Are teachers trained in how to give feedback at parents evening?

[Canyoucheckonme]

Just wondering, as my experience is that most can't be...

My brother has just completed his teacher training and had to sit and listen to his mentor on parents evening for 2 evenings in his autumn and spring terms of teacher training.

I find this quite fascinating. I don't actually think most parents want to hear the truth about how their children are socially! Kids are really brutal to each other and few children are completely kind through and through. Often when you start to talk about how a child struggles a little with a social thing, parents interrupt you and say it's because they're too mature or something else that really isn't the case. It's very unusual to have a parent who genuinely grasps the dynamics of classroom friendships - understandably, parents always favour their own child. I'm sure I do the same with mine.

Llamafield, I know - I should have probably expanded a bit! DS is doing well academically, but has some difficulties with confidence etc. in social situations. So it can be helpful for us (and sometimes for his teachers as well) to be able to discuss things like that.

I think both are important, but 5 minutes isn't very long to cover both!

"Do you not have a list of who you’re seeing at what time?"

Says the poster who's never been sat in a hall with hundred of random adults wandering around and appearing in the seat in front of you saying "oh I saw you were free" as soon as the last one vacates the chair.

It's horrendous and mortifying not to know who their child is. Nothing makes you feel less professional. But so easy to happen when you teach 200+ kids and it's only November. I love the invention of online meetings for this reason above all others. Runs to time and it tells you at the top who is about to appear and who is in front of you at all times.

And to answer the OP. No, zero training in my PGCE on this. Some of my early line managers did let me sit in with them which was extremely valuable but it's not a given.

I’ve always been commended on my parents evening and report writing. Maybe helps I was already a parent to a primary aged child when I started teaching but I always tried to imagine what I would want to know about my own child! Also always give the parents an opportunity to bring anything up they might want to discuss at the beginning of meetings

And some of them are just looking for reasons to kick off and blame the teacher for the fact that G&T little Ellie isn't an astronaut by the age of ten...

@sunshineonbeath ok sorry, just never done one of those big hall parents evenings since I was a kid myself, only ‘see one teacher in their classroom’ (all primary parents meetings, once for secondary) or secondary school multiple subject teachers online in prebooked slots, 5 min each.

Also bear in mind that new teachers are often very young. I was 23 when I did my first parents eve - having watched two experienced teachers do them in my pgce, one of whom had the stated aim of making at least one mum cry at each parents eve, and one of whom used the tactic of waffling enthusiastically while waving arms a lot, showing the kids book, and then saying "lovely to meet you, next!".

So I was 23, telling multiple parents that their child was underperforming and very badly behaved, and being asked repeatedly by said parents how to make their kids behave and do some work.

i felt like shouting "I DONT FUCKING KNOW, I'M NOT A PARENT".

Do you have any recommended reading or resources? (Generally , not in teaching context)

Have really enjoyed this thread !
I am a parent who has also been trained the shit sandwich doesn't work.
Maybe it's ok for me as I am an adult who hones in on the negatives but my DC don't !

I have attended many primary parents evenings with my 2DC and almost always came away feeling a little deflated and underwhelmed so was blown away by DDs year 7 parents evening - I was so impressed by how much insight so many teachers gave me in a short space of time it was absolutely brilliant .
Her two weakest subjects were interesting as I realised the teachers both had no idea why she wasn't getting great scores at mid year - so hopefully that helped them too!
I noticed they all had different ways of tracking who was who ( one male teacher had printed photos of each child with notes alongside !) but they all definitely were talking about my child as if they knew her .

Hats off to them I say - 200 students is a lot of kids !

Sorry, been awol.

I posted this in Primary Education so was referring to that stage. My son's teacher has 25 children to remember, not 200+. We had a 10 minute face to face appt in the classroom, not five mins online or in a packed Hall with hundreds of people. It was 4pm, so hope she'd not been working 12hrs by that point. I do understand that teachers are overworked and underpaid and under valued.

I agree that parents will want different things, eg more of a focus on social skills or academic achievements. We never get any calls about his behaviour so assume it's ok. We get reports saying he's working at greater depth so no worries there.

I guess I have unrealistic expectations at times when it comes to body language, enthusiasm, eye contact, tone of voice etc as view parents evening as important. So many primary teachers come across as bored / dispassionate and like they're just box ticking.

I believe teachers are amazing role models and have a huge impact on our children. I know it's the system and data that's ruining things and it makes me sad.

but that is so subjective, the body language, eye contact tone of voice that you say you want, may be completely different to what someone else wants, and yes it is very possible that the teacher had been working for 12 hours by then, I frequently would have been

Starting work at 4am? Really?!

I really miss online parents' evenings. I loved a) knowing exactly who I was speaking (surely I'm not the only one to have had mortified teenager, plus dad, mum and mum's new female partner? At least I think that was the combo) and b) knowing they'll definitely have to stop talking after their 5 minutes is up.

The main training I've had, if you can call it that, is "there should be no surprises at parents' evening," e.g. it's not the time to bring up serious problems for the first time.

It's a ritual, isn't it, really?

I don't much enjoy them as a parent, either, because DD has SEN and it's always a bit depressing.