First parents’ evening - and it’s virtual

[OverTheHillAndDownTotherSide]

First parents’ evening for year 7 DD. We get 2 minutes per teacher. DD going though ADHD assessment currently and transition hasn’t been smooth. Have not had any meetings with school, just a couple of phone calls with tutor and SENCO. Haven’t met any of her subject teachers.

So I’m wondering what questions we should prioritise in these 2 minutes.

Thank you. Your last point, in particular, is spot on.

Again, as others have said, parents evening isn't really the time to raise big concerns - 2 minutes is short but even five minutes isn't really long enough.

You can bring it up with the maths teacher and ask for a call or email to follow up, but it won't be resolved within two minutes.

If you've got concerns about her class across the board, the best person to raise it with is probably her head of year or the SENCo. For more minor stuff, the form tutor should be your point of contact.

I do think what you describe is normal - some of her teachers will teach 150+ students. It's not the same relationship as you have with a primary school. And secondaries are too big to have an open door policy with parents (plus increasingly this is seen as a safeguarding issue). Presumably you've had a report telling you how she is doing.

I do understand it's a big adjustment, but you've chosen to send her to a school where you don't speak the language well.

What sort of communication are you expecting?

Setting and teachers shouting is not a discussion to be had with the class teacher, they will have very little to do with setting and won't take kindly to you complaining about their teaching style.

Those type of comments need to be made directly to the Head of Department who has the power to change her set to a teacher with a different teaching style (but I doubt they will) and to have a word with the class teacher re:shouting/projection.

Year 7 is a catch up year getting all the students from different schools to the same level and is meant to be relatively easy (although there should still be challenge) to help them settle in to Secondary school. Perhaps it would be better to inquire after an after school maths club or what provision they make for higher ability students.

Not sure what to expect.

We had a colour coded report in Feb with no explanation. We eventually managed to work out that it was based on test results at Xmas and not anything to do with the teachers’ assessment. (Someone whose child has had less than 30% attendance was all green……..).

Plus the 5 minute zoom with the tutor.

Seems to be a case of “entrust your child to us, but don’t expect to be told anything that is going on”. Neither DH or I remember that being the case when we were at school. My mum was a secondary school teacher and was “forever at parents’ evenings” (her words).

I guess I expected more than we’re getting. Not much, but a bit. Seems a long time to have waited for parents’ evening. DD’s best friend’s school (bigger than DD’s) did a parents’ evening in December and is having another in May. 🤷🏻‍♀️

It’s extremely common for non-Welsh speaking parents to send children to Welsh medium schools. It often takes longer to talk to the teachers because they are translating from Welsh into English a lot of the time and can struggle
for words.

WM schools are known for their pastoral care. I bumped into DD’s year 3 teacher yesterday who asked how she was getting on. Even the school receptionist, who I bumped into last week still asks after her. And her nursery class teacher last month. So it’s quite odd to know nothing of her current teachers.

This cohort of kids had no transition days due to Covid. Neither did us parents. Most of the parents on the yr7 parents WhatsApp are pretty bewildered!

I don’t know anything about their teaching style and wouldn’t presume to raise that. We’ve been told nothing about setting - surely it’s not a sin to ask if/when children get set in different subjects?

Again, comparing with DD’s best friend’s school, they’ve been set since January in all core subjects and are pretty much hot-housed within those sets. Not what I would want for DD but just goes to show how different their year 7 experience is. I think DD has had 4 pieces of homework since Sept? Best friend gets at least 3 things a day!

I’m worried that the lack of challenge will turn DD off the subjects that she has natural talent and passion for. I’ll see how tonight goes and address it if appropriate once we have the ADHD stuff through.

I found the virtual parents evenings completely pointless and a waste of time. Very rushed and only told me what I already knew. If there's serious problems the teachers email.
Regardless of diagnosis OP, I would recommend you request a meeting with SENCO now, as it can be a long wait, esp now as a lot are doing EHCP reviews and access arrangements for exams.

I’m already in contact with the SENCO. She did the NHS referral and has provided me with copies. We aren’t prepared to wait 4 years for that process
to start and so DD’s private assessments are this month. The SENCO, I know will work with us on the outcome of that. She’s been really good, in fairness.

They have put some base line support in for DD already but will focus support once we know what is needed.

@OverTheHillAndDownTotherSide
Frankly, I would move out of Wales. Sounds dreadful. Of course they should set. They have info on attainment from y6. They should be doing their own assessments. They are basically doing the bare minimum. Ask what progress your DD is making. How they measure it and what they do if a child is not making progress from their starting point. In the case of your DD a high one. She’s being failed.

Not an option. If it comes to it we will of course move her to a different school.

Just gone into the link. Appts are 2 mins apart with a 10 second gap. So 1m 50secs per teacher.

Virtual meetings are better IME having done both however as PP have said 5 minutes is more normal time frame - and usually that's plenty.

Though there's always been at least one we've not seen due to teacher technical issues.

Our reports are colour code, a number and in GCSE years a letter (though again whether that if they sat now or at end of course varies) and then at most two words about attitude towards learning - and attendance figure is all we get.

Talking to teachers over the years what these number and colours mean is different between departments and even teachers - they used to link to Welsh Government national attainment levels in each key stage but don't seem to now.

Did have an issue with one child that supposedly all teachers had been informed of and when I checked none had and implications to it has to be gone through - 5 minutes was very tight.

