Are you able to speak to all core subject teachers this year for parents evening?

[Schoolparentsevening]

Hi, I just wanted to ask about peoples experiences for parents evenings in secondary atm. We have been offered approx half amount of appointments for 9 subjects. Missing some core subjects inc maths and with staff talking about subjects they do not teach- essentially relaying information from other teachers. I know covid etc has had an impact but the school think that this is “enough” I think it’s not great. I would have liked to speak to o core subject staff and also option staff. So not everyone but the subjects my child will choose from. So are you having similar issues? Please let me know.

Like what whatthe ?
I genuinely would like to know.
Don’t you have regular reviews with the send team if you have a dc with an ehcp?

I teach approx 27 in a year group and each app is 5mins virtually from 3:30-6:30pm. I think problems happen for teachers who teach more than one class per year group which is unlikely to be core subjects. I am a core subject and I have spoken to nearly all parents in my classes this school year.

I teach science and have 3 y9 classes (32 in each) and 2 y11 classes. No way I can see all parents in one evening and we cannot be asked to do more than 1 evening per year group per year (that’s standard teachers terms and conditions)

I like the online system, as there's no overrunning (I have been stuck before now sitting in the school hall waiting for my appointment which was second of the evening, while the parent with first 5 minute appointment thinks it's ok to take 25 minutes!)
However, with a large school, teachers having multiple classes and covid, I got to speak with 4 out of 10 teachers for my Y11 DD this week, so now have to email 6 of them. That's the bit that's not working.

As an English teacher I am always jam packed for parents evening. Ours is 2.5 hours and I'm always full bar two protected five minute breaks.

As a core subject teacher, I usually only teach one class per year group but last year, the eay ot was timetabled meant I had two Y8 classes. There's no way I could have done 60 appointments.

I teach 90 students in y11 and 60 of those in a core subject. I have 36 appointments available. It's a logistical nightmare from my point of view too! I offer any parents a phonecall or email if they can't make an appointment. I don't know what else I can do.

Also f2f meant you could squeeze in more students as those that were fine were short conversations. I could get through 45ish face to face. Online I'm limited to 36 but I do prefer it.

We had an in person meeting last week. Saw 9 teachers for 5 mins each. The school also offered virtual appointments via school cloud for those who didn’t want to visit the school. Very slick.

We get an email to say the portal is open for booking. I try to log in within a couple of minutes, because then it will auto-arrange the appointments and I get all DDs' subjects back to back and done within 1 hour ish.

Our school offers two dates for each year group. That's 6 hours in total, giving 72 appointments. There are 330 pupils in each year, which means that only 1 in 5 will get an appointment.

I think it would be better if the school sent out a letter which says either 'we would like to see you for parents evening' or 'your child is doing fine and we only need to see you if you have concerns.'

Virtual parents evening is so much better than face to face, but even still, 5 minutes is no way near long enough if there is a problem, and it's a surprisingly long time if your child is doing just fine.

I do feel for the teachers though. It must be a draining afternoon.

I don’t think it works to say who they want to see and who they don’t. Everyone is entitled to feedback and because your child is doing well, doesn’t mean you’re less entitled.

I think that if they then need to contact all the parents who wanted an appointment and couldn’t get one though, it’s a bit if a nightmare. The amount of time that would take is huge.

I think for most people, it’s just a reassurance. If you asked most people 2 days later what was said, they wouldn’t be able to tell you much.

But is that really a good use of a teacher’s time? Given that teachers are hugely overworked, is reassuring parents with a conversation that they can’t even remember a priority? Worth the cost?

@WombatChocolate

"Everyone is entitled to feedback and because your child is doing well, doesn’t mean you’re less entitled."

But a letter saying 'Your child is doing fine so we don't need to see you unless you are concerned' is positive feedback in itself.

I have a child who does really well at school. Parents evening consists of 'she's great. Doing really well. Strong across the board. Very happy. Contributes well to discussions.....' Then I say 'anything she could/should work on?' 'Not really... Just keep going.'

