to think that this Parents Evening needs an alternative?

[PyongyangKipperbang]

Yr11 Consultation evening is 4 -6pm, next Tuesday. Got the email this afternoon.

Can be attended virtually, but no email alternative if parents can't attend either way.

I would attend if I could but I work until 5, won't be able to get the day off at this short notice and due to being customer facing I can't agree with my boss to do it from work.

Its GCSE year, its important! I want to go but I can't due to the lack of notice so ..... what now? No information? No suggestions on where to help or any areas DD may need support...nothing?

Its not the times of it running that's the issue, I understand that, but a weeks notice when most parent work and not giving email feedback instead, AIBU to think that thats not on. Especially when the email they sent is full of "It is important to your childs education that you attend etc".

This is the first I have heard of it, it wasnt in the yearly "timetable" there was just a comment about "Consultation evenings will be announced during the year". I just checked!

ETA students are expected to attend too so I can't do it online from the car park, and it depends on when we can get slots too.

It does sound like the evening is too short to accommodate many parents and the lack of notice is extremely poor. Will you be feeding back to the school?

If your DD is predicted 8s and 9s then probably the teachers would have just said 'great job, keep doing what you're doing' but that doesn't mean that it wouldn't have been nice for your DD to hear that.

I understand that DD is probably not the kid they need to talk about. But I have six kids.....eldest is disabled and parents evenings were really important. Same with DC2 who was bang on average and thanks to knowing what she needed support with now has a fantastic career that she may not have had otherwise. DC5 was a PITA at home and at school, a lot of outside support was needed with him and parents evenings were good for him to realise that it wasnt just going to land in his lap.

So this isnt really for me and DD that I am angry, but for the parents of those kids who DO need extra support who may not achieve what they could as the parents dont know!

I wish posters on here and elsewhere would differentiate between ‘ teachers’ and ‘ the school’. Teachers as individuals have no control over the amount of notice parents get for a parents’ evening- this is down to the senior leadership, who probably could write an email to every parent of every child they teach (as they have a light teaching timetable), unlike ordinary teachers who often teach up to 250 students or more.

funnily enough there was a parent feedback survey recently and I did indeed mention the lack of notice for these things!

Because some numpty in "the office" thought it would be a marvelous idea to only give parents one week notice.

As a teacher, I have had Parents’ Evenings either where the student goes around by themselves, talks to teachers, makes notes and reports back to parents, or where the student turns up with mum on speakerphone for the conversation- would either of those work? I agree though, your school needs to sort out its communication and consider working parents!

I would be happy with either of those but DD wouldnt do it. As I said, she is autistic and if the school rules that we need to attend together then thats what we have to do.

That lack of notice is bizarre, not least because the staff could already have commitments in the evening so quite justifiably say no, I can't do this. It's one of the reasons the PTEs are set at the start of the academic year.

Utterly shit management by the school.

Can you get a phone call interview? This was offered at my last school (Australia) though surprisingly few parents asked for this.

Ring the school and ask for an appointment another time to go through things with you due to the schools very short notice

How on earth can the teachets see all the parents in just 2 hours?
DDs school it runs from 3-7pm. Which allows the teachers breaks.

And they usually manage to give us 2 weeks notice, which is better than one week.

Hmm are you sure this hasn’t been on the calendar? In any case you can’t do anything about it now.
However, in most schools can you not ask for feedback about your YP whenever you want?

That’s poor, we always had notice of my DC’s parents evening on the school calendar the start of the year. I’d write to them and explain how unhelpful this is for working parents! How many children in the year, I’m amazed they’ll get through them all in two hours!?

Why would she have to know? Make online appointments between 5 and 6. Do them from work/carpark. You get the info.
Other than the lack of notice, this seems a pretty flexible arrangement

When I taught in a secondary school we had early closures for parents evenings. 2 sessions 2-4 and then 4.30-7. Still wasn’t long enough to see every child we taught, And the parents moaned about us closing early.

Before that parents evening would be 4pm - 8.30. Still not enough time to see every kid we taught, but no moaning about early closures. Instead teachers went way over the directed time rules and parents moaned about clubs and fixtures getting rescheduled as a result.

During Covid online parents evenings were introduced - a bloody marvel! No early closure, no appointments running over time, no late parents because they were chatting to someone else… thankfully the school my own DD attends still does it this way! So much easier!

Why do schools do this? We’ve had similar. Luckily DH has been able to attend because I can’t face cancelling NHS clinics at short notice just to accommodate someone else’s poor planning.

With every teacher? You want 9-10 members of staff to hang around after OP has finished work, for them to keep the school open so the site team are delayed locking up? Not a chance 🤣

I would email the governors and let them know how poor this is in terms of notice. They should be holding the school to account but the likelihood is they don’t know. The school will have had this in the diary since last year so not telling parents is unacceptable.

Could another family member go instead? And take your questions? And (with permission, obviously check whether it's allowed!) record and send you the consult

Well, it seems they can and they're their Rules!

@PyongyangKipperbang you surely don’t need the whole day off, just 1/2 day. You still have a week to organise it.

Alternatively book slots from 5-6, and do it virtually. And record it for your dd.

I've occasionally not been able to attend school events due to work. I would email the school and ask for alternative opportunities to speak to at least the most relevant teachers.

Yes, they should give more notice, I wouldn't be able to take time off at school notice either.

Many people cannot book leave with just one week’s notice. I do think a lot of posters have nice jobs with v flexible employers and don’t recognise or have the imagination to recognise than many of those working shifts or in customer or patient facing roles frequently can’t get leave at short notice. And one week is short notice. And even those who might be able to get leave at relatively short notice can only do so if enough other staff are working.

But these are the hurdles all working parents are juggling. By year 11 you’d think parents would be used to it by now, or maybe they have simply got used to not being involved now their kids are in secondary and those demanding primary school years (of assemblies, Christmas plays, in-person parents evening, school pick-ups etc..) are a distant memory and very much want it to stay that way.

Loads of workplaces you need to give much more than one weeks notice to do that. Not everyone works in a job where taking some time off is easy. I have to give a month's notice for any time off.

I have to give one months notice for any time off. I would be logging off my computer at 5pm. Wouldn't actually get out of the office until 5.05pmism. So 5.10pm would be the earliest and that would be in a busy street with cars and buses zooming by.

I agree with another poster that some people seem to have no idea of the realities of many people's jobs.