Setting seems to vary - they don't do it for all subjects but they've always done it for maths, sometimes for English often not - start doing it by Y8/9 for science - but how much they do seems to be in constant flux - which if they have a noisy form group is a source of annoyance to our teens. Homework isn't a big thing though maths department are only one who set regularly - I found it doesn't help when they get to revision in Y11 as a couple of hours a day or hour and half seems like a huge amount all of a sudden.

It's been very different form Primary were we did have more of a clue what was going on - we've found we've had to rely on our kids themselves raising any issues with us and we're English Medium though it rare I've seen any exercise books as they like to keep them all in school (were they can and do lose them)

I see. That's really good re SENCO. I think you need to find out from the school exactly how their setting works. Many schools don't use sets in any subjects except from Maths. Sometimes that doesn't happen till GCSE years too, much to the dismay of maths teachers.
Can you afford a tutor? What about doing some work at home? I know most state schools don't use text books which we found infuriating when trying to help DD as it was impossible to lre learn knowledge or go over what was confusing her. We ended up using textbooks and just reaching her ourself throughout the lockdowns as the online provision was useless. She has dyslexia and ADHD and we liked these:
Science also workbook available to go with it
English

Maths this series is for KS3. Starts with book 1 ends with book 7. I did it with my DD who has dyscalculia. You could probably start with book 2/3 if your DD is good at maths. It's brilliant in that it explains each topic and then you have questions for that. It also builds on each other.

Overall I found textbooks far better than revision guides at that age. Mainly because CGP is far too busy for my DD, and also because she didn't need revision, she needed to be taught and they gave us a systematic approach that was easy to follow. With revision books, you don't really know where to start if you haven't been taught it.
The textbooks all work on the model of reading two pages and answering the 5-7 questions at the bottom so really don't take long. If you do prefer revision guides, I strongly recommend Oaka books, although they are £££.

Don't stress about homework. It's often not very high quality and just busy work. If she doesn't get much homework now, use that free time to get her to do this sort of stuff, if you feel she's not being pushed.

I doubt the whole country of Wales doesn't set. Plenty of schools in England don't too. Move countries is pretty extreme advice.

Just listen to what they have to say. That’s the point of parents evening, to hear about their progress/needs. You can’t just go in with a barrage of questions.

Thanks. Both her dad and I have A levels (plural, each) in Maths so it’s not the concepts that are an issue.

Will do whatever is needed, up to and including home schooling or private school, if that is what is best for her.

She would spend all of her free time found maths, science and art learning if we let her, not all through academic routes. We try to bring some balance with downtime and physical activities as well.

the risk is that she turns away from school
maths and science as being behind where she is at. More than anything I don’t want her disengaging.

@OverTheHillAndDownTotherSide In that case I recommend the text books even more. I think she will really enjoy it, I loved doing it with DD, and there's a natural end to each task so you can set limits. Eg one per day. If she's bright, all 3 would probably take her 30-45mins tbh. She wouldn't need your help with them. It sounds like she needs to concentrate on English, as the analysis is best started earlier. Science and Maths kids tend to struggle with that the most once GCSEs start.

Thank you. That’s really helpful advice.

I am confused by your post really. You know that 2 minutes is not going to be enough yet you haven’t spoken in depth to the school. You feel like the Parents’ Evening is too late in the year, but you don’t seem to have been proactive about communicating when you needed to.

Have you actually tried to contact the teachers? I have multiple conversations with some parents, and some don’t even attend Parents’ Evening (I call or email home to those parents) but don’t always get a response.

A full time Secondary School teacher will teach hundreds of students each year. I only work 2 days a week and teach a core subject so see my classes more frequently than others and I teach 5 separate classes. Last year I actually taught 4 year 7 classes, which is half the year group! Obviously there is not going to be quite the same interaction with parents as a primary school teacher.

Regardless of that, I welcome communication from parents. I have notes on each SEN student I teach, detailing such things as where they should sit in the class, the colour paper they need, their preferred methods of interaction, if they may need movement or rest breaks etc.

You really need to communicate with the school if you want more info on setting and extension challenges etc though! I teach in the school my son attends and we still followed the formal channels of communication last year as soon as we realised that his report was not as expected.

@lilsupersparks I just want to say, you sound like an incredible teacher.

First teacher didn’t turn up.

You really need to communicate with the school if you want more info on setting and extension challenges etc though! I teach in the school my son attends and we still followed the formal channels of communication last year as soon as we realised that his report was not as expected.

I’m not sure how I am supposed to know that without it ever being communicated. They announced parents evening last week. When booking over the weekend I saw that it was 2 mins per teacher. That isn’t what I was expecting because that isn’t how it ever worked at primary school.

I’ve communicated with them directly regarding bullying and the ADHD issues. I really am not sure why asking about setting and extension tasks shouldn’t be expected as part of parents evening. 🤷🏻‍♀️

In fact, one teacher raised setting in year 8 without prompting, and 4 teachers said she always finishes her work early and happily told me about extension work when I asked.

Sounds like it went well OP. Hope you're feeling a bit more hopeful.

Wow. Two minutes. I thought our allotted five were bad enough. Agree with PPs though. You won't really get to talk for those 120 seconds.

You won't have time to discuss any of this. I'd let the teachers speak so they can share how & what your DC is doing. If time at end ask something. Make separate appointment to discuss your assessment etc. Parents night is the teachers chance to share how your DC is getting on.