I have a child who struggles and it's 'DD2 is saying this....' 'Oh well she's really very polite in class and works hard.' 'Yes but she's struggling and needs help.' 'Oh we haven't really noticed that. She's very quiet...' Time up!

It would be better if the children who really need it get 10 minutes and the children who are doing just fine are given feedback in some other (meaningful) way.

DD1 is at special school and they close the school twice per year and each child has a 30 minute progress appointment.

We got all teachers ( only 1 for all 3 sciences). 4 mins virtually to discuss progress and options which felt a bit short and some teachers treated it as options only others as both… which was awkward in some cases..

@Debroglie

Like what whatthe ? I genuinely would like to know. Don’t you have regular reviews with the send team if you have a dc with an ehcp?

If you honestly don’t know then that’s pretty depressing although possibly not that surprising. I’m finding with secondary the majority of teaching staff seem to think that the responsibility for children with SEN starts and stops with the SEND team 🙄

For those saying how unfair/rubbish it is that you can't get appointments with everyone you want, just think of it from the teachers perspective for a second. I teach 4 classes of year 8 and 4 of year 9 (plus 5 other classes in other years). So on a year 8 or 9 parents evening especially I just don't have enough 5 min slots for everyone - approx 120 students in that year. That's back to back appointments from 3.30-7.45pm (with one 15 min break at about 5.30).

Granted mine isn't a "core" subject so usually teachers in those subjects have fewer classes (with more teaching hours per class) but still. It's not like the teachers aren't trying! And usually will email feedback if requested.

A PP said how exhausting the 5 back to back meetings they had were. It's pretty hard for the teachers too!! But still better than in person ones when the booking system is usually out the window about 30 mins into the night!!

I’m finding with secondary the majority of teaching staff seem to think that the responsibility for children with SEN starts and stops with the SEND team

Rude.

If you have any idea how many children with EHCPs and SEND I teach in a week, perhaps you would comprehend why accounting for every need is nigh on impossible. Please lobby the government for adequate funding to support learners with SEND.

Ours are virtual - 5 minutes per slot.

Huge comprehensive with nearly 400 kids in each year group.

I managed to get slots with all but 2 subjects (non-core) - so 10 subjects plus tutor - and that was booking 14 hours after the system opened.

I didn't get any core subject appointments for DS (year 7) I got art, pe and re, I think.
I was more on the ball for DD (year 11) and booked within 10 min of apts opening and got all the core subjects

Exactly what I was thinking herc added to that are all the students who don’t have ehcps but should. These kids have loads of needs but no extra TA support. Please don’t blame the teachers- we are doing everything we can. Don’t you think we know how much the system is failing? Last week I taught around 200 different students. About 14 have ehcps. I’m given no extra planning time or resources for those students. In addition to that I had 2 suicidal students to support and many cases of anxiety/panic attacks/self harm. Again, there is no extra support for those students or for me.
All those parents eve appointments where all I can say is “they’re dong fine. On target. Working hard. Blah blah” seem like a really poor use of my time right now.

Another year that we didn’t get a parents evening
Our set up is we email a question to each of the teachers before hand then they come back with an answer that’s it!!

As a parent I would very much support the 'your child is fine no need to book a slot' approach.

I go and speak to teachers because I feel I have to and would be frowned upon if I didn't.

DD is in year 9 but since she's been in secondary, parents evening has been once a year and it's a 5 min convo virtually with form teacher only.

Nope, I'm on a waiting list for some teachers, including maths which is the one I most wanted to talk to. It seems crazy to me that they can run a parents evening without enough slots for everyone to talk to the teachers. Clearly you need another evening if you don't have enough time.

There will be other teachers who have hardly any appointments that evening. Would you make them sit there twiddling their thumbs for two evenings?

And what would you have teachers not do so that they can put on all these extra evenings per year group?

Teachers can only be asked to do parents evening once per year group per academic year so schools can’t just run more parents evenings.
It’s almost as if teachers have too many students to provide an adequate service for them all …