Do I have a legal right to see teachers at parents' evening?

[spababe]

The school has a computerised booking system and DS handed me a letter late and all the slots for some teachers had gone I emailed the school but they have just said the teachers I can't get slots with will email me. I think if there are more parents requesting slots than there are slots they should stay later or put on a second evening to create more slots. I have tried phoning the head of year (twice) and she never returns my calls.

[Hulababy]

spababe - is this your DS's first year in secondary school by any chance?

[ravenAK]

Struggling =/= not bright! At all.

Student A is in bottom set year 9 & doing fantastically. I don't need to see his mum, but she wants to see me, & it's lovely that I can chat to both of them about his progress, especially as A is really lacking in confidence.

Student B is in top set year 10 & currently getting Bs in his Controlled Assessment. His target is A & having taught him in years 7 & 9, I reckon he's perfectly capable of an A*, were he not such a lazy little git.

So I've emailed his dad & arranged an appointment (B has 'lost' his form - he knows perfectly well it won't be anything he wants his parents to hear!).

Student C in year 11 is absolutely fine, parents have been coming to Parents' Evenings for years, they know perfectly well I'll be in touch if there's a problem. They also know I teach two year 11 groups. So they've wisely opted not to queue up to see me for half an hour for me to spend 2 1/2 minutes croaking at them 'Yes, it's all good. NEXT!'

[lurcherlover]

I wish my parents' eves were in "office hours"! I am secondary and they never finish before 8pm. Bearing in mind I get in school for 8am, usually have a revision class or coursework catch-up in lunchtime and then after school, that's a twelve-hour day. I work in a school with a 6th form, so there are 7 parents' eves a year. Then add on Year 7 open evening, 6th form open eve, year 10 induction eve, productions, theatre trips, Speech Night...I wish it was only "one night a year"! I am not moaning as it's the reality of the job - all I ask is that the reality is understood and not the myth!

OP: I am in very regular contact by phone/email with a lot of parents of pupils I teach. I suggest you take some initiative and phone the teachers concerned, rather than getting all huffy about your legal rights.

[TheWave]

I love parents' evenings at secondary school and think they are a great opportunity to praise teachers (see radicalsubstitution above) and share issues from my/my child's side even briefly.

I always try to see as many teachers as possible, including the more "peripheral" subjects such as PE, art etc even when my child might not do for GCSE or A level, and see this as supporting their work with my children and valuing their subject.

Also I sometimes pass by when I haven't got an appointment and if the teacher is free ask if I can say hello I'm Wavelet's mum.

[EvilTwins]

I teach the whole of Yr 8. If I was to see everyone's parents it would take a ridiculous amount of time. Our parents evenings run from 4-7.30, and since I teach all year groups, that's 7 each year. I do find them useful, and yes, it's unfortunate if parents can't get an appointment but it's not the end of the world. If parents can't make it, or if they didn't get round to seeing me, then I will always try another form of communication.

[twoterrors]

Do the people who are up in arms about this find these evenings that useful? If I couldn't see one or two key subject teachers, I'd be perfectly happy with an email exchange, or phone call, and if there really were problems an appointment at some convenient time. But problems don't tend to wait for the annual parents' evening anyway - aren't they more for routine comments and so that you have eyeballed some of the staff and got a sense of what is going on and of the feeling of the place? I hate it when teachers raise something important and unexpected when you know you've got 3.5 minites left, are boiling and need the loo.

I expect proper reports with detailed comments about each subject, I expect the school or teachers to respond promptly to phone calls, I expect staff to talk to each other to help resolve any issues, I expect work to be marked promptly and in detail. I am hard core.

And, forgive me teachers, after meeting 12 of you in five minute slots, I can't remember who is who. And I am sure you can't either.

Parent's evenings are something we all expect, and they have a place. But they are not the only way to communicate with the school.

