to be annoyed that school have ditched parents evening, in favour of termly learning conferences during the day?

[Quadrophenia]

Hi not been here for a while but need to gauge some opinion on this. Our school have decided that as of this term they are no longer going to hold parents evening but instead encourage parents into the school for an afternoon per term to a) work with them in the classroom environment and b) meet with teacher and pupil.

I am a single working mother with four children so obviously I have many concerns regarding this that are personal to my circumstances, however in the wider context i have many more concerns.

1. working parents may not be able to attend, find it difficult to attend, need to take holiday to attend (i would rather spend annual leave days WITH my children.)

2. it is likely to prevent BOTH parents from attending, at a time when the government is trying to include fathers more in their children's upbringing....although obviously in some situations it is the mother who will not attend.

3. it is taking the teachers away from their class, therefore the seeing your child learning is actually not seeing them in a true context at all. they will be taught by TA's and the disruption of parents in and out will impact on their learning...this all seems rather pointless to me.

oh i have many more concerns with this but am kind of exasperated with it all, what are your thoughts??

yanbu - it is a nice thing to do, but should be done in addition to parents' evening.

Well, it sounds rather pointless to me. As you've said, it's not like everyone can actually get to school in school hours with any ease without resorting to taking a day's leave - assuming you only have the one child to do this for, that's still three days a year you have to 'waste' on an afternoon spent at school rather than having quality time as a family unit.

Plus, you have (as a national rough average) about 30 childrne per class, so that's actually ninety days a year the teachers will potentially be interrupted. How pointless, when the curriculum is already overflowing with wasted time.

And what happens if you have two children at the school? Do you have to give them an afternoon each? That's a week of your holiday gone! A week you could have spent on a beach together!

I can't see the point in this at all. It's a nice gimmick to get parents seeing the child 'being taught', but it's nothing more than a waste of time in practice. I give it two terms before they revert.

YANBU - nice idea but completely unworkable for many.

What about those who cant get time off work or who have other children that they havent got any childcare for etc etc

plus as you said taking teachers away from the class - even if its only for half an hour, times it by 30 kids and its a lot

(Obviously, since you have four children, the 'you's are hypothetical. For your situation it's more than unworkable. It's just a joke.)

Problem is, you'll find a lot of parents who have similar problems with the normal parents evening - getting baby sitters, only one parent being able to go because the other has to baby sit, working parents not being able to go because they can't finish early enough...Nothing suits everyone. I really like your school's idea actually, I like going in to see the actual school environment, and how the children work. We have both - formal parents evening and informal visits after school to see the school room, look at books etc, and ask more general questions. I think that's a good combination.

Rebeccaj, our school have always accomodated for during the day so parents, evening appointments were from 3pm onwards and children were still encouraged to attend.

Yes nice idea but not necessarily for working parents. Shame they can't do both and let parents choose.

YANBU; they should have both. My school does as Quad's does. However, they do not have separate sessions for each year group (secondary).

key stage one and two have different days which in essence means I have to take two half days off

Did the school say why?

Our dc school has teacher/ parent consultations in the day, due to health and safety!! The headteacher says it's not fair/safe etc etc to have the teachers working the long school day and more hours on top

YANBU

A lot of SAHMs have younger DCs and finding a babysitter can be impossible sometimes.

Daft idea.Unworkable for working parents and SAHMs most of which I guess would have younger children.

YANBU

I can't imagine anything worse than having to 'go back to school' for the afternoon!

I do homework with my children every night and help supervise some of their after school clubs, so therefore know how they are getting on both academically and socially. I fail to see what I or my children would gain from this experience.

I have three children and tbh find it extremely tedious to have to attend multiple pointless/uninformative meetings about my childrens education. I wish they would spend more time actually teaching my children than telling me what they should be teaching them. Just get on and do the job, let me know if there are problems, but if everything is fine and my children are reaching their assigned targets then I see no point in me being called in repeatedly to have 'chats' with their teachers, just to be told they are on target and doing fine!

