State secondary parent evenings - what does your school do?

[fruitbomb]

I know there was a thread on this a while back, and there are lots of opinions, but I'm really just interested to know how typical our school is compared to other similar schools. So if yours is a state secondary, for years 7-11, please can you tell me:

• How many appointments you can book,
• How long the appointments are
• Is it online / in person / hybrid?
• Is it after school or during the school day?
• If you're in touch with other parents, are they generally happy with it?

I'll start:

• 6 appointments
• 5 mins each
• Online
• After school
• Parents complain if can't get their 6 appointments, or if they have tech problems. Some think there should be more/longer appointments. Some think they should be in-person, others prefer online.

Can usually book all subject teachers
Online (although Y7 in person and Y11 have two, online and one in person).
Used to start at 2pm and students had an early finish but it has been moved to 4pm and students finish normal time.

Very large (almost 4,000 students) state school here.

Book as many appointments as you like, online booking system

5 minutes long, you must leave a 5 minute slot between each appointment to walk to the next one

In person

Range of times available - on appointment day, school closes at about 1.30pm or 2.00pm (instead of usual 3.20pm) for appointments to start, so you can book anytime from then up to about 8.00pm or whatever time it finishes (although not all teachers may be there for the whole time and they do get breaks)

Judging by numbers of parents there on appointment night and the appointments that are available, it appears that many parents do not attend, presumably because they don’t see value in it (and this is a school where parents generally are interested in their child’s education, people go to great lengths to get into this school). I personally attended the first year my daughter was at the school, and then seeing no point to it, only booked three appointments the following year. You can’t talk about anything in depth in 5 minutes and they only give positive feedback.

We’re in NZ so only just starting our school year now, I’m not sure if I will bother attending this year or not. Teachers are generally responsive to emails so I would just email if I had any particular issues instead of waiting for appointment night.

• How many appointments you can book,
6

• How long the appointments are
5 min

• Is it online / in person / hybrid?
They do one week of f2f, one week online
Not all teachers do both, although most do

• Is it after school or during the school day?
First appt 4pm, last appt 6.55pm

• If you're in touch with other parents, are they generally happy with it?
Yes, there was a parent vote a couple of years ago about whether to keep it online or return to f2f., it was so evenly split they decided to keep both, but slightly shorter evenings (they used to start at 3.30 pm and run to 7.30).

All subjects, online, 5 min appointments.
I've never had a problem booking appointments, but the Year group WhatsApp has always got the same parents moaning a coupe of days before the event that they can't get appointments.

I much prefer online, pre-Covid it used to be in person and was a nightmare trying to get round everyone.

Kids get a bit of paper with all
of the time slots on (3.30 - 6.30 I think). They are supposed to make appointments with all of their teachers.

Appointments are supposed to be 5 minutes long but some are quicker and others take longer.

In reality you just turn up as soon as you can and queue to see the teachers that you want to see. Getting there are close to the start as possible means you’re in for an easier ride! I take a couple of hours of lieu time and get there as close to 3.30 as I can. It works for us as I work pretty close to school.

Teachers are spread out around a few different rooms and have name labels on their tables but they’re quite hard to see. The first couple that I went to were quite overwhelming and I was glad to have DS with me. Now I can find my way around and know their teachers I can wing it by myself!

Speed dating online - absolute max of 4.5 minute appointments but usually the teacher is late anyway and if the teacher isn't organised its a complete waste of time - often they haven't looked at his book recently, some I don't think could identify him at all.

Only once a year, reports twice but very brief and they operate a stupid system where they only tell you if student is 'on track' or not. This target is based on their SATS/CATS even for things like art or history and doesn't include any assessment of their written English.

The reporting and parents evenings are a waste of time if your kid is actually struggling. They are just designed for parents of children who are doing fine to say well done, all targets met, very well behaved. Anything more than that and you run out of time.

I do sympathise with teachers doing them as I was a teacher and would usually lose my voice after these events, and they always went on longer than advertised and some parents had to be told very firmly to leave. But, still, if it doesn't actually achieve anything, why waste everyone's time?

10 appointments, going down to 7 in Year 10.
Online, 5 minutes per teacher.
First-come, first-served for booking appointments.
I think it will be in person in Year 11.