Top tips for parent's evening

[JodiQ]

Its DS's parent's evening tonight. He's in year 8.
Has anyone any advice for how to get something useful of this evening?
I get lost in all the double-speak... "DS is working within the class" (what does that actually mean - is it good, bad or indifferent?

I know exactly where my DDs are and what they should be achieving. They hare yr 7 and yr 8. Each of their books has a flight path telling me their expected grades at gcse, and each assessment mark is plotted on it so i know if they're over or under achieving. We even have a website where we can track homework grades and merit marks as awarded by the school. It's far more transparent than my yr 2 DS's reports!
That school's logic is flawed. I bet they'd be the first to complain if he wasn't getting the right support at home.

Teacher: I'm not allowed to tell you. School policy. We've worked out an individual pathway for each student but we aren't going to share it with the parents. If you want to discuss it further, then book a meeting with the Head of Year.

I presume there was an ENORMOUS queue of parents waiting to see the HoY ? I would have been straight there. what does the teacher think the point of Parents Evening is ??

Heedee, do you know why your school has that policy? The only reason I can think of is that the school thinks parents are a nuisance so it's best not to give them any insight at all because then they won't understand and therefore can't ask difficult questions.

Backforgood - the suggestion was that I make an appointment with the hoy, nothing as instant as seeing the hoy that same evening.
I don't know what the point of parents evening is tbh. Maybe it's about seeing the parents of DC that the teachers want to talk about and they just feel that they have to be willing to see the rest of us so as not to appear discriminatory???

The appointment with that teacher was a bit of a waste of time. I can't say I got a lot it of Geography either (didn't know who DS is). Maths was good and so was History. I think it depends on the teacher.

Each of their books has a flight path telling me their expected grades at gcse, and each assessment mark is plotted on it so i know if they're over or under achieving.

This is giving you the illusion of actually knowing how your child is getting on, while actually being made-up bollocks. I can't even tell the parents of my Y11s their child's expected grade at GCSE and they're sitting their exams in 5 months. The new GCSE grades are a mystery and any school that claims otherwise is bullshitting.

But teachers saying 'I can't tell you how your child is actually doing' to parents is totally crap, of course they should be able to say whether your child is very able, doing ok or struggling. This is what you get when the government scraps levels without any replacement and just tells schools to get on with it.

I'd be tempted to just ask point blank - is he going to pass his GCSE's with good grades? Or do I need to ensure he has extra support.

That's interesting noble, i always thought there was some idea of whether they would do badly or well!

noble well put as always.

I can tell parents who is working well, meeting my expectations of their ability and where they sit in terms of recent test scores.

I couldn't tell my own year 11s if they will pass or not in the exam that's 4 months away. Not a scooby. There is no guidance or support for them or us. All I can do is teach them, and keep fingers crossed.

I was at my (Yr10) dd's Parents' Evening this week.
Each teacher told us not to read too much into the "predicted / target grade" as it is a new curriculum, new exams, and they are 'guesstimating' predicted grades with nothing to go on. We understand that. However, I came away feeling I had learned something about every subject. What skills she has, what skills she needs to work on. Some idea about how they feel she is likely to do. What her attitude is, and what her apptitutde is. What she should do if she feels she hasn't understood something. what she can do if she is confused about anything. What she can do at home and in school to help her improve. No, they can't be sure what the final grade should be, but they can tell me what she can do to really improve her chances of achieving her best - which surly is all you can ask of anybody.

Yes, I don't treat the 1 - 9 grades as an accurate guide to what my dd will achieve at GCSE. Would be pointless anyway as the marks go up and down each term. I know from them how well out of 9 my dd has done in exams that term though and I find it useful in that way.

Just checked dd's report and the column with the grades 1 - 9 has the name of the tests they do each term that it is based on, rather than anything to do with "this is what we think your child will get at GCSE"

On ds's Year 9 autumn report He was given a predicted grade of a 6 in his GCSE English - it has been explained to us that the expected grades are the best grade achievable if the student worked hard. Ds was crushed - he loves English, loves reading books and writing essays....he's often so proud of his work because he puts an enormous amount of energy into it.
He just got an 8 for his end of Autumn term essay and has received a Head's commendation. You'd think he'd be pleased it's a massive big deal but he's not - given he was getting similar results all though last year - he still feels a bit misunderstood and unappreciated. It's a battle trying to convince him that the target the teacher has guessed at means nothing and cannot limit his achievement, teenager's self esteem is a fragile thing - and can so easily be destroyed.

If he's been getting better grades than the 6 for some time could you ask for the target to be raised? Was the target based on ks2 sats results?

GCSE target grades are nonsense at the moment, as are predicted grades. No point in challenging them at least until after the first cohort have sat the exam. Then they will all change as the company who generate targets (usually FFT) and the people who do predictions (teachers) will finally have some idea what is going on.

I don't know what the target was based on - he is Year 9. His English teacher last year told me he should be in the top set in Year 9 - if he wasn't, he should understand that that was because it was a very talented year. He said he was excellent in all aspects of writing and communicating so I'm not really bothered by his target grade as quite a few have been nonsense so far - some ridiculously ambitious and some 2 year targets met and exceeded within the first term. The thing is his target has not inspired him to work harder - the opposite has been more likely to occur, so he would have been better off with a secret target!!!
We will bring up his target in a round about way at parents evening and ask what he needs to work on, he is curious about how she reached such a low target.

I've always just looked at the test result and attitude to learning grades. I decided to ignore the target grade column as dd has exactly the same target for all subjects based on her ks2 sats. Clearly maths and English ks2 sat results aren't going to give an indication of aptitude at PE, Art and music so i ignore that column

My dcs are non ID twins they both scored level 5 in literacy but one got a 5 in numeracy the other got a 4 - they must have been only a point or two apart because throughout their schooling they have always been within a hair's breadth of each other. Their targets in Year 7 were massively different, it was very interesting, of course they continued to get the same or very similar results.

AIBU to think it's unfair, and labelling, to give kids target grades? For some kids they'll take a C from a teacher as some sort of absolute rule on their abilities.

I helped a friend's daughter with one of her GCSEs. She been predicted a D, was working at an E, and had zero self confidence, really didn't think she could do better. After help and having someone believe in her, she got a B and is now at university doing a subject in the same area. First in her family to go, and that takes confidence to do something a bit different.

Agree with the posters who say they want to know if their child is trying hard, willing to take on challenges, happy, confident and believes they can improve. As well as behaving themselves, being a decent human being, and making the most of what they're given.

Tbh, I find target grades really helpful for ds1 who is doing his GCSEs. It means that he looks at what's required for each piece of work and can see what he is expected to do to get his target. Eg it might be give 4 examples and argue the pros and the cons for each whereas a lower target level might be give 2 examples and state one reason.

The problem I have with "expected", is that it used to mean (in the days of the national curriculum levels) anywhere between 20-60℅. The others were "below expectations", "above expectations" and exceptional. So if that's what it still means then I'm not happy with "expected". However, if it means DS2 is very able so we expect a lot of him and he's living up to those expectations, then I'm happy!!

However, the was no way that teacher- who was very young- was going to offer any clarity. So I'll just have to hope that DS2 is doing well and doesn't need any support from home.