If you missed your kid's parents' night because you were on a term time holiday, would you expect the teacher to allow another appointment when you return?

[Purpleturtle46]

Just that really. Parents night same week every year and parents informed 2 months in advance.

YABU-yes the teacher should arrange to see you at an alternative time on your return.

YANBU-no, you booked and holiday and missed it so that's on you!

Finish 10 minutes earlier presumably and do the 10 minute appointment straight after school on another day.

To answer the question though… I can see it both ways. The main reason not to make an exception is that you don’t want everyone doing it. However, it’s literally their job so Yallabu.

Not quite sure of the relevance of posters making up numbers re: teachers' salaries on a threat about CF parents and their holiday plans.

I do kind of get that, but there are 30 kids in my daughters class, that's already 5hrs worth of 10 min appointments (if my maths is correct 🤣)

If even 1/3 of the kids need separate appointments then that's adding more that 1.5hrs on to that, that seems unfeasible, it's not even possible to do in one evening.

A doctor's appointment is as important, certainly. In my experience (supporting someone else through DV too) they will happily do a separate appointment or arrange extra safety measures. They are well aware that ensuring the well being of children and victims of DV is part of their role.

Agree with the rest of your comments though. DV affects professionals too and teachers should be aware that their colleagues and peers as well as parents and children from every walk of life could be DV victims. And it may be the charmingly middle class dad who is the abuser behind closed doors.

@Purpleturtle46 I was a PTC. I finished up making some booklets with generic work for the parents who demanded that we provide work for their little darlings on holiday. It was rarely done.

Once had a parent who took their kids out of school for a fortnight and then demanded that my dept provide Easter holiday tuition for their rather entitled S5 child. Some departments were running an Easter school. We weren't.

This was a state school. The Heidie did offer some payment as an inducement, but no one in my dept was willing, I'm happy to say. The parent then demanded to know why we wouldn't provide tuition.

I sent them a polite letter informing them that all members of my dept would be on holiday...

Our school have never attempted to do parents evening in one evening. And not all separated parents are going struggle to be in the same room or want to both come. But it's pretty vile to make victims of abuse feel like they are an additional burden

It's because any thread even vaguely related to schools, teachers or teaching tend to get lots of posts from 'supposed' teachers reminding everyone how overworked and underpaid they are.

Like others have pointed out, it's a decent enough salary for a professional role.

*A parent who chooses to take their kid on a term time holiday, has no right to then act like education is a top priority for them and it’s in the child’s best educational interest that the teacher should give up their free time to accommodate them.

You’re being obtuse and trying to twist peoples words to make the teacher be in the wrong for some reason.

Its odd that you’ve turned a discussion about a term time holiday, into a discussion about DV.*

What's odd is that you haven't read all the relevant posts on this thread because I was not the first person who brought up DV. The OP stated that it was ridiculous for separated parents to request 2 slots and then DV was mentioned as a possible reason for the request and the thread evolved from there.

I said in my first post on this thread that I don't think those on holiday should expect a slot. Perhaps you should read my posts properly before calling me obtuse.

Have a good night 👍

God who would be a teacher. The attitude towards them absolutely stinks!

No face to face
An email update (with the date of the next appointment at the bottom).
Phone during teachers working hours would assume would also be acceptable.

I am going to be controversial here and suggest that we don't really need long periods away from school. A week around BH's is fine, but I am sure that a system could be implemented that allows children and teachers to take A/L the same as any other sector and still provide a high quality of education.

Again, not how it works. I don't decide appointment times, parents choose. So unless by some stroke of luck, parents book every appointment except the last one, I'm there all evening anyway.

Agreed. We were responding to a comment that implied separated parents needing two appointments could be lumped into the same category as parents who take their children on holiday and miss parents evening then demand an appointment

Yup. Some years, teachers in secondary might have two or more classes in one year group. Allocating additional appointments can be an impossibility.

@Serendipitousnight as I said, I have 2 DC at private school. The standard at their school is that it’s not a ‘quick chat’ that they can knock off without any preparation. Reading the majority of teachers posting, regardless of state or private, it seems to me that all teachers take huge pride in their work and can’t just slot in a meaningless chit chat with parents.

I also work in the private sector, investment banking as it goes. Some of my grads don’t bother to prep for meetings properly, preferring to ‘wing it’. They usually get fired.

"You need to do it online with a meeting that just stops at the end of the allotted time. That way you are super helpful but only for 10 mins."

This might be a good idea.
Should they really be going on holiday in term time?

It's only a 'narrative' to morons who don't understand simple maths.

Indeed.

I met my late husband at work. Prior to becoming a teacher, he worked in forestry.

He'd tell young teachers: "When I worked in the woods, at the end of the day, I'd take my axe and leave. If someone had asked me to stay on and do a bit more work for free, I'd have laughed in their face."

This thread has been a bit of an eye opener.

Absolutely gobsmacked at the number of people who think it's fine to take their kids out for a term time holiday and expect the teacher to make time for them separately.

And the separated parents thing is slightly less entitled but really people wanting 2 appointments just need to grow up.

Teacher (state secondary): Happy to meet parents any time. If they miss Parents' Eve, happy to schedule in my own time. It's only ever been occasional. I would feel differently if it was a regular occurrence.

As a parent, no, I would not expect rescheduling.

My husband and I both did our very best to accommodate parents and pupils if absence had been caused by a family emergency - that's a different scenario.

If the absence has been caused by parents choosing to go on holiday, then that's on them. My days of stealing time from my own family finished some years ago.

Some parents have totally unrealistic expectations. I can recall cases of parents demanding that we organise exam accommodation in a different local authority when they had organised a UK holiday. We also had parents demanding that we organise for their child to sit their exam after returning from holiday. They didn't seem to be able to grasp the difference between a prelim/mock exam and an SQA/exam board exam.

Is this a wind up? 😂😂

@WearyAuldWumman apologies, please run that by me again. You had parents book holidays over exam season, and asked you to fix that?!! Please tell me I’ve misunderstood.

Go and eat a kitkat @Serendipitousnight It’ll make you feel better.