AIBU for thinking I deserve Gold in the Booking Parents Evening Slots Olympics?

[SpringCalling]

Just scored all 8 teachers within the first hour, with 5 min breaks after each 2 teachers. Sat waiting and pressed enter on the dot of booking opening time. We’re now Year 10, I’ve honed these skills over many years. The worst was when they used to release after school clubs at midnight in primary … that made these skills stick. My ex just went “oh thanks” when I let him know the times, no idea of the finesse needed. So turning to you lot for validation!!!

This is me as well, last parent evening I booked all the 8 teachers I was interested in leaving 5 mins between each but they cancelled 2 of my booking cos it seemed many people got none. I’ve never not been able to book anything I’m interested in that’s on a first come first served basis.

Well done you. Our school gets the kids to book the appointments. It’s horrendous.

Oh it's such a triumphant feeling isn't it? I set an alarm for 5 minutes before the appointments open and click refresh until they open. Then BOOM.

Ours used to, which was bad enough as they were on a fortnightly timetable so if you didn't see the teacher in the first week all the appointments had gone. And DC1 would never go out of his way to make an appointment, and vetted who we were allowed to see anyway. And one the night the hall would be a hellhole of people just randomly sitting in front of teachers regardless of appointment time for as long as they fancied.

Being able to book online and then see the teacher online for a set amount of time is so much better.

God level UNLOCKED!!! 🏆

Excellence recognises excellence 😎Beautifully done OP 👏

Well done 👏. I remember last time setting an alarm on my phone and hearing it going off in the lounge whilst I was cooking wondering what the hell I needed an alarm for at 6.55 on a random Tuesday - then when I saw it I had to get into action quickly to book my slots - fastest fingers are the winners!

Yep, got to take my pleasure where I can. Although @Freshstartyear25 I remember they took a slot away from me last year too so maybe that will happen.

My kids school uses school cloud for online PT meetings.
Does auto assign of all the teachers slots for you.
Game changer. Love it rather esp in secondary rather than trudging around the school and no othe parents running over for 20mins

I’ve just done my very first secondary school parents evening booking! Got 9 teachers one after the other in five minute slots so this could either work brilliantly or be a total disaster.

If online this is fine, if in person then….good luck! 😬

Well done OP! I don't miss having to do that. To add a further complication my DC's old school used to have the teachers spread across two separate areas with quite a long walk, and a couple of flights of stairs between them. There was little worse than thinking you'd won the appointments lottery only to realise that you'd got Maths at 18.05, French at 18.10 and Physics at 18.15 but that whilst Maths and Physics were right next to each other, French was in the other building - then it really became like the Olympics! 😂* *

That’s impressive your first time! They’ll just cut out when time finishes, no over-running but you will probably feel frazzled with no breaks in between!

Wow, that would take a whole new level of planning if location to be factored in too! Not sure I deserve gold anymore as mine are all online, no geographic challenges involved!

This is quite possibly the only aspect of parenting I excel in! Is it wrong that a few days after sign up I sit smuggly as the year Group WhatsApp goes mad with people complaining their appointments are hours apart?

Well gotta admit I’m waiting for the WA complaints to start ….

Ha! Me too, I also excel in this. Though it throws a spanner in the works when parents evening runs over two nights, but some of the teachers are only available on one of the nights. Messes my schedule right up.

The booking app did tell you where each teacher would be, so I had no excuse really, but sometimes in the desperate clicking frenzy I got it wrong! We used to split up sometimes, especially if some teachers were running late. DH would go and get in the queue in one room and I'd wait in the other. Unfortunately they liked the kids to be present at all appointments so they sometimes had to give Usain Bolt a run for his money if I'd miscalculated. Still, it was better than one year where I got all subjects more or less back to back at the beginning of the evening except maths which only had the last slot of the night left.
I have to say I much preferred online and was a bit disappointed when our school went back to in person.

I've just had DC1's 3rd parents evening (all in person)

We are allocated a slot for the core subjects - so English, Maths, Science and modern language all have a time slot within an hour and then you just fit the rest in-between.

Works really well. I've been able to see computing, drama, music, art, history, geography, PE, RE every time and it takes approximately just over an hour! You may end up queuing for a few teachers but it's really well run and efficient.

Have been impressed each time.

I don’t bother with parents’ evening. I don’t really see the point, just tell me how they’re doing on their report card and if there’s a problem, write it in the bloody planner!

This is my special skill too. Want a club or a school trip? No problem. As long as it’s first come first served I’m on it!

I also excel at getting the Christmas food delivery slot i want as well.

Oh my God. You have just cause me such a panic! But it’s ok. Our slots open at 7pm tomorrow night. Crisis averted. Dd is now in 6th form so we only have 7 teachers. The booking software automatically put a 5 min slot in between each booking but dd has challenged me to get the teachers together by subject as she now has 2 or 3 teachers per subject.

God, the horror that is the booking system for parents evening, I’d almost forgotten🤪

I used to get in early and time our appointments to perfection but it all went to hell in the hall as some teachers seem to deviate from their timetable, other parents took ages so we were late for the next appointment…..nothing ever went smoothly! Don’t miss those days one iota.

FYI - as a secondary school teacher - we don't keep to the times as such - I much prefer to grab kids and their parents as and when I see them - my goal is to get out as early as I can

@noblegiraffe Online, and apparently it cuts out after the five minutes so hopefully fairly streamlined!

@SpringCalling I just let the automated system choose the best appointments and must have got lucky. We couldn’t get a couple of teachers but I wasn’t too worried about those subjects.