TEACHERS: What info do YOU want to get across at Parent's Eve?

[DoodleToYou]

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good question

I have parents evening for DS2 tomorrow.
AN dI normally come away non the wiser too.
Can we have a n hour long appt??!!

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i CAN DO THAT IN TEN MINUTES.

I want you to go away feeling confident in e as a teacher...but yes it is a PITA. I will overrun, not be able to kiss my kids goodnight, have a parent not happy and someone will have a question I need to go away and think about.

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oops thought this was for secondary. now that really is a different game.

I tend to ask the parents how they think it is going, is their child is happy, what they would like to see their child improve on...quite often you will glean information like so and so has fallen out with with their friend, or they are a bit unhappy because they don't like sitting by John or hate baked potatoes for lunch or the cat has died etc.

I also ask if they are unhappy about something what they would like me to do about it and if they have any ideas that may work.

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Oh thanks...

AT High school you'll be traipsing round to see umpteen teachers rather than just the one class teacher that you have at primary. At least with secondary you get a range of views and more time overall. I can't even begin to get any good answers from dd1's teachers (they job share) in 10 mins. Last year her teacher was fab, although she always lost her voice in trying so hard to fit everything in - this year they've sat like shop dummies waiting for me to make the first move. It's embarrassing.

Cat654 - we allocate time at my school - so little Joe bloogs who is going well will get 5 minutes, where as jenny, who is a bit thick, will get 20 minutes. Parents apply for a time within a 45 mintue time frame.

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cat64 - they are bizarre - I've never met anyone like them before... and I've been teaching for 14 years myself and have certainly met some weirdo teachers but never as unresponsive as this pair. Roll on Year 2!

In secondary I give current performance, target performance and then have one take-home message. I find I then have time to discuss that properly and deal with any queries the parents have.

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Totally depends on the child.

It might be as simple as 'keep up the good work', especially in year 7 or 8.

Or it might be that they need to approach their work in a different way, or that they are being complacent, or they should have more confidence to speak up, or at least speak to me.

A couple of times I have told parents that their children need to take it a bit more easily and just enjoy the subject . Some children get awfully stressed about things, unnecessarily.

In secondary I tend to concentrate on what the child should do. I don't really assume there will be parental involvement in the actual work.

MY feeling is most parents want to know their child has friends (or not), eats their lunch, works hard, what they need to improve on and what they as parents can do to help.

Those that are more difficult (parents not children) wish to know what I as a teacher am doing about their child (generally it is the ones whose children are in the bottom 3rd of the class).

My experience (as a parent) is that if your child is doing well then your really don't want five minutes, let along ten. dd gets variations of "she is such a pleasure to teach, and good in every way" which is great, but a bit embarrassing if it goes on for too long. We then can comment on whatever dd is currently unhappy about but doesn't want to tell the teacher (usually friend related, and gerally easily resolved). However with ds I think we could spend hours talking to his teachers, as he is much more challenging to teach - also as he is older (yr4) he participates in the discussions, which are generally focused on how can we get ds to stop being so annoying (he is a terrible fidgetter and messer around, although bright and generally I think interesting to have around).