Curriculum Evenings?

[Taz1212]

Does your school hold a curriculum evening at the start of the school year? This year DD's school has decided without mentioning it to parents to dispense of the evening and instead have given each child a 4 page outline for their year which manages to say absolutely nothing!

I'm not terribly impressed. We used to have an absolutely brilliant Head who would split the evening into two - he'd give a detailed talk on the previous year's literacy and numeracy stats and go over the specific plans and goals for the school. You'd then go to your child's classroom where the teacher would talk about the specific aims for the class, rough timetable, topics etc.

We then had a different Head who gave a rather lacklustre talk but you still had a good teacher presentation. The new Head seems to have decided that they just won't bother at all this year. It was always really well attended so I'm a bit bemused by the decision.

For example, this year all I know about the maths curriculum is that: "Children will consolidate and extend their knowledge of all mathematical concepts using an active approach to apply their skills. A weekly mental maths written test will be completed to help the children strengthen their mental agility."

Kind of tells us fuck all, or am I being unreasonable?

Teachers almost always do more than their contacted hours, because that is what is needed to get the job done really well. I think it is a professional culture that can expect that because we are in the job for the benefit of the children. There is a lot of subtle emotional blackmail from heads, LA, OFSTED and parents.
Parents expect clubs, good/outstanding schools have lots of clubs, so we must all run a club. Staff meetings = CPD and good whole school communication so we must have weekly meetings and briefings
Thick folders of planning, assessment and micro-analysed data = good teaching and learning, so basic planning and assessment and teachers knowing where children are and what they know next from notes or in their own heads is not good enough and we must spend hours creating and examining all this paperwork.

I think my problem is I gave up headship after my return from maternity leave as I couldn't cope with the hours and stress. I took a few years as a SAHM then returned as supply then part time. Now I am full time again my mindset is based on the hours I used to do as a head and I hadn't really challenged the shift in hours I should have as "just a class teacher". Plus I have a huge sympathy for a head who has inherited a school that may drop a level. I know the teaching and learning we provide for the children is outstanding. Our progress and attainment show this. I know the care for our children is outstanding. But this doesn't make an outstanding school as other issues like analysis of paperwork and clubs can make a big difference to inspection outcomes and OFSTED have moved the goalposts.
Sorry OP, just realised I've hijacked your thread!

newname, I teach in an outstanding secondary and our union rep said they wouldn't ask for a directed hours breakdown as they suspected it would come under requirements. I know secondary is different, but it sounds like your HT needs to look at what they are asking, and how that affects staff well being. E.g. How many staff are actually needed to run a disco, could parent volunteers be better used? One after-school meeting per week is the recommendation, how could things be rejigged to meet this? Can outside agencies provide extra curricular activities? What things could be changed to make it easier for teachers?

Thanks for the kick noblegiraffe, I will start to address this gradually. What I think would also help is parents not moaning that we are lazy slackers (including naming non-attenders on public facebook pages) when we don't turn up to every PTA meeting and event, and constantly complaining we don't run enough clubs (but then moan at costs involved when we do attempt to buy in sports coaches, French clubs, etc.).

Omg that's awful! It sounds like the PTA also need kicking into place by the HT and reminded that teachers are doing a job and do have homes to go to and often children of their own. It sounds like they don't actually want after school clubs for the enrichment, but free childcare.
Staff burnout and high teacher turnover are real issues.

Our school has a staff wellbeing committee, and little things the school does, like providing free bottled water for parents evenings do make a difference.

We had a curriculum evening (DTDs in yr 3) which was followed by a talk on how they teach maths. It was very useful and I appreciate the time the teachers took to do it. We also get a printed plan each term outlining what the kids are doing - just one side of A4. I think that's plenty, and I'm afraid I find posters suggesting that teachers should be emailing or updating school intranets weekly unreasonable. It's very time consuming, and to suggest that one email/update would cover a class is somewhat simplistic. I know that my DTD's school splits the children by ability for numeracy and literacy, mixing the two yr 3 classes to keep the groups consistent. There are at least 12 groups. Even assuming each child in any one group is doing the same thing, that's still a awful lot of extra work for a teacher. Multiply that by the number of subjects being covered and it becomes unmanageable,

We usually get a breakdown of the main topics to covered under each subject for the half term together with a weekly homework plan. This year we had a meeting which was non specific and very generalised and left everybody none the wiser. So I do understand your frustration OP. It is so difficult to try and get information when I ask my DD what she is doing at school and I would just like an idea of what is going on.

A simple plan every half term for each subject with bullet points showing the main areas in each subject to be covered is not too much to ask. It could be posted on class pages of the school website where possible. No need for meetings or mounds of extra work for teachers.

So, how are the parents to know what was covered in the previous week? If nothing is sent home with consistency? Just curious.

The homework sent home for the weekend should consolidate what they have been working on, IMO primary school children shouldn't need to do any more work than that, unless they are struggling to keep up.