Do your school still have parents evening??

[lisad123]

Had a letter from dd1 school to say they aren't doing parents evening! They are having a open forum instead for parents arrive between 3.30-5pm!
I think this is a terrible idea. Parents have to hang about for a slot, working parents are going to struggle to attend and there is no chance of a confidential chat!!
The school is on "notice to improve" and think this is very unreasonable given schools current problem. The letter only came home on last day of term.

We still have parents evening at our secondary school.

Not sure the open forum idea would be terribly successful either for teachers or families.

It's very odd.

so they are having a parents evening, but earlier and with no appt times?!

how odd.

I can't see why the school think this would be better.

it might be due to lack of attendance at previous parents evenings.

A school I worked at once had terrible parental involvement; despite a member of staff calling every single parent in each year group reminding them about the evening (letters sent two weeks prior). In order to combat OFSTED we had to evidence that we were trying everything to get parents into school or else it would have taken the rating down......

All I know is there was always a list full of slots with names next to it every time previously.

I teach in a school where attendance at parents evenings is rarely higher than 50%. It's depressing- makes you realise just how important parental involvement is. We too have tried the phone call to every parent thing, as well as sending out letters and sending a text message to all those we have mobile numbers for the day before. For Yr 11 parents evening, we did away with appointments, so it was much like the forum mentioned in the OP. It made bugger all difference. I spoke to parents of 5 kids- and for two of them (step siblings) that involved talking to a colleague, as she works in school as well as sending her 4 kids there, so she had to be there anyway. It certainly seems like a losing battle at that school.

a list with appointments does not mean that parents turn up......a lot of students (myself included when I was at school ) will make the appointments but not let the parents know anything about it!

I wouldn't be able to go to that one. Along with lots of other working parents, probably. My boys' primary is very accommodating, you sign up for an hour where you could come, and they allocate you a slot. They try hard to put sibling appointments close together, and will even offer an alternative day if you can't make the one given.

It's year 4 so still little.
Can't believe some parents don't turn up
But then again parents never surprise me, some of them at school are awful.

We have parents evening for primary, and for secondary progress monitoring days. The later used to be 2 with the form tutor and one a free for all lasting all day, it's now 1 with form tutor and 1 of pre made appointments with class teachers (there are actually 3 but of the final 2 with all subject teachers, one is for KS3 and one for KS 4 and sixth form). It works quite well, but most parents are pretty involved.

Are you sure it's instead of Parent's Evening and not an extra? It would be OK to have an Open Forum as well as Parent's Evening, but not instead of.

If not, then that is very poor - and no wonder they are on notice to improve

We've had open afternoon as well as parent evenings.

Ours have a mentor day near the beginning of the year. A booked 15 mins with their mentor with feedback from class teachers. Later in the year a parents evening from 4pm to 7 pm (booked slots). We can email, phone or make an appointment to see a teacher if we feel the need.

I would rather speak privately with teachers. With 6 DC we have had lots of experience of secondary parents evenings. I think this format is by far the best. 7pm is still early for some maybe they should offer later appointments too.

My DDs current school has a parents evening twice a year. The slots for speaking to the teacher are five minutes long. Ridiculous IMO.

5 mins is ridiculous especially as some still have their 15 mins ' cos jonny is planning to go to oxbridge'.

I made separate appointments to speak to english teachers because that was always my main area of concern. I trusted that other teachers would contact me as soon as any problems came up and not wait for the 5 min slot.

I always found I could have a nice long chat with the RE and music teacher.