What's the point of a 5 minute parents' evening for A levels

[MerryMarigold]

My son is in Y13. Is there really any point in a 5 min parents' evening? The classes are not so huge that teachers need to fit in 30 appointments. I think it's really disappointing (verging on pointless) as it's such a crucial year.

My other children go to a different school and despite being in Y10 they get 10 minute appointments and a whole day is dedicated to parent- teacher consultations in order that the teachers can see every parent for 10 mins. (Other year groups are off school and have online work). In my opinion, this prioritises the parent/ school relationship.

It sounds like your concerns go way beyond a 5 or 10 minute routine parents' night check in, so definitely make a specific appointment for a longer meeting.

The vast majority of students (or their parents) won't need more than a 5 minute convo to put faces to names and ask a few short questions, taking into account that most info is conveyed in group info sessions & written communication. Making these routine appointments longer for all children only makes it harder for teachers to schedule longer appointments for the small portion of students for whom a longer meeting is needed.

None of those concerns are for parents evening in my opinion. You should be approaching the tutor for this and requesting a meeting with the sendco.

I agree with previous posters - even a 10 minute appointment couldn’t begin to address those serious issues with your DS. I have DC with similar issues and we don’t discuss them at parents evening with class subject teachers - they are covered in a series of separate meetings with head of year, deputy heads and SENCO; meetings are usually 30 mins +

It's plenty of time. You say "hello, have you any questions?" Parent says yes, you address those. They say no, you go through recent marks, response to feedback, being an independent learner, possible grade, further advice. For most, it's enough time. If it looks like it isn't, I'll say I'll email you. All fine.
There's no way we could have school closures for parents' consultation evenings.

I'm just going to echo pp when I say that it sounds like you need an extra meeting with other members of staff, so make that appointment.

Your child is old enough for you to take a step back. There is very good literature and study to show that parents who take control of their child’s lives, which is mainly education, end up with adults who don’t know how to overcome obstacles, hence they get no sense of satisfaction from anything and thus there are much higher rates of depression.
You have to learn to understand some things are trivial and not worth interfering over.

Right, so your DS has all those challenges and needs extra support yet you then make the sweeping statement that it’s fine to have all day parent meetings because secondary school children “should” be able to work at home. Do you really not see how losing 5 days of F2F teaching could be detrimental to some students who also have their own challenges? If you can’t, then yes it is me me me! It basically works for your daughter so you haven’t given anyone else a second thought.

This may be a controversial opinion, but I think they should be scrapped full stop. I've never really seen the value of them in high school upwards, beyond sending the message of: 'Hi school. I am demonstrating to you that I care about my child's education.'

A once a year, 5 minute meeting seems like a very ineffective way of having a proper exchange of information. I can't believe there arent other ways of doing this without giving teachers all this extra work and putting parents through the annoyance Of a parent's evening As someone said further up, if there was an issue they'd call you. And if you want to talk to them, you can contact them.

Thanks all. It is difficult as his issues are relatively minor so Sendco time/ meeting will just not happen (my friend has been waiting months and her child is pretty much permanently absent from school due to ASD). I'm genuinely not me, me, me - or I would monopolise everyone's time for my child. I am trying to do my best. I was just a bit disappointed there wasn't longer to discuss the concerns with specific teachers.

I could possibly meet head of sixth form but we had a chat in the summer and it wasn't great. It is quite an academic school (NOT a grammar though) and it seemed at that point that she would have been quite happy to get rid of my DS. I tried to persuade him to do a different course in college but (probably due to anxiety) he insisted he stay at school and keep going. The motivation went after doing badly in the summer exams - I think I have only really twigged how bad it is since half term. He says silly things like, "I am aiming for an A in Maths" when he is predicted a D and not working that hard (he does work but not enough to get from D to A!).

In terms of 4 days per annum working at home for my other children. I have 2 children under this system (not just my daughter) and I would also prefer it for my eldest too, depsite special needs (oe even because of). He needs a bit of a break from school sometimes (he thrived mentally in Covid, if not academically!). 4 days per annum isn't much but I don't think it would harm, could possibly be good for those who need a mental break (they are very spread out) - and definitely great for parents to get decent time with teachers. It's good for all children, those who are thriving can always improve, those who need some help have more time to address it with different teachers who will all have helpful/ different perspectives and it builds a closer relationship between the school and parents, which is important.

But then you need to raise these outside of parents evening. The Senco or his form tutor are the peopl3 you’d be better speaking to. Not his history teacher.

Ours are still online and they use a system that automatically just ends after your five minutes, no matter if you're mid sentence. No option to book extra time.

Saying that, my two are "yes they're doing great, lovely students, nothing to tell you" meetings that only last a minute anyway. If I've ever had issues, I've dealt with them at the time rather than wait for parents evenings.

