Parents evening - do you take your kid and teachers do you fess up

[HelloThisIsJoanie]

to being one
secondary this is

re taking kid
i can see it both ways

1. they need to be informed abotu own learning and areas of weakness
2. teacher can talk more openly when kid not there and might haev confidential stuff to say.

what do you think?
i like kid being there for MINE at work.

also do you admit to being a teacher

oh really
hwo griping

DD is in primary so not applicable really. Sometimes she comes, sometimes not depending on childcare. If she comes she sits outside.

When I was teaching it was in secondary. Some children came, some didn't. It didn't bother me either way TBH. And I would make the same comments whether they were there or not. I was never less likely to be honest just because the child was sat there.

All of DD's teachers have known I was a teacher and still in education now.

I find when I say I'm a teacher, I get more honest answers about progress rather than the b/s that some try to feed me. I can also put them on the spot - when I asked if ds could be put on monitoring because he wasn't where he should be academically, I got waffle from his HoY. I went in and told them exactly what I considered he needed to be on monitoring for and why; they did it, and his academic standard improved.

i think in secondary there is more room to be
ahem blunt

secondary parents evenings i agree are very diff

In secondary, I find the teachers expect the children to come, because at that level the children are expected to take a lot more responsibility for their studies. If we needed to discuss anyting confidential, we could always ask dd to step outside.

ok

At dd1's (secondary) school, they insist that kids come too.

At dd2's school they had the option. My dd2 didn't want to go at first, but for the last couple of years I have insisted she does.

I find it much better when both dd and I get to hear the same messages from teachers, a second-hand discussion with kids afterwards doesn't work as well

Our children have to wait outside if they come.

I hate having children there. Year 11 and 6th Form fine but otherwise it does put me off being as ...err... frank as I might otherwise be . And child often sits there looking like a rabbit caught in headlights, so pretty pointless.

Mind you, we did have one mum burst into tears when told DD wasn't quite the angel she'd imagined so next parents' eve we were instructed to ' hold back'.

I do hate that ' tell me Tequila-Mae's wonderful' look in parents' eyes. You just know it's pointless telling them the truth.But you can try .

As a teacher, I like to have the child there (this is secondary).

As a parent - yes, I fess up. An English teacher once tried to fob me off with some shite about pupils not needing to do sustained writing in KS3 - I took great pleasure in telling her that she was talking nonsense, as she was the same person who insisted my daughter was L5 even though she hadn't marked her book all term. Grrr.

Usually I am 'nice parent' though.

At my school, students are expected to accompany parents from Year 5 up. Most of the conversation is with the student, tbh, with the parent as a relative onlooker.