Oh, I have just asked my children if they want me sitting in their classroom with them and their teacher for the afternoon. Their unanimous, loud reply was......NO!

I think it's very beneficial for parents to see what goes on in the classroom. It is often a lot different to what we expect.

Perhaps the school should open for an additional half-day, on a Saturday, once a term? That way a lot more parents could get in. I don't think this would be popular with teachers (or children) though!

Merle but it will be different to what usually happens...a because it won't be their teacher teaching them as their teacher will be meeting with parents and b, because the disruptions of parents going in and out will prevent it from being what usually happens...the idea is nice but it is totally unworkable in this particular model.

what a silly idea

and how inclusive for the people who don't work

slightly different from learning conferences at primary but i worked at two schools secondary that did academic review days that replaced a traditional parents evening. Some parents complained about having to take time off work to attend a 10-15 minute appt with a tutor during the day.

One heads view was that if people can take time off for dental, medical and solicitor appts or any other professional they need or want to talk to - then the same should apply to your childs teacher.

People don't expect to see their doctor at 9pm at night after their (the doctors)day started at 8am. I've sat there on traditional parent evening till 9.30pm and talked to the last parent - who often in fairness had probably waited ages to see me because with the best will in the world appts overran. This is another reason why these days have now become the vogue.

but i often found the parents I needed really to see - never came

Often in secondaries though if the child is doing well and you are still concerned best thing to do is to contact the individual subject teacher.

Or if you are worried and concerned about slacking- contact the head of year and ask for a round robin snapshot.

a mixture of all these can work the best i think- I welcome parents who contact me - many rarely do, it's usually the otherway round.

I think it's outrageous. I would not be able to attend. And, I would ask for a written report on my child's progress since the school waqs unable to offer me a consultation at a reasonable time.

Fortunately,, I don't have this problem with my school so it's not an issue. But, if it was, I would most certainly complain.

Taking time off for dentist, doctors, etc is okay, but even in the Civil Service we are encouraged to make appointments outside of normal work hours. There's no way I'd get time off for meeting a teacher about my children, but luckily our school makes appointments from 3:30 to about 6:00, over a couple of days, so we get a choice. And I'd rather talk about my DCs away from them, and away from other children too. Things have a habit of getting confused when kids start repeating something they think they've heard!

At the last parent's eveing/afternoon, I went round and make a round of tea/coffee for the teachers still there. Think it was appreciated (lucky I'm a governor, so got access to staffroom). And it was just a little gesture to show they're appreciated.

YANBU. What about families where both parents are teachers?

Oh and I second the point about SAHM and D

Actually I think this arrangement is probably also crap for SAHP because it presumes they don't have any daytime commitments. AS far as I know, SAHM and SAHD don't sit around all day waiting for the school to call them in. Perhaps they have a grandparent to look after or some other commitment they can't just drop like a hot potato.

and lots of people don't take time off for dental or medical appts - they are taken outside of work hours, or the time is made up.

I think one parents evening per term for teachers is not too much to expect (and I'm the daughter of two teachers) because that is not the only 'demand' that school make on parent's time - special assemblies, inset days, school trips, special book or themed sessions during the day......ALL fantastic things, much appreciated, and I am very glad they are done and admire the teacher's work.....however, given that most people have 4 or 5 weeks annual leave and also have to cover 12/13 weeks school hols in addition to that list, there IS a huge amount of good will shown by alot of parents to attend day stuff already. I use leave, flexi time, or even sometimes use sneaking out and hoping no one notices!

In return I think the good will the teachers show in staying for parents evening and not making it another demand in the day, is much appreciated by most parents.

the cynic in me wonders also if suddenly offering this day time 'pop and see us working' thing is there to tick an ofsted box more than anything - parental involvement quite important in ofsted I think.....making more daytime events is not the best, most imaginative or inclusive way of genuinely involving more parents.....but it ticks a box.....

Nice idea if as well well as parents evening but dh is a teacher, he would never be able to attend.

I wonder what Ofsted would say about the removal of one-to-one parent-teacher consultations.