Parents evenings-Anyone else find them pointless?

[Wildernessrock]

Our school have another parent's evening the week after Easter holidays. Does anyone else find all these evenings a complete waste of time ( for the teacher as well as us?!)

We just get told " he's doing really well" etc and it just seems pointless on both sides. Is it an ofsted thing to have 2 a year? And I work. And they close the school at 1.30pm on their parents day. Which is hard to find childcare for and I don't really want to go to another meeting where I learn nothing. And they encourage the children to come as well. So then they obviously wouldn't be able to discuss real problems if there were any?!

I like the written report at the end of the year- it actually tells you something!

Yes, I have sat though lots of really pointless parent's evenings (mine are years 6 and 8 now). The ones I hate are were when the time slots overrun massively only to get a couple of minutes with the teacher so they can tell you something vague like "he/she is where she should be" and then get annoyed when you try to pin them down a bit. The problem is you never know when it might be a parents evening where you actually learn something new. I have probably had maybe a couple of them that I would not have wanted to miss.

If you think primary parents evenings are bad, wait for high school!

My dds are at separate infant/junior schools (state). In the infants, it's completely useless. You get told dc is doing fine, where they should be etc. I think they just have a script they read from as there's nothing personal to your child.

But in the juniors it's fab, they seem to really get your dc, they tell you what's going well and what needs work--not just academic but social as well.

I really think it depends on the school.

I like to touch base with the teacher! I look forward to hear how my DD is getting on and if she is happy.

Ours are really good (depending on the teacher). They don't talk about levels and expectations, they talk about how you child is and how they feel about subjects and whether they lack confidence in areas.

That for me is useful information.

I have always found them really helpful.

It's nice to know how DS is getting on from the teachers point of view, one on one rather than a quick word at home time if need be.

Primary was fine.

But if you think primary is pointless wait til you do the secondary school parents evening one! 3 minutes with each teacher, more than a dozen teachers...there half the night. And it is, more often than not, several teachers - one after the other - telling you the same message and, n the case of subjects where the teacher sees them maybe one a week or once a fortnight - very vague statements that could apply to almost anyone in the class.

FWIW when I was a secondary school teacher I also found the PE pointless - the parents you really need to speak to never came. And if there is ever a real issue you'd phone the parents anyway for a longer meeting. You'd never drop a bombshell in a 3 minute slot!

I often found them a bit , not pointless, but not really that important at primary as DD was at a small primary with an open door policy and teachers were very visible morning and night, and often there to chat too - formally or informally. If there was any form of issue you'd have known about it way before PE, and if they were really pleased you knew about it at the time too.

How else could you post on FB "so proud of my DC, the best pupil ever known in the history of education"

I like them because I got to look at the work they've done in school so far.

I think if you get a chance to see the teacher at drop off and/or pick up you can talk about things as and when they arise. I don't see the teachers very often and have to rely on little notes which is not as nice as a face to face meeting.

What they've actually produced tells me more than what they say they've done in school IYSWIM. The teachers had clearly made a real effort to sort out books and the class looked lovely. I liked seeing where the dc spend most of their day.