[twoterrors]

Do the people who are up in arms about this find these evenings that useful? If I couldn't see one or two key subject teachers, I'd be perfectly happy with an email exchange, or phone call, and if there really were problems an appointment at some convenient time. But problems don't tend to wait for the annual parents' evening anyway - aren't they more for routine comments and so that you have eyeballed some of the staff and got a sense of what is going on and of the feeling of the place? I hate it when teachers raise something important and unexpected when you know you've got 3.5 minites left, are boiling and need the loo.

I expect proper reports with detailed comments about each subject, I expect the school or teachers to respond promptly to phone calls, I expect staff to talk to each other to help resolve any issues, I expect work to be marked promptly and in detail. I am hard core.

And, forgive me teachers, after meeting 12 of you in five minute slots, I can't remember who is who. And I am sure you can't either.

Parent's evenings are something we all expect, and they have a place. But they are not the only way to communicate with the school.

[twoterrors]

Oops sorry for double posting and misplaced apostrophes.

[sashh]

Most classes have about 30 pupils. A 15 minute slot for each child (and some parents both want to talk to the teacher but not at the same time) is 7.5 hours. SO starting at 6pm and going on until 1.30am yes that's really going to help. Would you really want a 1am appointment?

If the school is Y7-Y13 that would be 52.5 hours.

Do you really expect teachers to work another week and a half because your child didn't bring home the letter?

[cory]

If I had the kind of problems that means that I needed to see all 10 teachers- and tbh with dd's health problems it's not far off, then I'd ask to arrange a separate meeting with the head of learning instead.

Also, your child is now in secondary: isn't it time he took some responsibility for how he is being stretched?

[BarbecuedBillygoats]

At my dds primary school they put the slots on a white board outside the classroom.
Which is fine except my dd is taxied in by the council. And then I get a snotty message saying why haven't I booked. So I phone up and the only time they'll have is when my dss finish their school

[twoterrors]

OP, parents' evenings are not the best forum for explaining how the school stretches or supports different groups. Every teacher would have to repeat the same information hundreds of times a year, provoking a public health crisis as laryngitis sweeps through the nation's teachers.

If you don't feel you know enough about how the school does this - or anything else - to support, or engage with, your child's education, then do ask the school. Or ask on here first for what normal practice would be. But this information is often on schools' websites or documentation.

If you think your child is not sufficiently challenged in one or more areas, then proceed with caution - but again a five minute slot in a busy hall is not the best way to do this necessarily.

[socharlotte]

Sashh-In fairness to the OP if there are fewer slots than pupils, it really doesn't make any difference that he brought the letter home late.somebody has to be disappointed

[noblegiraffe]

That's why a computerised booking system is rubbish. At my school the kids make appointments directly with me. If I know I have more kids than slots I can say that if you got 'excellent' on your report then please only make an appointment if your parents really want to see me (some just make appointments automatically), and make the ones whose parents I want to see make appointments before they are all gone.

If I've got fewer students than slots (e.g. If I'm teaching bottom set) then I just pass my schedule around the room for them to fill in.

[Bunbaker]

radicalsubstitution I will remember your comments when I go to DD's parents evening next week. Luckily it is on a day when I am not at work and have managed to get some of the first appointments. Her maths teacher said that he didn't need to see most of the parents of pupils in her class as they are making the right kind of progress (she is in the top set - year 8).

I wanted to see him:
a) to thank him for being approachable enough that DD can ask questions if she doesn't understand anything (DD is terribly shy and won't go up to most teachers)
b) To ask him to set more homework - IMO they don't get enough
c) To discuss why the class is so noisy (DD says she misses some of what the teacher says because the other kids are talking) - not sure how to approach this

Please could any teachers on here let me know if these are reasonable topics to discuss and how to approach topic c.

[Mathsdidi]

The last parents' evening I did I spoke to 50 sets of parents in 3 hours (it's only supposed to be 2 hours but I started early and finished late in order to fit more appointments in). That gave them an average of 3.6 minutes each and I still had 10 sets of parents who were 'disappointed' or happy not to see me. Those parents all got an email, outlining how their child is doing. The emails were probably more informative than the 3 minute meetings I had on the actual evening. That was just with 2 classes in that yeargroup so I couldn't possibly see everyone in 3 or more classes per year. I would be happy to email parents though and am always happy for the emails to be a two way communication.

