How many times a year would you choose to go to a parents evening, and if it's more than once how often do you attend?

[westender]

DCs school has parents evenings 3 times each academic year.

No idea if this is average or not. How often does your school have these?

Would you go this often if you were offered it?

If you would, what sort of questions do you ask/what do you find to talk about?
(And am I a bad parent for asking this question ).

It's jsut that I find that once I have said how is Mini-Westender doing, and teacher has said fine, no real problems, needs to work on his spellings a bit more, then we're struggling to fill the ten minutes.

Any actual problems or genuine questions I have probably already asked the teacher/school when they arose.

So I guess I'm saying I don't think I need to go every time, but will I be noted down as the parent that doesn't attend parents evening, if I don't go?

There are 2 a year, and I go to all of them.
Usually it is pretty much as you describe - but sometimes I have a particular question - and have asked things that I wouldn't grab the teacher to talk about.

We have 2 a year, per child, and I'd happily go weekly, I love talking to teachers about my fascinating slightly odd and erratically performing children

I think I'm noted by teachers as Oh No not this one again.

we have them twice a year and i go to both

i would love to go every term or something tbh, but then ds1 is my PFB!
part of it is that he doesn't tell me anything about school (he's 5) so i do like finding out what they've been doing and how he is getting on with it all

I love talking to people about my kids too, but find that at parents' evening I'm a bit tongue-tied - maybe I'm not sure what's appropriate to talk about and whats not?

Sorry about thread title not making sense btw - must preview in future

Gosh you are lucky! I'd love three a year.

DS and DD's school has one in autumn term, one in spring term and in the summer term you get to meet their next teacher. There are also other events that I try to go to as well. Would also happily be there a lot as well

We get three a year and I am tongue-tied too. It doesn't help that this year's teacher is pretty young and while by all accounts lovely with the children, not very good at talking to grown ups

lol at teacher not being very good at talking to grown ups - I've met a couple of those as well

We get 2 a year, but I'd go every week if I could, because I love talking about DS and want to hear how he's doing, what he's doing etc. I do find the sessions are a bit superficial, and wonder if it mightn't be better to have longer sessions but not do ALL the children every time. Perhaps, one parents night every half-term, but only half the children each time.
Yes, I know it's more work for the teachers, but maybe it would save them time in the long run, as they'd get to find out more about the children's home situation, and be able to get the parents more on-board to give help, back-off or whatever.

oops, that should have said parents' shouldn't it?

We have two a year and either dh or I try to attend both. However, I find them a little pointless as it is all bland positive things with nothing negative mentioned. I would love to know what dds are really like - and I know its not all positive!!! It makes me question the relevance of them really.

We have 3 a year and attend them all. Ds's current teacher is excellent and gives us really good feedback on ds's progress, I don't tend to have many questions as she has normally covered everything.

we have three a year
have started not going unless big prob
they just say kids are doign well

We have 3 a year and I think that's about right. As well as hearing the teacher's opinion find it useful to read their work before/after the consultation as I learn a lot about what they're doing.

We are given a sheet to take away with 3 targets for the next term in reading, writing and maths eg DS (5) needs to work on his a d h and l letters so its not all just bland positives but very constructive.

We had 2 last year, but they have a new head in place and they are considering an end of term one for you to meeet the new teacher.

I don't think its enough tbh but then our school is going through a very tough period, failed Ofsted, revolving door for teachers etc. I'd be in thre every week if I could - I never get bored of talking about my marvellous DCs.

We have them twice a year. I always go. I enjoy hearing how fantastic my children are.

As a pushy parent and an ex teacher, I often have concerns I want to raise (nicely, of course ) but if you have no concerns and the teacher doesn't either, I wouldn't feel obliged to keep talking for the full 10 minutes. Move on and allow the teacher a little break or a chance to catch up with him/herself.

As a teacher though, I did used to wonder about parents who did not turn up at all, unless they informed me they had no concerns and assuming I didn't either, they weren't planning on coming. To just not make an appt does slightly suggest a lack of interest in the child's education and a lack of support for the school.

Maybe thats the problem - I dont actually think my dds are marvellous!! Does anybody actually believe what the teachers say? In our playground the mums/dads laugh about how positive it all is when we know fully that our dc are not all good at everything!!

Once is more than enough.

I'd like them to be half-termly, perhaps that would let the teacher get more specific and deal with issues in a more timely fashion.

As it is we get them termly, which is OKish.

We have 2 a year, would prefer termly.

Our meetings with DDs teachers have always been positive, we usually find plenty to talk about. However, having been to a mums night out the day after the last lot, and listened quietly to a group of Mothers of Boys carping about all the issues (yr 6 boys messing around generally I think) I know that there can be negative feedback too.

We have three a year, but the idea seems to be create a good home/ school dialogue. Last time I was given a sheet explaining how they teach them maths and asked if I understood it. Though I have to say it's not a bad idea. They weren't asking us to work with the children at home, more saying if they get homework this is the method we expect them to use. And also this is what your child will be doing next term, have you any questions you'd like to ask about it?