what would you do re parents evening????

[glitterball]

ds in year 6. has just done 11plus. his mind has been rather focussed on that to the exclusion of everything else in recent weeks, this is his excuse for forgetting to bring home parents evening appointment request form (you have to specify the 'slot' you can attend for appointment - between 4.30-7.30).

so, have now been advised the only appointment available is at 4.30. i dont get home till 6.30. i've asked if his teacher can change it - not possible.

to get there by 4.30 i would have to take a half day from work & as my holiday year runs jan-dec by this point in the year i have barely any holiday left & what i do have i am trying to save to use at xmas

teacher has said i can speak to her on phone instead - is that sufficient do you think? am just conscious that it is his final year and wonder whether i should go in, even if i do lose half days hols?

Message withdrawn

by year 6,surely you have learnt not to jump through hoops with work/childcare just to sit in a queue for an hour and then get 5 mins with the teacher? Or perhaps your school is better than ours on parents evening. Speak to the teacher on the phone then if, and only if, there are major issues, (which is unlikely or they'd have told you already), you could consider busting a gut. You say you are conscious it's his final year - but his 11+ is done (lucky you and fingers crossed for the right result) so not sure what you are expecting from parents evening. But am speaking as very cynical Mum of second child now in yr 6.

Speak on phone.

no, it generally is just 5 mins....although with it being his final year i wasnt sure if they would make more of it! I'll call her next week - parent evening is a week on monday so if there is an issue I've still got enough time to arrange time off (if that makes sense!)

i have had certain issues with the school before (they clearly have me branded as evil full time working mother!) so wanted to be sure it wasnt totally out of order for me not to go along in person!

Oh do the phone thing.

I have always found parents evenings to be a complete waste of time. Take this one, which happened last week. The teacher came out with a number of platitudes, "DD is a pleasure to teach" "DD is settling so well into year 6" blah blah. She would, if left unchecked have carried on in this vein for the whole slot.

Then she came out with "You must want to know about the assessment process for getting into the senior school" blah blah

At this point, I am irritated by the waste of time - as you say the slots are short. So I get straight to the point and ask three questions

1. Do I need to be interested in the assessment process (ie is there the slightest doubt that they will not accept her into the year above).

1. How are her friendship groups working out in class (because her two closest friends relocated and I want to make sure she is happy)

1. what baseline assessments have they carried out and how did she do.

I elicit the information I need in the end, but it was hard work and the teacher looked a bit shell-shocked.