Too late to book important parents evening slots

[wildfellhall]

For once I missed the critical email giving the parents evening slots so now I've only managed to book a third of what I need and they're spread over three hours.

I feel such an idiot.

It's an important year and I haven't even met some of the teachers.

It's such a harsh system but I guess it's always been first come first served.

I’ve never met any of my Year 11 Childs teachers. Parents evenings are online with 5 min per teacher.

Ours have gone back to in person but there's far more parents than slots - it does feel harsh. But I guess there's no way round it?

If there is a massive problem, school would have let you know.

My kids school has done away with appointments. Every teacher has a queue, and you just go for whichever looks the shortest once you've finished your previous chat... I hate it, but since they never run to time anyway, actually, I think it's no worse than appointments!

What year is it?

Prioritise. Are there any subjects where your child isn't doing well? Or where you have a specific question? Email those teachers asking for a brief email response re the concerns and or questions.

There will always be someone in the position you are in now. Not every is lucky to book quickly enough to get their chosen slots. Its not really a big deal. If you have any concerns about any subjects, schools are often happy to discuss them at other times

Thanks, I'll do that, I'm just annoyed with myself. I'm just swamped with emails.

Year 11.

If it's anything like my DDs parents evenings it all descends into chaos anyway and you ever end up seeing the teachers at the time you made the appointment for. Parents without appointments turn up anyway and "slot in" or the teachers take too long and all the timings go out the window.
I've always managed to see the teachers I needed to though.

Surely if there isn’t enough slots they need to do two parents evenings?

If there was an issue they'd let you know. Make sure they do their homework, concentrate in class, revise and attend revision sessions seem to be the go to remarks in year 11.

On a practical level that can't happen there are directed time budgets. 2 other evenings per each year group would prevent other important things happening

Go.
Write a list of teachers you need to see. Keep an eye out. The people with booked slots are often waiting for other teachers to finish etc.
Jump in . I'm Jenny's Mum, couldn't get a slot, could you spare a few mins? Shall I come back at the end? Oh, you can see me now? Great!
Bet you see all the main ones.

She can’t “go” because they are online.

The OP says Ours have gone back to in person.

Don't beat yourself up. We never had these meetings years ago . Teachers wouldn't want to spend any more time than they were paid for . If your son was in in danger of falling really behind in a subject wouldn't the contact you anyway ? And don't you know his exam results ? It will be OK .

@wildfellhall this happens all the time, but in the few minutes it took you to start this thread you could have emailed the school to say ...

Dear Head of Year,

I tried to book parent evening slots, but unfortunately the teachers I want to see (Mrs X, Mr Y and Ms Z) have run out of slots. Might it be possible to speak with them another time?

Kind regards,
Wildfellhall

If they get lots of similar emails they may have another bookable session to accommodate them. If they don't, then they may suggest you contact the 3 teachers directly to arrange a quick call.

My DD’s school is fave to face and generally speaking the appointments aren’t stuck to anyway. I’ve never had a problem meeting a teacher while they don’t have another student with them. Often they’ll see DD and call us over to fill up a gap anyway.

Don’t beat yourself up OP. I do agree it seems a bit harsh that it’s first come, first serve.

My dc’s school is still doing Online, 5 mins per slot. In Y7, we were asked to book a slot teachers only if there was a problem. But on the class WhatsApp , ten mins after booking opened, parents were on there gloating about nabbing a slot for every subject!

If there’s a subject not going as well as dc/you expected and you don’t know why, or aiming for A level and not reaching target grade, I’d email the school and ask for a separate chat with teacher.

But otherwise there’s not heaps you can get from a short chat anyway so I wouldn’t necessarily stress about missing some.

I remember my parents would go to parents evening and only see teachers they knew would say nice things about me so they could bask in reflected glory! I turned out ok.

But in-person open evenings are a nightmare for people with booked appointments. If they don't turn up it's almost certainly because they are waiting in a queue for another teacher who is running late. It's stressful for parents, and teachers hate it - the meetings over-run and go on way later than they should.

I'm a secondary school teacher.

