No appointments left for parents evening

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School have hot a new online booking system for parents evening

Slots were available today -advice was to sit down with your child to select which teachers you wanted to see

Sat down at 4pm as soon as we were both home and discovered that out of 13 subjects/teachers there was not a single appointment available

Now I know parents evening is like a cattle market hectic but surely this will make things worse

It's a 10 form entry school and each teacher has 30 appointments -couldn't they prioritise children that they actually need to see rather than the ones that have access to computers during the day?

Oh dear! Do you really think teachers should teach multiple year groups? They can no longer teach just 2 years and make sure they know the subject specifics well?

So now each teacher must write personalised lessons for 4 different years, meaning 4 different syllabuses, meaning 4 different grading criteria etc, etc, and no teacher would be able to specialise in any year, so no more GCSE/exam specialists, no more introduction specialists, no more teacher taking time to get a deep understanding of the needs of each specific year's content, being able to choose/follow their personal expertise?

Well, no wonder I am not the only teacher who will now be breathing a sigh of relief... I resigned last year!

Blanche I don't know any school that does that. I have always taught the full range available at the school. The most specialised I got was one school where they allowed science teachers to teach only their speciality (Chemistry) rather than all the sciences.

But in all the others, I have taught all three sciences as KS3 & 4, and then just Chem at KS5. You are right, it's pretty hard to be an expert in all of ks3, 9 different GCSE modules and 4 different A level modules. I definitely have subjects I am better at teaching than others!

I teach maths, the full age range from Y7 to 13 - you couldn't fill a timetable with just a-level or just GCSE. The only teachers who teach restricted year groups are NQTs (not given A-level) and teachers who we've roped in from other departments to fill a shortage who mainly teach KS3.

So personalised lesson plans for 7 different year groups! Maybe that's why I'm so tired....

I've never heard of a school timetabling teachers to teach specific year groups Blanche, but if they did, (say only taught Yr7s and Yrs8s) then they could make themselves available to Yr7 and Yr8 parents over 2 nights for each Yr group, as they won't have to attend the Yr 9, 10, 11, or 6th form evenings. There's no reason not to have enough slots - particularly in Yr7 when parents need to be reassured how their dc are getting on, but also want to be able to put a face to some of the names. By Yr10, you've probably got more of an idea how your dc is getting on, and if there's any major change you would expect the school to contact you, but it's important in Yr7 to engage in conversation with parents.

I'm with lljkk - we used to stress over it with DD (her school uses the "child gets the slot" approach) until we realised that, as long as there isn't a queue in front of them, the teachers really don't care that much that you don't have an appointment at that time. So much better like this! I even managed to get a drink and a biscuit this year

I know it's a lot of work but I actually ENJOY teaching the full range of year groups 7-13. I take pride in my subject knowledge and love seeing them progress. I would hate only teaching one year group as would most secondary teachers I know.
I have taught more than one group in a year (I had two year 9 groups for a couple of years). It doesn't make it any easier to plan as the classes are different and progress at a different rate.

That all makes me so very, very glad that I chose to specialise in FE. But my ex school teaching olleagues had all chosen to teach only 2 - 3 different years, I had thought that, for subject specialists, that would be enough. Unlike DSis in EYFS/primary!

Really? I love teaching year 8 and year 13.
Even when I return after mat leave I will teach 5 different year groups. I wouldn't want to teach somewhere where I only did one key stage.
Just as well it's different strokes for different folks.

noble, I teach in the independent system and as such there is no actual limit on the hours we are allowed to be in school. Our school is a four-form entry and we run separate parents evening for each year group, not each key stage (so as you can imagine that is rather a lot of parents evenings!) Usually even then, there are few gaps in the appointment timetable. Parent consultations are considered to be hugely important and, as such, staff consider the time taken for them to be within the bounds of 'reasonable extra duties' in our contracts.

So, as a parent AND a teacher, I can't quite understand why a school of OPs DD's size, they wouldn't prioritise a parent evening over a staff meeting when the number of hours teachers can legally be in school is so precise.

State schools do it by year group as well. However, if a member of staff is teaching 96 students in a year (not unheard of) what do you think should happen.
Most class sizes (not all) are smaller in independent sector.
I already do far more than my 'contracted hours' as do most teachers, in both sectors, I know.
Very few, if any, independent schools are 10 form entry!

I've got Y8 parents evening coming up. I teach 63 kids in Y8 and as a maths teacher, all parents will want to see me. Should I be forced to come for another 3 hours on another evening to see them all while the art teacher that no one wants to see clocks off after a couple of appointments?

And it's not one parents' evening or one staff meeting, it's one parents' evening or three staff meetings. Stick in another parents evening for each year group and we wouldn't have staff meetings all year, or department meetings.

The solution would actually be for teachers to only have one class in each year group

Yeah fine lower down the school, but when your child gets to A level you will want the best teachers teaching them , which might mean multiple A level sets and fewer KS3 sets

I see parents evenings and being available for all parents who want to see me as part of my job and if two parents evenings are needed to see all who need to be seen, so be it. Our class sizes average 28 kids, so not much smaller than state schools. And no staff at our school are allowed t'clock off' if they haven't booked all their appointments - all staff are available for the whole time because there are inevitably those who don't book in.

Would far rather give up a few blocks of time after school than have to follow up individually with 10 - 15 families who want to discuss their child's progress outside of them (although of course there are always students who need extra time/attention/phone calls throughout the term. Not to mention the daily emails from certain folk!

You are being paid by the parents though, so of course being available to see parents if they want to see you over two evenings is part of your job. I'd be a bit pissed off if I was shelling out thousands for my kids' education and the teacher said 'sorry all my appointments are booked up, maybe next year'.

Where did you teach Blanche - as in what type of school. I have never heard of this

noble - state school kids' places are hardly 'free' - people pay through council tax (admittedly nowhere near independent school fees, but - like the NHS - it is paid for nonetheless and most expect a good standard of 'service'). I think parents in any school have the right to be pissed off if they can't actually book an appointment to speak to the teacher they want to.

Mind you, given what the government is doing to teachers in non-indie schools at the moment, I'm surprised any have the strength/motivation/energy to turn up for work, letalone to evening or weekend events. Which is why I wouldn't want to bother them outside of an allocated parents' evening, realising how much else they have to do at every other moment of the day...and how much stress is being caused by the idiocy of the current policies and curriculum changes...and how much frustration over the state of teachers pensions...and how many colleagues must be scratching their heads asking ' what have we done to deserve this?' and 'wtf does the latest folly directive of the government actually have to do with improving the learning of the pupils?'

Ooops did I type that out loud?

General taxation pays for education not council tax. So teachers effectively pay themselves....