Year 7 Parents Evening - Unavailable slots for core subjects

[User32243535]

Sorry, but this might turn into a bit of a rant.

DC (Y7) attends what is meant to be a well respected grammar school. But at the moment, I am struggling to comprehend how they have developed such a lousy system for arranging parents evening appointments.

DC is our eldest child so we were not acquainted with this system before and didn't see it coming. Basically, we received a report and then according to the report, we were advised (via dc taking a sheet around to their teachers and booking a time slot) to arrange a meeting with the necessary teachers.

DC is a scatter brain and this hasn't helped with making the arrangements but on eventually contacting their teachers for Maths and English. dc was informed that there were no available slots left. Sorry, but Maths and English are core subjects and we care about our dc's education, I am fuming that we are not able to discuss these subjects with the relevant teachers (parents evening is held on just one evening).

DC doesn't have huge difficulties in these areas but reading the report there are one or two areas for improvement and I think it is important to discuss these two subjects in particular.

Anyone else experienced similar? The system of arranging slots on a piece of paper seems outdated from the outset. I e-mailed the head teacher regarding my concerns about dc not securing appointments a few days ago and I haven't received a response and I'm not able to discuss with anyone as the school office is now closed (dc has just informed me of the situation, which I believed would be resolved today.) Quite frankly not impressed with the schools communication either right now in regard to replying to my e-mail. Grrrrh...just so frustrated!

No Kitty, I was looking at it from a purely academic stance; I have absolutely no issue with mental health issues/physical impairment which could affect anyone at anytime. If someone is a capable student then they quite rightly should be supported but if someone has been mentored etc. and can't maintain the expected academic standard...that surely is another issue (for the child's sake as much as anything), sorry if I came across differently on this occasion.

Toomany I have approx 45 students without reliable Internet access at home.

It's half term for many next week, so User, if you do email your child's maths and English teachers, don't expect a reply until term restarts. I, for one, have no intention whatsoever of checking my work emails before 7 p.m. a week on Sunday

whitemarble, that's called having a work/life balance

Define doing well. Is every non disruptive child making sufficient progress,without one of all sorts of issues? Sorry don't buy disruptive kids having need and everybody else not.

Tea lights - many of the children I teach don't have reliable internet at home. Their parents don't pay the bill, or they do but go for the cheapest provider - thus patchy coverage. Their computers are old and slow so can't download complex webpages quickly enough. They often have nice phones but on cheap packages which means they run out of data.

What's your source for that @Toomanytealights? I know that nowhere near 90% of the kids I teach have a phone. Inner city secondary school.

It’s a standard system. I’ve worked in 3 schools. 2 with the paper system and one online system. The online system was the worst as it penalised families with no computer or internet.
So I teach 7 classes of approx 30 students. So 210 IF I did 10 min with each parent I’d need 2100 minutes which is 35 hours- an entire week.

I’m unable to fit this in so we do one parents evening for each year group with another spare one later on in March for any parents with a burning desire (mixed age groups) I’m always solidly booked from 4.30-7.30pm

I'd love to do a couple of parents' evenings with each year group.🙄 Last week I stayed twice until 6.30 with Year 11 to write up controlled assessment, and had one parents' evening until 7.30. Plus marking I had to do when I got home. What's another 7 evenings per year, it's not like we have got a life outside school is it?

and can't maintain the expected academic standard...that surely is another issue

I have a solution for that OP. Switch to a comprehensive system which caters pretty well from the straight A/A* students down to those struggling to pass. Then a student can be put in appropriate sets for each subject even if it is top set maths but set 5 English.

Why aren't said disruptive and disorganised kids being dealt with as soon as they become an issue instead of being left until an evening which is alledgedly provided for all?

Who said they are not? This was in response to someone suggesting that the OP’s DC sounds like they are doing well and maybe other parents had been more proactive in getting appointments who may have needed them more. It was the OP who said that there couldn’t possibly be any children who need appointments more than their DC, due to it being a Grammar.

