Y7 Parents' Evening - quick straw poll

[swedishmum]

The first meeting for parents at dd1's Grammar School is next week and we can only sign up to see 6 teachers. I'm quite shocked- never been like this in any large schools I've taught in. They say it's to ease pressure on teachers of more than one class but I feel it discriminates (ie no-one will choose to see RE, Music, IT, Tech etc). Does this happen anywhere else? Please let me have your wisdom before I approach the Head of Year. Many thanks.

At my dd's school, you only get to see the form teacher.

In your position, I would certainly want to see the IT teacher and possibly the tech teacher, too, depending on the child's interests/strengths.

In the local boys' grammar, you only get to see the teachers who need to see you - ie, they choose.

We had our first year 7 parent's meeting last Autumn. Our list of teachers-to-see were already pre-arranged by the school. It was a good cross section of subjects. We didn't get to see the RE or IT teacher but did see the Music and Tech staff. We can arrange at a later stage to see the others. The school also allowed you to make changes if there was a particular subject/teacher you wanted to talk to. Different ball game, secondary school!!

I think it's a sensible approach. If you have concerns about a particular subject, it makes sense to see them, and vice versa; but if not why see them?

In our school yr7s have one lesson per week of music, art, IT, RE, etc. So for instance in music the teacher has 190 yr7 children through his classroom every week. Should he really have to speak to the parents of all of them?

In contrast yr7s have 4 lessons each of English, Humanities, and Maths; and those teachers have only one yr7 class.

We try to get parent to 'target' specific members of staff that they want to chat with/ feel their child has a probelm. We have a review day where the parents and child get a 20 minute interview with the firm tutor who goes over how the child is doing in all subjects....basical sees if the child is reaching targets etc. We then target three areas that the parent may wish to persure further. Basicaly we try to cut down of meetings where the parenst will simply be tols the child is doing well, while nice not exaclt are great use of the parents or staff time.

The aim is to make consultations where they are needed.

I teach 80 year 11 students . To see them all in one evening would be impossible

I see the issue about teachers who teach for 1 period per week - I was a Head of Music for years and taught all of KS3. If everyone wanted to see me on Parents' Evening, then it was hard work. It was part of by job description. I have made the choice to see English, Maths etc avoiding Arts - doing what I always hated. I have always stood up for the importance in Arts subjects in creating well-rounded students, and argued my point that they are as "intellectual" as other subjects. I can't see how it helps pressure on staff anyway - no-one will be seeing Music, RE, PE and the English and Maths dept will be busy as ever.
Also I do not have any formative feedback about dd's progress so far - how am I supposed to know who I need to speak to?

School gives out "area of concern" to some pupils, but as my dd hasn't had any and seems to be level 6ish across the board, how would I choose who to see? The idea of an interview and feedback with form tutor beforehand seems eminently sensible to me.

If I had a 5 minute interview with all the kids I teach in Y11 it would take nearly 7 hours! That isn't professional dedication, that is insanity

TBH if your child is working at level 6 in year 7 there would seem to be few problems academicaly at any rate. Do you have concerns that she is not making progress?

For bright an able children p &T meetings, while very pleasent are very often a waste of everyones time. It is great fun, as a teacger , to be able to tell a parent that their child is delightful, a pleaseure to teach and is making excellent progress, but it isn't going to materialy affect the child's progress in the subject.

In reality the parents that I need to see seldom attend.

I agree with what you say, martianbishop, but it is good for the children to know that they are doing well and is quite motivating as often, they may be unsure particularly in grammar school.

I too hold parents' evenings where no one turns up at all. They are sixth formers and I think by the time they get that far, their parents have lost all interest.

At my daughter's school we see everyone, but occasionally a teacher will say that we don't need to see them. If this is the case we wait until that teacher has no one with them and push in!! What an awful person I am, but I am not going to let them get away that easily. It is also a good way of checking whether the teacher actually knows who my child is.

