Online parents evenings

[mightyducks]

My DS’s school has emailed to say they are continuing with the online parents evenings, for at least the next year, and after having 4 minutes with each of his teachers I really want to go back to face to face. He has SEND and his progress is always concerning and we have lots of questions for the teachers, we can’t possibly do this in 4 minutes or the 3 minutes we got with some teachers due to them joining late. What are other schools doing?

We’ve NEVER had 10 min meetings at our school. Always been 5 mins.
Really surprised to hear some have 10! Gosh your parents meetings must be really long.

Another one here who loves the online meetings. I would push for 5 min though - 4 seems very short. However I know that if we still have things to talk about after the slot we can arrange a teams call at a later date.

Surely you don't need a long slot with all 14 teachers? Is that really for you to find out more potentially the same thing from all 14 or for you to tell them something?

10 minutes would only leave time for 18 students in my parents evening. 36 5 minute appointments still isn't enough when you teach 90 kids in a year group. How long was the evening? Sounds exhausting for staff.

I loved the online parents night for the this very reason. No parent could take up more time than the allotted time given. No more missing speaking to teachers due to other appointments over running. I really hope they stay.

You say you don't have specific issues to address you just want an update. So does every other parent and it only works if parents stick to the time slots and don't hog teachers time which basically screws it up for others. Online means it doesn't run over. Much better for parents and teachers.

Our school is keeping them for the majority of parents evenings, most parents prefer it, I definitely do, especially as you get cut off at 5 mins so you’re not sat waiting for ages as some parents go well over their slot. I’m sure the school can offer you a face to face appointment if there’s specific things you want to discuss face to face

Parents evening appointments are only supposed to be 5mins otherwise the teachers can’t fit everyone in. If you have anything to discuss that takes longer than 5mins then you need to set up a meeting at a different time

I definitely prefer them online

No hanging around waiting for other people to finish, complete privacy and they only take as long as the appointments take because rather than having to go into school

I’ve also had some parents do them from work. I can see they’re in their office or on their break. So it must be much more convenient for some parents.

Whilst I prefer to have face to face conversations, the online is system is better because there are too many parents who will not keep their conversations to the allocated time - and they use much of their time telling the teacher how great their child is. We'd ended up just have 1-2 minutes left once they'd finished.

I also think it's better for teachers. Usually they're at home which is nicer for them when these evenings go on so long.

We also have a minute in between slots which makes it less stressful for everyone.

I love online parents evenings. Much easier and fairer. Everyone gets the same amount of time and you don’t get held up by the parents who have had earlier appointments. It’s like any appointment- if you go over your time you are taking someone else’s.

Ours are online but every teacher said that they would welcome an email if I felt that 5 mins isn't long enough.

am soo glad we're sticking with online. means that the 5 minutes between appointments can be spent actually talking to the kids about what the teacher said rather than dashing to the next classroom.

so much more relaxed and constructive - and no waiting around for people to finish their half hour chat with the teacher.....

OP, you are exactly the sort of parent that means I hope and pray we never go back to F2F parents evenings. If you take longer than 5 minutes then it means everyone else gets put out and the whole system falls over. Anything that needs to take longer than that should be dealt with separately, whatever the issue (and I have a DD with SEN, so do get you need longer to discuss some things - we either email a list of questions in advance, so that it's a case of running through that, or arrange a separate meeting). It's simply not fair though to assume your time is more important than someone else's.

Online is brilliant, we whizzed through our year 11 DS in about half an hour.

No more sitting while someone chewed the ear off a teacher, parents evening are just a quick catch up. Anything longer/specific I've always contacted the teacher at the time and never waited for parents evening.

It’s a bit quick fire but a far better way to do parents’ consultations. We got 5 minutes per teacher. It was fine. Didn’t run out of time and finished within 25 minutes.

If your child has SEND, then you could request an additional chat about how to support that etc.

Love PE online

I really like the online meeting, it's just so efficient. No rushing around, no delay.
And the parents evening isn't a place to address your concerns in details, really. Never has been, in my experience. You need to make separate appointment or contact them via email about your concern, enquiry, etc.

Do the online but if during the course of the conversation with a particular teacher you believe there is more to ask or say then tell that particular teacher that is the case and ask whether you can have a further follow up phone call or if you can put queries in an email to them. That way they and you can stick to your timetable for that evening but also address additional or other concerns not covered within the time available