End of term meetings for year 7

[Frozenveggista]

D.C. is in year 7 at a Harris academy. We had not had a single parents meeting before lockdown. We had a report which consisted of numbered headings and maybe a whole sentence per subject. They have just offered a meeting for year children to discuss the end of year with their form tutor. But no contact with parents, except a report that will be collected when the child alone goes to the meeting. This just seems very odd to me and impersonal. As a year 7 parent of a child who has barely completed half a year of proper schooling it would have been useful to speak to the teachers. Even virtually just the once.

My youngest is in year 7, and we too will only get a written report with no meeting at all throughout year 7.

I can see it would be useful for parents but ultimately I think teachers are doing their best and they too have slogged their guts out over the pandemic-alongside coping with whatever is going on in their lives eg loss of relatives, home schooling their own children, their own health issues etc etc.

I think if I had any particular concerns it would be my responsibility to approach the teacher before a meeting. And equally if the teacher had concerns they should have approached me. In this scenario I would rely on the phrase 'no news is good news'. Ideally your school should have been in contact over lockdown anyway...and concerns could have been discussed then.

I wouldn't have felt the same if it was my eldest child, but after years of parents teacher meetings which I appreciate, but also recongise nothing new is said, I'd rather teachers focused on the teaching and their own well being than spending an evening in a roomful of people, defeating the purpose of the lockdown!

Is there something in particular you're worried about op? If there is, it might be worth contacting the school to discuss.

As above. If there is anything you want to ask/discuss I’d get in touch with them. We had a parents evening early in the year and report this term. We also get weekly Year 7 tailored emails. We have email addresses for all the teachers - if you do too and would like some direct feedback Id be tempted to drop them an ‘apologies but would you mind if you have five minutes..’ email