It's half term for many next week
This varies - its not next week where I live. And I suspect the OP knows when half term is for her DS...

I also strongly resent the idea that because I don't work in a grammar, I'm not sufficiently committed to the hidden I teach. I work in a highly comprehensive school and this year have kids who range from the Y13 girl who has an unconditional offer from Oxford to the Y8 boy with massive dyslexia dyspraxia, and an autism spectrum disorder, who lives with grandparents as parents can't care for him. I know and care about every child I work with. Even if I don't want three parents evening per year for every year group.

Chameleon, that's why I didn't write Your son is on half term next week . My point was that I could see another thread starting, with the complaint that the teachers hadn't replied quickly enough.

I'm happy for parents of disruptive children to be seen as a priority. If by being seen it helps get the disruption sorted out, then it benefits every other child in the class too.

Toomany 90% of housholds have a line to their house capable of carrying data. That doesn't mean the people in the house have the money for line rental plus internet provision, compatible devices or the budget for additional electricity capacity to run them.

Derm, I see your point but it is a bit random as to which teacher is booking in priority children doesn't it? My dc has been left without appointments...is that not potentially to her disadvantage also?

But User, you can’t just kick a kid out of a Grammar for not being smart enough (you did follow what happened at St Olave’s didn’t you?). And the Grammar tests test very specific areas. You could still be struggling in PE or in English or in Geography etc. Those children still need support from us (and they will be getting it but Parents Eveing can be more useful to them than just saying for a minute or so how well another child is doing) Don’t get me wrong but I love praising children at Parents Evening but with the best will in the world, I can’t see every kid and I will actively target those who I think I should see, as a priority.

Because she wasn't organised enough to make the appointments @User32243535....every day's a school day though and she will know better next time.

@whitemarble. I don’t resent meeting parents but the 14 days a year is a lot of evenings.

I’ll explain why.
We also have a tutor evening for each tutor groups. We have a trip evening for any residential so that’s 2 x evenings. We have two open evenings. We have a staff development evening (planning the years staff development) an IT strategy meeting another evening. A governor and staff meeting one other evening. Plus any plays/concerts etc so if we did your 14 evenings it would roughly equate to nearly 1 evening for each teaching week (39 weeks of the year) if you averaged it out.

That would make childcare very difficult and I’d feel sad to miss time with my own children if I didn’t see them one night every week.

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/householdcharacteristics/homeinternetandsocialmediausage/bulletins/internetaccesshouseholdsandindividuals/2017

Why can't those without be dealt with in the same way they'd handle trips going live or any other school info.

Kids booking appointments is shit. The pushier bigger kids get themselves to the front. My scrawny year 7 kid really struggled to get them. He's since learnt to,push himself forward,not sure why he deserves credit for that.

Last week I stayed twice until 6.30 with Year 11 to write up controlled assessment, and had one parents' evening until 7.30. Plus marking I had to do when I got home.

It isn't just teachers who have to work late sometimes - you do realise that don't you? My normal hours are 8.30-5.30, but I often need to stay til 6.30, or take work home. 2-4 times a month I have to do a 12-14 hour day travelling to meetings, and get back after 9pm - I have colleagues who do more of this. We don't get paid a fortune.

I appreciate teachers work hard, but I do wonder if you think everyone else has a perfect job which never intrudes on their free time.

Toomany A number of teachers have explained how they use paper systems to ensure they see the parents they feel should be a priority. There is no reason why your school couldn't do likewise to prevent the 'pushier bigger kids' getting to the front. My DD is neither pushy nor big, yet she gets appointments with a paper based system.

My effective classroom management doesn't allow for bigger pushier kids pushing scrawny ones out the way though.....@Toomanytealights.
Nearly nine out of ten adults use the Internet weekly? That's a huge amount who don't. And as a PP said, a lot of cheaper and less reliable internet packages preclude certain access. Not everyone is lucky enough to have eleventy billion megabyte per millisecond (or whatever the fuck is superfast broadband speed!).

Queen...or the system may indeed change before the next parents evening.

Taking work home is completely standard for teachers.