How do secondary school parents evenings work?

[PastelMonkey]

My dc is in year 7 and have their first parents evening soon. It runs for 3 hours and we've been asked to book to see the teachers. I'm a bit confused how it all works though.
Do I have to see every teacher? I know we probably do but how are they going to fit every parent in?
At your school do they hold the meetings in the classrooms or in the hall? I think if it's the classrooms it's going to be wasting a lot more time.
Does it usually take up the whole 3 hours?

I will contact the school to ask these questions but just wondered in the meantime what happens at other schools.

Make sure you know the names of your DCs teachers. One of mine had an online booking system that filtered just their teachers as available. One had every teacher for that year listed and you had to pick the relevant one!

It is better than how it was when mine started - they were given a sheet of A4 paper with their teachers on and had to get the sessions booked themselves with their teacher at the end of the lesson. So lesson before break/lunch no one stayed around, subject the DC didn't like didn't get booked, some teachers refused to play the game, most of the kids lost their list before the end of booking week.

It was so much better when covid hit and everything went on line!

Had ours yesterday and was online with a strict 3 minute timer at the appointment time then cut off - its brilliant😁

See any teacher you want- we saw 10 in 30 minutes was very efficient.

Ours are virtual and you get 2 minutes with each teacher. If they turn up.

Reading with interest as although my child is year 9, the last two years’ parents evenings were online and we have our first in person one coming up soon. I’m surprised that they went back to in-person as online seemed a lot more sensible - five minute slots with 30 seconds in between each one, and we could be cooking the dinner etc with one parent at the computer and the other cooking/listening in/joining as necessary. Not looking forward to the queues and chaos though it will be nice to meet the teachers in person!

Our school has reverted to "in person" parents evenings. I preferred the online option where you got 5mins and then were cut off so no over running. The in person event is like the Wild West, never runs to timetable and the teachers look hungry and knackered (because they are both!). You have to go between the library and school hall. School hall is impossible to hear anything because it's packed and the noise bounces around - DH is deaf in one ear and spent most of each appointment looking pained and bellowing "WHAT WAS THAT? SORRY I CANT HEAR". Really not fun for anyone.

Depends on the school and how they have organised it.
DS1 is just about to leave yr 11 and I can consistently say about parents evening is that they have been badly organised
Generally we saw all teachers in yr 7 and yr 10/11 but just bothered with key subjects or ones we had issues with in other years.
Some years it's a split between classrooms & halls
One year there were no appointments and we just had to go and wait in lines to see the teachers we wanted to see
Another year they let the kids make the appointments 🤔
During Covid we managed to do online which was generally better but had some real technical issues with some teachers
This year we had one that you put in the times you could do and the computer organised who you would see but no thought had been given to the fact that some teachers were in the hall and others in classrooms on the other side of the school. The computer didn't allow for any travel time in between so everyone was running late so after half an hour it was chaos
The last PE was the other week and was relatively well organised and generally running to time but because they only gave 1 weeks notice DH wasn't able to rearrange rota to come so I had to go and also take Little brother with us.
Speaking to each teacher is generally only 5mins so most of the time is waiting around, how much depends on how it's organised by your particular school

Book the core subjects first. Book any subjects where you have concerns. Try to book with a gap between appointments in case they are not in the same room.
If you miss your time slot don't worry - find the teacher you need and if they are free jump in! If not, hover around until they finish and catch their eye. They will usually indicate if you are good to step up.

Turn up a few minutes early so you can figure out where everyone is.

Don't worry about times too much - some parents don't turn up, others talk for too long and they fall behind.

It shouldn't take the whole three hours!

Because parents didn't like never setting foot in the school, didn't like booking online, had IT issues, didn't have access to IT and providing remote support to parents emailing to complain they didn't have the login (by forwarding the email with the login details on it to prove this, usually) and expecting a fully individualised IT support service human on tap and one to personally arrange extra time and appointments they hadn't made in the first place made it less functional than it should have been.

Sorry if this is obvious to most but at secondary the child comes with you. I have lost count of the number of year 7 parents' evenings with parents who had no idea that their child was meant to come. One of those things that seems so obvious we forget to tell people who don't have an older child at secondary.

Children didn't come with us in y7 and 8 so it's probably different in every school.

Another year they let the kids make the appointments 🤔

This was absolutely normal for years and years in every school I worked in. Students were given an appointment sheet by their tutor and it was their responsibility to book appointments with their teachers. Only really changed in the last few years with the arrival of SchoolCloud and the like.

That is unusual.

In the distant past of the nineties my secondary computer generated the parents evening appointments...

We've never had children at parents evenings in secondary (about to do Y10). The sessions start before they're even home from school.

I can see the point if they were a decent length of time, but 5 minutes once a year is barely time to say hi and teacher to say Fred is doing great but needs to focus more on punctation. If Fred is there too it takes twice as long, and half the time I wouldn't want DC sat there either (mine would interrupt, argue and take forever to get to the point!)

My own secondary, we were expected to attend for A level parents evenings but not for Y7-11.

Kids book the appointments at DD's school

We have in person parents evenings and so far it seems that most people book early appointments, so booking later on gives you more chance of not having to wait and more time with the teachers if you want. Suits us as we work so can't get there early anyway. I'm sure it's different in different schools though

Did parents get any choice or did they have to take the appointments they were given?

The parents filled a form in with which teachers they wanted to see, and whether they preferred early or late appointments.

Yes, normal for years. A grid for parents' evening appointments used to be one of the standard pages in the students' planners. I teach a core subject so was always oversubscribed. The quickest way to schedule was while doing the register.

Never worked in a secondary which didn't expect students to be there. Once we went online they started hiding in their bedrooms...

Every school will be different here's ours

Do I have to see every teacher?

At ours it's expected you meet will all.

I know we probably do but how are they going to fit every parent in?

We are given 5 minute slots. It works for about 20 minutes then starts to fall apart as some teachers and adorn parents fail to stick to time.

At your school do they hold the meetings in the classrooms or in the hall

The hall and dining room.

Does it usually take up the whole 3 hours?

Yes because some teachers snd parents fail to stick to time.

It's funny to see the references to speed dating. I used to work for an eccentric headteacher who stood at the front of the hall with a stopwatch and a handbell to make everyone get up and move after five minutes.

I have worked in schools which experimented with meeting teachers in classrooms, but in addition to the logistical issues of moving around the site this sadly left many teachers feeling vulnerable with difficult or sometimes abusive parents.

At ours the school bell / buzzer system goes off across the whole school every five minutes making everyone jump!