We've got 10 minutes for each subject in sixth form, except for wildly popular subjects where the teacher just won't have enough time.

Agree that you can contact the teachers seperately, or the sixth form pastoral team in a case like yours where you need a lot more chat time.

@MerryMarigold have I read correctly that your friend has waited months for a meeting with the school senco? Again I’m commenting from the private sector where you’d get a meeting the next day, or at a stretch in a week, but waiting MONTHS for a meeting with specialist school staff (where a huge part of the job is liaising with parents) just doesn’t seem the normal or acceptable?

Yes, this is true. Her other son (no SEN) is in the private sector so she has that comparison all the more. The situation with her son isn't new. He is Y11 and it's been ongoing since Y7, the sendco is very busy, and the school is not very good with special needs, so...I guess that's life. The option of moving him would not exist and he will be leaving in a few months anyway.

@MerryMarigold your son may have issues that require more than 5 min, but most children don't, so it is better that you (and others who require more time) make an additional appointment than all appointments being doubled in length. I would rather my son's school prioritises teaching time over parent-consultations.

Personally I think parental engagement is much more valuable than 4 extra teaching days per year. And clearly the other school think so too.

Good parental involvement can make a huge difference. In fact, I dare to say more difference than a couple of lessons per year, which is the max we're talking per subject on 4 days per year. It's very hard to have that parental engagement if the appointment has to be very short, or even non existent because there's just not enough time to see everyone.

Anyway, I think it's a good idea having experienced both types of parents' evenings/ consultation days.

My son is in year 12 we’ve not had parents evening yet and it isn’t until March. Usually I don’t need more than five minutes but I have almost zero contact from the sixth form so know very little about what’s he is doing, therefore I don’t think on this occasion five minutes will be enough time. The school holds parents evening online and sometimes we don’t even get the five minutes allocated because the timer starts as soon as I click “enter the appointment” and if the teacher isn’t there then we obviously lose time.

I would agree with you that parental engagement is important, but our definitions differ widely if your engagement revolves around the parent consultation. Mine mostly consists of talking to my son (year 12) about how things are going at school, giving him moral support, monitoring his results, occasionally helping with homework if asked, and contacting the school if I have concerns. I see the parents' consultation only as an opportunity to put a face to a name, and get a 5 minute briefing, which I would follow up on if necessary.

My son's school does 5 minute consultations in the afternoons, which result in "compressed days" for the whole school - same number of lessons, but shorter, minus form time. My son does feel the loss of learning on those days, so I definitely wouldn't want the time to be doubled.

I find it enough tbh

One school did four mins

But I’ve never found there’s much to talk about! Beyond doing well (realise I’m lucky)

We are A levels now, but every parents evening right from reception has been a total waste of time - ive never once learnt anything i didn’t already know about my children. Its just a box ticking exercise imo.
Their tutor rings once a half term, which is more than enough for us!

Out of interest, why is it 4 days extra per year you are suggesting and not 7 days (1 per year group) ?

Have you actually contacted the SENCO with your worries? If you haven't, than I wouldn't be basing the timescale of replies on another parent. You need to contact them with a clear outline of what you need. Eg referral, extra time assessment etc. A general 'im worried' chat is very open ended.
Your child's teachers wouldn't be able to help with the concerns you have, it just doesn't work like that. You can of course explain that you have contacted the senco as you are concerned about abc and you feel that's what's causing xyz in maths. You can ask if there's any way they can chase that.

In any case, you need to contact the tutor, outline concerns, what you want to happen and request it's passed onto senco.

I have experienced both types as a teacher, and thought the whole days off time table was crap. Kids missing out on loads of teaching, fsm kids missing out on 5 hot dinners, kids with chaotic homes getting no work done in those days, and we certainly didn’t have great parental engagement on the back of it.
Basically you are saying for 5 mins extra chat you are happy to surrender 25-35 hours of lessons 😳I think you are being very clouded by your sons issues on this.
I can easily fully debrief parents in 5 mins for approx 99% of students, the remainder I can schedule in for extra chats, or we might agree about weekly emails home in the 5 mins etc.

Year 7 to 11 only. I think they manage sixth form without closing school. 5 years but when it's your day, the kids go in and speak to the teachers alongside the parents so i I'm not including that as a missed day.

Those saying to get in touch with his tutor. I don't even know who it is, it's not someone who's ever taught him. And we're not meeting them on parents' evening so they clearly have a minimal role.

Senco - he already has extra time, don't need to get it.

Pastoral - he would have to engage and he won't.

I still think the full day consultation is better for engagement. I have 2 kids who tell me very little, especially with subjects they are not enjoying, so it's hard to engage. I learnt loads at the proper consultation - curriculum, materials, my child's behaviour and engagement, specifics for improvement, actual grades (which never go on reports in either school 🙄). We've only had it in Y9. Y7-8 was Covid online appointments and I learnt less than nothing.