[noblegiraffe]

Bunbaker, when you say DD doesn't get enough homework do you mean she does it quickly or that you want it more often? If it's taking DD less than 20/30 mins to complete then it would be reasonable to ask for more challenging homework (simply 'more homework' is pointless because if they can do it, then doing another 20 questions is simply keeping them busy). If you want it more often then that's usually not down to the teacher as the school will probably have a homework timetable. If she does it quickly, then point this out and ask for extension problems or what DD could do herself to extend her maths independently (e.g. use the nrich website). With a top set and very bright kids, the independent stretching is a good option as sometimes you simply can't set them homework that some won't do easily while others struggle.

Re the noise, say that you appreciate that sometimes classrooms can be noisy but in this case there's a problem as your DD can't hear. Can she please move to the front and the teacher be aware that sometimes students can't hear him over the noise and deal with this appropriately.

[alreadytaken]

interesting - I used to think parents evenings were a total waste of time and would have been happy for any excuse not to turn up. Then I realised that very occasionally a teacher would actually tell me something face to face that they weren't allowed to put in their written report, since that was always positive. So then I started to ask to see all the teachers.

Sometimes I also wanted to say to their teacher dc could do a lot better if they were putting some work in. You may be happy because their achievement is average but I'd like to see more expected from them. Naturally teachers always believe they spot this already, they don't.

[madwomanintheattic]

Last year ds1's parent teacher interview took an hour and a half. And the teacher cried.

True.

I'm not going this year.

I have dd1's tomorrow. I looked at the list of ten teachers, chortled a bit, then booked three. I'm all in favour of enrichment and broadening horizons and whatnot, but I'm struggling to see why I need to meet up with construction or art.

I figure maths, English and science ought to be enough to show where my totally skewed priorities lie. I'm only going to ask for extension stuff.

[cumbrialass]

My son was always really bad/devious when arranging appointments for parents evening, so much so that I always had the appointments with the teachers no-one else really wanted ( ie could be bothered!) to see-PE, RE, Escape Skills ( never did work out what that was!) The look of gratitude as I turned up was comical, most had been sitting there all evening with nothing to do whilst the English/maths/science teachers could hardly draw breath!
Secondary school is not primary, assume everything is fine unless your child comes home with a "You must make an appointment to see Mrs XXXX" note, then you can worry!

[sashh]

socharlotte

I do realise that, I truly do. But there is only so much time in an evening and that is what dictates the slots, not pupil numbers.

[TantrumsAndBalloons]

Dd came home with her appointment card yesterday.

Parents evening is 4-7pm. I cannot get there til 6:20 because of work.
So I am seeing french, english, maths and science.

That's good enough for me, I can't expect 11 teachers to stay til 9pm so I can see them.

[twoterrors]

Cumbrialass, "Escape Skills"?

Oh joy, oh boundless joy. Today is going to be a good day.

Perhaps they could run seminars on Escape Skills for teachers and parents at the start of every parents' evening? With a small prize, waiting at the nearest pub, for the one to implement them fastest and most unobtrusively....

[Bunbaker]

Thanks for your comments noblegiraffe. DD doesn't get maths homework often enough - once a week if we are lucky. She doesn't do it quickly because she isn't a natural at maths. I read somewhere that children who do maths homework little and often do better than those that don't, so at the moment I ask her to do some exercises from the My Maths website. She does them under protest, so I thought I would ask the teacher to tell DD to do them instead as she is far more likely to do what the teacher says than what I say (when it comes to schoolwork anyway)

[alreadytaken]

I have a parents evening coming up. This thread prompted me to think "must I go"........ then I discovered I'd agreed to it in the home school agreement. Oh well - I want to thank one, possibly with a bottle of wine, so I guess he'll be happy to see me.