About parents evening?

[Drstrange]

I feel I need to start this by saying that this is not a teacher bashing thread. I think they do a fabulous job and I fully support them in their work.

We have just received a letter home about “parents meetings”, during Covid the traditional evening was replaced with a virtual meeting with the class teacher, brilliant that they tried to keep in touch and provide updates on my child’s progress during challenging times. However, the pandemic has moved on but school are still operating a virtual system for these meetings. The slots for the upcoming meetings are 2.30-5pm on one afternoon and 2.30-4.30pm on another afternoon.

Whilst I understand this ensures that teachers get home at a reasonable time what about parents or carers who work? How are they meant to arrange to attend? There is no option at all for any later than 5pm, and from previous experience of booking the slots, unless you are on there as soon as they’re released then you are only left with limited options to book. AIBU to think there should be some options to book in the early evening, parents evenings have always been a standard thing in teaching?

If it’s not important enough to you to join a video call for 10 minutes in the afternoon then it’s not important enough to expect the teacher to do overtime.

YANBU parents evening outside of the school day are part of the job. Many jobs expect their worker to be flexible around the service they provide, no reason why teachers should not be expected to do the same.

Teacher here. Just phone the school in the morning and explain your circumstances. The class teacher will arrange a meeting for you at a more convenient time. It's really not a big deal.

At my sons last one in year 8 we couldn’t make appointments with all the teachers, notably maths and English. The 5 minute sessions were too short, DS has SEN, and we got cutoff mid conversation. Even though parent consultations in the hall were busy and noisy it worked better than online.

It’s only 10 mins. Most people can take 10 mins out of work to log onto the meeting.

It won’t be the teachers that have set the times, though. It will be the school leaders.

And a lot of people can’t.

@SleepingStandingUp in my secondary school 4 lots of teachers were couples - so 8 in total - then at least 3 more were married to teachers elsewhere

They probably do the later appointments

Well on the flip side, mine have gone back to face to face and I don't find that as convenient as taking 10 minutes out of work for a phone call.

Parents will have different preferences and teachers won't please everyone.

Exactly! Please tell me another moderately paid profession where regularly working unpaid outside normal working hours is taken for granted? Also teachers can also be parents too. What do people think happens to teachers’ children when they work in the evenings? Parents have very little idea about how the sacrifices teachers make to do the best for their pupils.

The times mentioned in the OP are outside school hours.
The OP's employer is the one not being flexible.

make the effort or Or don’t attend.

people want teachers to disrupt their working day so it doesn’t disrupt theirs.

I'm a teacher and I think this is ridiculous 😂 what's the point in doing them when half the parents won't be able to attend?!

And we are paid for working parents evenings, if the school have worked out their directed time calendar correctly. Parents evenings should be factored into the 1265 hours we are contracted to work.

My big grip with parents meetings is the level of notice given for them. We have parents evening this week - in person, across 2 days last appointment 6pm, - which were notified about on Wednesday last week when were asked to pick an hour slot, then on Friday appointments were given out... for last night and tonight!!

Surely these parents evenings are on the directed time plan from the begging of the year, so why aren't they on the school calendar from beginning of Sept at least? And why do appointments have to be SO last minute... as if everyone can drop everything to attend during what is many people's working day....

Er yeh cos it’s part of their job and always has been for very good reason!

It is part of their job and like previous posters have explained it is factored in to their working hours so perhaps they should make the effort to do the job they are paid for instead of expecting hundred of parents to take time off work.

YANBU. Ours is until 8 one day and 6 the other. It’s been on my birthday twice. Honestly it’s four times a year… I just suck it up!

Except I am NOT paid extra when I do parents evening until 8pm.

Those times are really odd. We just had parents evening for my daughter and it was 15 minute bookable time slots. Starting from around 3:15 to 6pm I think. We booked 5:05pm cause it worked best for us. But I assume it's a lot easier for primary school parent evenings, unlike secondary school where you probably have to meet with multiple teachers?

It's part of the job.
If you become a teacher you accept that you will have to work parents evenings.

I have to do a similar thing for my job 🤷🏼‍♀️

My kids school seem to be going back to face to face and as lovely as it is to meet the teachers in person I’m a bit gutted.
it was much better when I could just sit at home and get the fixed 5 mins with each teacher - no waiting around for other talkative parents to finish! The teachers seemed to be mostly at home too which must have been nicer for them!
DH could dial in from elsewhere as he’s away in the week (and when we couldn’t get that to work the first time I just had him on the end of the phone so he could hear even if the teacher couldn’t hear him!)
Now I’ll have to go on my own and run around the classrooms looking for the teachers I need!

And lots of teachers marry teachers so who's supposed to look after their kids while they accommodate you?

Strange argument.....

Unless they work at the same school then they're unlikely to be taking place on the same evening.

What ever they decide isn't going to suit everyone.

My mum went to one of my DCs parents evenings in my place this year. It just wasn't possible for me or DP to attend the time slot. She relayed the info (in excruciatingly painful detail).

Sometimes you have to find ways around things.

Why is the focus on teachers and their reluctance to work late? How ridiculous. Clearly, teachers are not in charge of when the school sets their directed time. It's more plausible to think that the teachers have reached their directed hours of 1265 a year and so parents' evening has to be scheduled with this in mind. Hence the earlier hours.

So much criticism! And yes, you should expect some disruption to your working day when you have children, that includes all parents (teachers included). It is just how it is when you have children.