parents evening soon - tips/advise on how to make the most of my 10 minutes!

[blusher]

Any tips/advise would be lovely I need to make the most of my 10 minute slot and always find that they give me the answers to my questions before I get to them! What questions should I be asking to make sure they are really teaching my ds and not just ignoring him because he does not cause any problems?

I'd be interested to read any tips too. We have ours next week.

Questions to ask (I am a teacher BTW in secondary)

What NC level is he working at? Is this above, below or at average for his age?

Do they have any learning or behavioural issues that they wish to raise with you?

Is he happy in the lessons?

What are his specific targets in terms of his learning ie what should he be working towards?

Is he meeting is current targets, if not why not, and what is everyone (including you son) going to do so that he does meet the targets.

As a teacher, the best parent sessions were those where the parents were prepared, had read the report (if already issued) and had thought about what they wanted to say/ask.
Try to be specific if you have any questions - ie. avoid those "so then, how is X getting on then?..." type thing and focus on any areas of concern or successes you want to highlight - how pleased you are with their progress at reading and how does it relate to key stage levels etc.
If you are happy with everything and your child seems to be enjoying themselves, don?t feel you need to make up any questions just because you feel you should ask them! I hated getting those random questions from embarrassed parents who had nothing really to ask. I remember being asked about my summer holidays by one parent who couldn?t htink of anything else to say.
If you are concerned that your child is one of the invisible children (not naughty, not overly confident, just quietly getting on with things) admit this - ask them about their strategies to involve quieter members of the group and how they deal with mixed ability teaching, table groupings etc.

The worst sessions were always where the parents went in gunning for something that I could do nothing about - such as school dinners or the condition of the playground. If you have any school concerns that are more general, ask to speak to the headteacher/a governor as they are usually hanging around at these events.
HTH

Parents evening at primary don't usually take very long for us. Start of year parents evening is introduction to new teacher, rundown of what they are going to be doing during the year, given a printed list of targets, lets us know how the child seems to have settled and is behaving in school. Then asks us if we have any concerns, anything the child has said about school, anything happening at home that might affect school. Then that's it really.
End of year parents evening we usually have access to the child's books before going in. So have a quick look through those. Then when we see the teacher, she (it's usually a she) then gives a quick rundown of what they have been doing in class, how child appears to be coping, whether behaving okay and then asks us if we have any input for her.
Obviously, if the child is experiencing any problems related to school the meeting takes a bit longer.

At our school (I think the teachers have had training on this) they always ask at the beginning whether we have specific questions. I think this is a great approach, because then the conversation is geared in the direction we are interested in. Obviously the teacher has the opportunity to put in any specific points they want to raise too.

So for example we already know, and therefore do not need to be told again, that dss are on the top table, working well above average in Maths, English, Science, have reading age of XX, spelling age of XX ... we get that info. in reports and we're not actually that interested in it. We usually ask questions around socialising, PE/co-ordination, appropriate participation in class discussions, and settling down quickly, getting on with tasks set quickly, and completing them ... because these are the areas where we sometimes have concerns.

If your teacher wants to launch in first without asking you, I would suggest jumping in and saying "before you start and so that we don't run out of time, I'd just like you to know that the area we are particularly interested in/concerned about is ..."