Do teachers really want all parents to go to parents eve ?

[Howlongtillbedtime]

In this day and age of email contact with teachers (secondary school) is parents a evening an outdated pita for teachers ?

I have a child in yr 9 , parents eve is coming up , I have dutifully booked a few appointments but am I just wasting everyones time ? Do teachers really want me to turn up and spend 5 mins hearing all is ok ? We get regular progress reports and a yearly full report and if anything was amiss we have email .

So my question is will the teachers be grateful if I cancel or think I am a parent that doesn't care about their child's education?

I'd rather see a bunch of parents all in one go than them expecting me to be at their beck and call on email all year. It takes far longer to send a single email than do a single parent's evening appointment.

It's also nice to see parents of the kids who I don't have time to email and say how lovely they are.

In 2 1/2 years I have emailed once , I guess what I mean is we already receive tracking reports and any issues would have been flagged then. I am perfectly happy to go but while I was booking the appointments I did think was it all a big pita for the teachers .

I don't. I have more parents to potentially see than time slots...

Ooh I was thinking about this yesterday as dd's parents evening was on Tues.

Dd is a good student, works hard, behaves well and is a little shy. I spent 1.5 hours touring the school to be told the same thing by every teacher! I am glad I went as it was a really positive experience for Dd but I did wonder if the teachers were wondering why I made appointments (Dd v happy so I had no questions either).

I am glad you replied noblegiraffe as I did feel like a time waster and you have reassured me a bit.

The parents we really want/need to see are often the ones that never come, sadly.

I enjoy parents evenings actually. I don't enjoy having to stay at school so late obviously, but I do enjoy meeting all the parents. Especially the nice ones, or the parents I've seen for years as I teach 3 of their children. I say nice things about most of the kids, and for the few I have some negatives to say, it's nice to actually see their parents reaction to that (this often goes some way to explaining why the kids behaviour isn't as good as others). It all gives me insight into the kids I teach, which is good.