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??

There should have been a parent consultation about this. My last school changed to day time meetings because no-one came in the evenings as many of the parents seemed to be in the pub or were too scared (for percectly valid reasons) to leave their homes after dark. On appointment days we'd start appointments at 0730 and go on until 1900 but the major difference was that we only did it on one day instead of over a few evenings.

If what the school are offering doesn't work for the school community someone needs to tell them and your children's teachers should help to arrange a time which does work for you or else arrange to call you one evening when your children are in bed.

my friend just came back from hers, the teacher in front of her child asked her (the adult) if she said any words she didn't understand!

she felt that her child was almost made to perform in front of her. My children volunteered to me this morning that they haven't had maths this week as they have been working on stuff for the conference, it just gets better and better. In my eyes its tokenistic, like someone said it ticks a box without doing what it sets out to achieve....bring it on!!!

I would also like to add that i did email my parent governor representative with a number of concerns I would like addressing at the next governor meeting.

I received a fob off letter from the headmistress in which she stated she was sorry i hadn't felt able to raise my concerns with her. I felt very much that I had gone down the correct route, as it would have been a governor made decision and i was using the appropriate people in place to access this. Bahhh it will make no difference anyway!

Afternoon visits are available in my DDs school as an addition to parent evenings..the parent evenings also run from 3pm - 8pm via appointment