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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Parents 'evenings' during working day - is this usual?

18 replies

SarkySpanner · 27/06/2011 11:21

Our school has recently changed to only giving slots been 3.30 and 5pm.

Is this usual or should I mention how inconvenient this is. Tbh I can leave work early to make this but I'm starting to feel like I'm taking the piss with how flexible I'm asking my work to be.

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pfbornot · 27/06/2011 11:24

Ours has slots 4-5.30 so I suppose it is relatively normal. If you can't make it at our school, the teacher will ususally try to make an alternative arrangement.

Portofino · 27/06/2011 11:25

Ours are always 3.30 to 6

LindyHemming · 27/06/2011 11:29

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mankyscotslass · 27/06/2011 11:32

Our parents evenings are 3-30 til 6 for the first one, and 3.30 til 7 for the main one.

Elibean · 27/06/2011 11:33

Ours are in the day time for Infant school - but the teachers always give working parents the option of an evening slot.

darwin · 27/06/2011 11:35

Ours are during the day too, works well here and the school are very accommodating if we cannot make the times.

Original poster

SarkySpanner · 27/06/2011 11:44

Thanks all :)

And don't get me started on how they plan to see 30 sets of patents in 90 minutes...

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LindyHemming · 27/06/2011 11:51

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Original poster

SarkySpanner · 27/06/2011 11:55

Tbh I don't blame the 'pushy' parents. I blame the system that thinks that 3 minutes per child is enough time. We always take longer than our allowed slot and I don't feel guilty in the slightest. Our school actively discourages parents from attending unless there is a particular issue to be discussed which I think is fecking ludicrous.

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LindyHemming · 27/06/2011 12:17

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teacherwith2kids · 27/06/2011 12:28

Euphemia, I have been on the receiving end of the 10-minutes-and-you're-out treatment - it was obvious that we had more to discuss, so we agreed that we should make another appointment and the next week I had an hour 1 to 1 with DS's teacher.

I have no problems at all with that. I suggested to my school that we should do the same but it was felt to be 'too rude' - I suppose implementing it for the first time is a bit tricky, but for my DC's school everyone is used to it so it is just how it works...

Original poster

SarkySpanner · 27/06/2011 12:32

If we had a 10 minute slot I would definitely keep to time :)

And if the teacher offered an extra meeting to talk about thing further I would be more than happy to take this up.

But I get a strong 'now or never' sense in parents evenings. It seems that this is our one chance to discuss our dc's progress.

And it would help if the teacher could remember who our child is :)

I'm aware that I'm sounding really grumpy. The truth is the dc go to a great school with (mostly) great teachers. But I do think they are really really crap at communicating with parents. Especially those parents who are seldom there at 3.30 for and informal chat.

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LindyHemming · 27/06/2011 12:45

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LovetheHarp · 27/06/2011 13:02

At our school parent's evening is during the day, ie they close the school down and you get allocated any slot during the day, normally at 1 week's notice. You are also not allowed to bring the children so you need to - take a day off work AND pay for childcare for the day, if you are lucky to find somewhere. It is a nightmare. So no, I don't think yours is too bad in comparison!

SE13Mummy · 27/06/2011 21:54

My school does one day of 1.30pm-6pm and another of 3.30pm-8pm. We're meant to allocate parents a 10 minute slot which I duly do but I space them 15 minutes apart i.e. 4pm then 4.15pm etc. so that parents have time to get from one end of the school to another if they are seeing teachers in other buildings and still be on time. It also means that parents can actually have 15 minutes (if they arrive on time!) and that my appointments usually run to schedule.

It does make for a long couple of days and, I suppose that giving 4.43pm start times and squeezing everyone in may mean I get home in time to see my own children for 5 minutes or so on parents' evenings days, but it's only a couple of times a year and it's the only opportunity I have to see some of the parents.

spanieleyes · 27/06/2011 22:01

We have one parents "evening" from 1,30 until 5 and another from 3,30 until 7ish, depending on how many appointments are needed! For the afternoon one, all the children are in the hall/playground with the Head whilst we see parents, so they can bring in younger siblings if needed. After the meetings parents can take their children home rather than wait until the end of the afternoon.

halcyondays · 27/06/2011 22:19

Ours are in the afternoons, usually between 1.00 and 4.00. A lot of parents I know work evenings so no matter when they have them, some parents are going to be inconvenienced.

basingstoke · 27/06/2011 22:24

We have one in the afternoon and one in the evening.

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