesn't shut early for parent evenings. Obviously the after-school clubs get knocked on the head but that's it.

Of course they should close early. The teachers can hardly get the school ready and presentable when there’s students inside it and when they have to stay inside their classrooms to teach them, so it gives them time to get things ready.

I don’t think it’s a problem as open evenings usually only happen once a year so I think finishing early for it once a year isn’t really a big deal. They’ll probably be given work to do outside of school in place of the lessons they are missing.

I’m sure @Sunnyqueen but it does mean I’ve lost another lesson and there’s a very content heavy curriculum to get through. They have mocks next month.