Fully agree that it is good to be told that you/your child are doing well. We have a system of sending post cards home if kids get 4 yellow merit forms....you get them for all sorts of reasons. There are three levels of postcard, bronze silver and gold. We do it with all ythe kids, from year 7 to year 13.

I too end up seeing all of dds teacher....which I do because I feel that I 'should'. I spend the time being told that she is doing exceptional well. All very nice, but not a good use of my time, or the teachers tbh.

Now ds is a different child

In DS's grammar school last term (year 7), you could only see the form teacher. DS's form teacher could not attend the open evening for personal reasons, and we have not met her yet.

Yesterday the whole form had one-to-one meetings with her, 10 minutes each, timetabled throughout the day. The boys were only allowed to be at school for the meeting. Apparently DS talked about the gym he attends at the weekends and was told to try to avoid being sick this term, as some grades last term were affected by absence (C for them, A for others).

Not sure that was a good use of a day for DS or teacher (ignoring problems other pupils might have).

That is very interesting. We have only been running the formtutor/parent consultations for 2 years and so far they have been very sucessful. Last year I had a year 11 set and the only critisim that the parents had was that they wished we had started this earlier.

What we do is grade the children against their own personal expected level of progress. We take their KS" results and say, for this child, with this greade we would expect this by the enfd of year 7, is the child on target....if sogreat, if not, why not.

After thay have done KS3 we cab rougly predict what we would expect them to accieve in their GCSEs.

So I had kids who were underperforming because of their behaviour and could say to the kids and parents....'you should' get 5 a to c grades, but at present you are predicted all Ds....what are we going to do about this?'

Parents found it very helpful. It also boosted the kids results.

Clarke Kent (!), You are talking about the pupil consultation and target setting days, I think. As a school it is good for the children to see that their grades are a result of their own work and that they do the work for themselves, not for the teacher or their parent. I know it seems like a waste of a day and it can be wearing for the teacher. If done properly, it can help the child to identify any areas that could improve, such as revision skills. It also helps the school look at reasons for underperformance and discuss this with the child.

Whether they have any effect I don't know.

Jennypog, it is definitely clerk, not Clark.

I can quite see that the idea is sound and that for some pupils it could be really useful. However I am worried that DS did not get any guidance on areas to improve on; it is just the same as Parents Evenings have been for us for as long as I can remember - no problems, everything is fine, go away. There did not appear to be any target setting or any attempt to stretch DS.

Target setting is central to our Review Day. The parents are persent with the child and staff, parents and child agree on 3 specific targets which will be reviewed through the year and next year on review day.

Maybe I'm just so used to being involved in my children's education! Just feels strange being in a school and not working there even after all these years.... I always found teachers made difficult parents.

I know what you mean about the target setting days. At our school we try to support the pupils to set their targets and focus in on areas of learning. However, my daughter's review day is not very good at all (and she goes to one of these, so called, fabulous grammar schools). They just give her a bit of paper with current levels, and her predicted levels from MidYIS. If they don't match up she has to work out why and what she can do about it! My comment was maybe the bl**dy teachers haven't supported her enough - and before anyone jumps on the criticism of teachers - I am one, so feel I can criticise my own profession!! Often children do not have the necessarily analytical skills to identify reasons for not performing highly enough. My daughter is ok because I helped her, but others may not have this support.

I have a 2 minute appointment with the science teacher apparently.

We have DS1's first one at grammar school too, SM. We have a list of appointment times between 4 and 7pm and DS1 is required to go to each of his teachers and book an appointment. As far as I am aware there is no limit on the number of teachers we can see. I intend to see every single one, if only to hear them say that he is doing brilliantly .

Which school is dd at now? Is it Ashford Girls' Grammar?

Hi Freckle
Yes, she's at Highworth, which is the girls' grammar. Let's hope for lots of positive feedback...

One of the geography teachers there is a friend of mine. Which teacher does dd have?

Mrs Valente. Not one of her better subjects I'm afraid - you'd think travelling would have made her enjoy it more.

Actually, now I think about it, she might teach history. Can you tell she's not a very close friend??