yr7 parents evening...

[roisin]

... are they useful?

We were originally told that the yr7 parent/teacher metting were optional, or by request only.

ds1 gets his report on Tuesday next week, parents eve on Thurs. But we've just had letters asking if we're coming and a slip to book slots.

We had been working on a principle of not going. ds1 has had a great year, flying academically in most subjects, and we have no questions/queries.

On a practical note I am away in France all next week, so can't attend. ds2 is having an operation on the Tuesday, so dh has his hands full already.

He's happy to go, if there's a really good reason to. But I don't think there is.

Is this the only parents evening you've had for yr7? It seems a bit late in the day to have one especially if teachers wanted to do the little Jimmy needs to pull up his socks chat which obviously isn't the case for your Ds.

DD had a parents evening just before May Half term which we did find useful in that it was good to be able to meet her teachers but I don't think we'd have missed out on any thing if we'd not have gone IYSWIM. I thought it was a bit late having it with only a half term to go if DD had of been having problems. Also we were given DD's report on the night which I thought was a bit silly seeing as we'd already booked to see teachers and might not have have made an appointment with a teacher who thought Miss Dreamer was in deed that!

Hope Ds2 is ok.

We had a full parents evening in December. We went and saw all the main players - maths, english, science, MFL, History, Geography.

We went last week. It's the 2nd one we've had as well as a meeting with the tutor to check progress. Was it helpful? Don't know. DS isn't doing badly, but not exactly flying along. Didn't tell us anything we needed to TBH. If you are getting a report too I don't see that it's vital.

We had our first parents' evening last week. It was not particularly useful except to make DD feel very good about herself. One earlier in the year would have been considerably more valuable.
If your DS doesn't feel strongly about it and you are happy with his progress, I would say no need to go.

I wouldn't go, esp as there are no problems.

Teachers will prob be relieved to have one less set of parents.

ds1 has said he would like dh to go along to see a few teachers, so dh has agreed to. At least it will give us him chance to say some thank yous to the staff, who work so hard.

Bit late now, but my parents never came to any of my parent evenings at secondary school because they couldn?t be arsed felt there were no concerns and that I was achieving well. Made me feel unimportant and left out at the time - and there were problems which my parents were blissfully unaware of. So when faced with the same dilemma with dd I went every year.

It was lovely for both of us to hear enthusiastic comments from teachers about her talents and enabled me to ask a couple of questions too. A great confidence booster - don't miss the chance to give your child a well-deserved pat on the back. Teachers can say so much more in a couple of minutes face-to-face that they do in a written report.