virtual parents evenings?

[RaspberryCoulis]

Just saw another thread on Chat where people are singing the praises of virtual parents' evenings.

I have never heard of such a thing happening in Scotland, certainly not locally here? A zoom parents evening would be amazing! We get the report home with a wee note saying "please contact the office if you would like to speak with your child's guidance teacher".

Hopeless. Last parents' evening was in February. They aren't planning on holding any, for any year groups, all year.

I got a phone call.

We did a virtual parents evening a couple weeks ago. Was excellent! You literally got disconnected as soon as your 5 minutes were up😂 I’m in Scotland obviously.

School (in England) used a special computer programme for it. I think it was called School Cloud.

I've had 2 this year already. It's great, you just sit in your kitchen with a cup of tea and the teachers pop up on your screen every 5 minutes.

The first time a couple of them didn't work and the teachers just phoned me but second time all 10 worked no problem.

We've also used it once with primary but obviously that was just the one teacher so not nearly as exciting.

We had one (Edinburgh - primary, so only one teacher) - not zoom, but some weird platform I've never come across before. It was fine, though I wouldn't "sing it's praises". Same issues as zoom re: technology for the first couple of minutes! And yes, you got cut off after 10 min, mid sentence or not.

I recently had one and thought it was great. The five minute cut off is also good, you can see the clock counting down so got better at finishing before we were cut off mid sentence as the evening progressed. So much better than the last in person one where everyone runs over and you’re running backwards and forwards between appointments. 35 mins compared to hours !!!

They're great! For once we could both attend and we only waited a few minutes to be connected. I hope they continue it along with the online school sign up.

We had one (Highlands) went well till something went wrong - the software automatically switched after 10 minutes to the next teacher in the queue. My DD has the same teacher for two subjects and when the software tried to reconnect to the connection it had just been on - it crashed...

But until then it was brilliant.

This appears to be another "East Dunbartonshire being backward and crap" scenario.

Scotland here. School cloud I think. Fantastic. Even if we are allowed to meet teachers in person next year, I think I prefer this method

I didn't want to do ours, but it was a very positive experience. (teacher)

I am not going to claim that it was perfect but those that don't turn up on time or don't turn up at all don't get a second chance and can't push others out of the queue.

There is no waiting for other appointments to end, various departments and parents often run over time and can't cause timing issues for other appointments.

You have to be succinct clear and deliver information clearly, it is very focusing.

and in the same way that parents can end the meeting so can teachers if they get an "interesting" parent.

I was still in school but parents and pupils looked comfortable in their homes it was very pleasant.

We had one the other night, it was brilliant for all the reasons @FrippEnos said. I hope they become the norm.

We just got a written report for ds but a neighbouring school did a virtual parents evening. One of my friends was very impressed as her dc's dad is in the US but could still join in.

Teacher here - school cloud is awesome and my colleagues and I really found it easy to use. Happily, our parents agreed - certainly much nicer than the fraught cramming of parents, kids and teachers into a noisy hall. We hope it continues and have done two evenings so far.

Done 2 so far - fabulous!! After over 20 years of dreading the rush to get your spot and throwing yourself at the poor teachers, we sit there, cuppa in hand and chat for 5 mins each subject and done. I cant imagine it ever going back to the hellish prior way again

We had phone call, so not in vision, which I think was much better for all and I don’t necessarily think (from a parent POV) we need to return to old format for parents evening.
Would be lovely to think we could even say hello face to face before this year ends in June I actually have no idea what my dc’s teacher looks like, as we don’t even go into the playground anymore

East Dunbartonshite here too (that wasn’t an intentional typo but I think it’s apt!) and the primary pta Facebook page was a riot when it was announced there’s be no 2 way communication between parents and teachers.

Council policy apparently. Too challenging to use modern day communication methods. Such utter bollox.

Are we the only school who hasn't had even a suggestion of any type of Parents Evening? 3 years into this school and only had one so far

To be fair, the usual parents evening at senior school is an utter rammy. 3 minute slot per teacher, separated by 3 minutes. Nobody ever runs to time. It's a constant "sharpest elbows first" competition to get your spot, some teachers have a massive queue when others are sitting doing nothing, the hall is heaving, it's noisy, just awful. And don't get me started on the parent who wants to discuss every test and every lesson and won't shift.

So much better for teachers sitting quietly in an office with a list of people in order, who automatically pop up on their screens and disappear after their allotted time.

I shall be emailing the Council - again - to say this just isn't good enough.

We had zoom. I’d just got out of the shower so refused to switch on the camera (it would be nice to see you MrsUsername...)

Apparently the SSTA are dead against virtual parents' evenings.

www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/18793773.coronavirus-scotland-call-scrap-school-parents-evenings/

"We can’t have parents visiting school premises because of the Covid risk and, in terms of online meetings, the ICT security is not really there which could potentially put a teacher in difficulty if, for example, they are filmed and that footage gets out there." And also it's "too hard to organise".

There are people working in all sorts of sensitive occupations, and in all sorts of situations who are working online. GPs are seeing patients on video calls. Solicitors seeing clients, all sorts of high-level deals being done. But teachers seeing parents is too risky - even though it's reportedly happening already and parents are happy with the system.

Scottish primary school and we had phone call appointments as a parents evening. All in time and very efficient. Much better than previous years!

It is indeed typical useless and backwards East Dunbartonshire Council. There is absolutely no reason why they could not have done phone calls as a minimum (as some not too distant councils did). Instead of trying to work out what they could do they just put their heads in the sand and did nothing.

Any Scottish journos reading this want to do an investigative piece on the huge discrepancy of provision between different local authorities??

Argyll and Bute don’t even offer recorded lessons so a virtual parents evening is way beyond them. Security concerns voiced by teachers apparently so no idea how other council areas have managed to persuade their staff as our teachers are completely opposed to anything digital. Had one useless tracker report since last year. Absolutely hopeless.