To think those who complain about online parents' evenings ...

[dinaminion]

... because they want to "get to know" the teachers, and don't like being cut off after their 5 minutes, are probably the same people who made face-to-face parents' evenings a nightmare for the rest of us, by hogging the teachers' attention, and over-running on their appointment slot, so everyone else was seen late, and the poor teachers were run ragged?

Long live the online parents' evening!

I think it's a bit of that for sure. But also our online system is shit and I haven't had longer than 2.5 minutes speaking with a teacher since 2019. My son is in p4 and we've never had a parents night as the technology had never worked.

If they used Teams or Zoom I'd be a big supporter of online!

I hated the online ones because I'm autistic and face to face is better for me. I find video communication extremely uncomfortable and it affects my ability to process and respond.

I love online. It’s quick and calm so you can hear everything the teacher says. You don’t have to run round the school looking for the right room and then stand in a queue trying to make small talk with people you sort of know but don’t really. Why does anyone need to get to know the teacher? Your kid is there to learn and as long as that’s happening it doesn't really matter if their teacher likes Aston Villa or raisins in their scones. They’re not your mate and they don’t want to shag you. If your child is complaining about their teacher then you go and meet face to face.

I am hoping they always stay online!

I'm disabled and online parents evenings are so easy for me. We can get round all dd's teachers on time, at home and it's a joy. Dd has autism and it's a hell of a lot easier for her too.

Yes YABU why would you assume they are the parents you describe? I expect there are many different parents who prefer face to face and many different parents who prefer online.

Horses for courses.

I prefer face to face just because it’s a lot nicer to talk to someone in person. Video calls are too reminiscent of the covid days.

I am very uncomfortable on online video. I hate the way I come across and don't know how to put my face. I find online parents' evenings difficult though I do enjoy the convenience of not having to travel to the school or wait in a queue.

I have experienced both online and face to face parents evenings when ds was in secondary and the 4 years of face to face was much better. The face to face ones were informative and valuable, the 2 years of online ones were awkward and a massive waste of both the teachers and my time.

I am well aquainted with online meetings as I spend hours daily on them with remote colleagues, 4-5 mins online slots just don't work well for parents evenings.

How does this work for secondary school? If you have 10 teachers to get round and the teacher has however many hundreds of parents to see, how do the timings etc work? I don’t have kids of that age and have wondered!

Strong disagree. I'd much rather meet face to face.

I love online meetings, no hassle or queuing and you can actually have your kid with you (banned at our primary in-person ones). Or more accurately they can’t stop you doing it.
Sadly we are now back to in-person time-wasting as before.

In my kids school each year group gets an entire day of parents 'evening'. The other years stay home and do online learning except Y11. We had our first one before half term (twins in Y9) and it was so much better than online. I got soooooo much out more out of it. Partly just being in the school environment makes a difference. It was the first time I'd ever been there in the classes and corridors. We also got longer, not cut off after 5 mins of poor internet connection, far more clarity and ability to discuss. We had 18 slots due to twins but it was well worth it.

YABU. I like face to face because even though my DD is now in year one, due to covid I've still only seen two rooms in her entire school building - we never got a catch up tour or anything. Any glimpse inside is welcome!

I'm not autistic but feel exactly the same.

Oh I remember how it works in person from my own school days, I meant how would it work online with time slots etc

Love online parents evening. Only ever have 3 questions. How's dd doing, how's her behaviour, how do you expect her to do?

Teams or Zoom works fine but my laptop sometimes has difficulty with the software schools use. It was ok last time but before that we had problems with sound or losing connection. So I like them per se but the tech has to actually work!

I find them very convenient but our autistic son hates them so for us it's a bit of a problem because he spends most of the time feeling overwhelmed and doesn't really contribute.

I'm a secondary teacher and I love online evenings.
No over running on appointments
Guaranteed rest break
Can do it from home so get to do bedtime with my own kids
Quiet and calm so I don't have a headache from trying to have a conversation in a hall full of people

I much prefer online appointments. No more running over time, no more running about the school trying to find the right place and can do them at home so can have tea in between appointments etc.

Online means I can attend secondary parents evening without worrying about childcare.

It also means DH can attend from wherever in the world he is, he just blocks a few hours in the diary.

I prefer face to face, online meetings give me horrible flashbacks to lockdowns!
Luckily my children's schools offer us the option of either. The school I work at also offer parents the option. Interestingly, the majority of the teachers here seem to prefer the face to face options than to online options.

Pre Covid I once cycled for 40 minutes to the school, waited for 15 minutes, saw one teacher for 7 minutes and cycled 40mins home... so nearly 2hrs of time for a meeting less than 10minutes.

Our school went back to face to face despite my pleas