What pisses me off about parents' evening slots is that we as teachers have no say over being able to protect/prioritise slots for the parents we really need to see. As there aren't enough slots for every parent, I wish we could have a system whereby we can give 'early access' to specific parents before a general release date or something like that. It would make parents' evening so much more productive. I always end up with the keen bean parents blocking me up for most of the night, and their kids are all lovely and well behaved and hard working and doing well, so there's very little useful discussion to be had and I just end up complimenting their child for 5 minutes. I'm sure the parents love hearing it, but I'd much rather see the parents of children who need advice and targeted support, and it tends to be those parents who never manage to get appointments.

As it's an in-person parents' evening, you can probably still manage to see the teachers you really need to see. When they have a gap, just ask them if they can fit you in - and chances are they'll have a slot they can give you. There are always no-shows and people can sometimes need to leave earlier than planned. I've never left a parent without a slot who has asked me for one on the night - it's always possible to squeeze them in somewhere, and if you hang about, you can often grab 2-3 minutes of someone's slot who's got stuck in the queue for the Science teacher or whatever and so is running late.

If you do miss out on seeing a teacher, just email them. I'm always happy to give parents who missed a parents' evening slot a telephone appointment, especially if they're in an exam year.

"What pisses me off about parents' evening slots is that we as teachers have no say over being able to protect/prioritise slots for the parents we really need to see."

@EnidSpyton have you made this suggestion to your SLT? Or is there anything to stop you simply phoning these parents at another time? A 5 minute slot is unlikely to be enough if you have something meaty to say.

Two options:

Try and catch the teachers and see if they can squeeze you in

and/or email teachers and they’ll respond. They might be able to squeeze you in or just email response. I sometimes give parents a call after parents eve ends if they can’t wait around or the hall closes. Or on a different day.

Don't worry. It happens.

Sometimes parents can’t go on the specified day and I have several to do the day after anyway.

We've all made many suggestions to SLT about improving parents' evening, over several years. Nothing changes.

I do phone/arrange Google Meets with parents I need to see and who don't make parents' evening. But that takes up a lot of my time if there's 10 or so parents to call. If those 10 parents had been able to book appointments on parents' evening rather than the 10 parents about whose child I had nothing particularly enlightening to say other than how lovely they are (and I send postcards and emails home frequently to praise these pupils, so they do get their moment in the sun), then I wouldn't be spending every free period, lunchtime and after school over the two weeks following parents' evening having additional meetings.

It's a pain in the arse. Of course I would be in contact with the parents of any child who I had serious concerns about well before parents' evening. But it's the ones who are a minor worry - who are showing signs of beginning to struggle, but nothing's actually happened yet to warrant an email or phone call home - who really benefit from those frank conversations at parents' evenings. And they're usually the ones whose parents don't make the appointments. It's a perennial frustration, but I'm powerless to do anything about it as a humble classroom teacher!

This is bad advice. It stops parents with appointments being seen on time and is very unfair to the teacher who has worked all day and is trying to keep to time but can’t because parents with no booked appointment turn up. It is not okay to extend a teacher’s very long working day because you haven’t been organised enough. Poor form from you if you do this, it shows very little respect for the staff.

"rather than the 10 parents about whose child I had nothing particularly enlightening to say other than how lovely they are (and I send postcards and emails home frequently to praise these pupils, so they do get their moment in the sun)"

@EnidSpyton All students (and their parents) have the right to hear what they can do to improve. In addition to saying how lovely these children are, perhaps you could focus on something they could do to improve their work. Otherwise, you are letting them down.

Nevertheless, well done for chasing up the non-attenders. I'm guessing you teach a core subject? At our school teachers of the core or ebacc subjects are in high demand for slots, and the PE/music/art teachers get to clock-off early.

Thanks @brissled . I've been teaching for 15 years and was a HoF for most of my career before stepping back to just do classroom teaching a couple of years ago, so while I appreciate your concern, I can assure you I know how to handle a parents' evening conversation. I'm not letting any of my students down, don't you worry.

I teach English, yes, so I am always in high demand. Parents' evening is the closest I get to being a rock star when it comes to the queues to see me! 😂