Ten parents evenings a year - this is fucking stupid!

[10istoomany]

It's infuriating because the logistics it causes me in childcare is horrendous, but aside from which it is surely not reasonable?

The problem is that the PE doesn't technically start until 4:30 and goes on until 6:30, so two hours, but there's an hour and a half of trapped time in there.

Parents who do attend parents evening sometimes sacrifice time to be there or take time off work
We have to organize childcare to accommodate clients service users patients pupils etc.
Your children aren't missing out any more or less than other working parents w
Ho sometimes work late.

Of course it is ag but as I have explained, the childcare logistics this causes is a nightmare.

Yes, I was exceptionally grouchy yesterday but to be totally honest I don't really say anything notable at parents evenings. If you don't hear from me, assume everything is fine.

I'm going to ignore the non teachers coming on here to inform me how easy it all is compared to Other Jobs. I am sure it is, but I do not DO Other Jobs, I teach.

It’s bad luck for people who teach all year groups but to me it doesn’t sound too out of the ordinary for secondary. Ours are 5pm-7:30 and we have 2 for year 7 and 8. We then have one for years 9-13. So 9 in total (but all half an hour longer) plus Open Evening and Sixth Form Open Evening, prize giving etc. It all fits into the directed time budget somehow.
It’s a normal number of evenings. I’m not saying staff in my school are always delighted to be staying for PE but everyone knows it’s part of the job. Your level of annoyance strikes me as unusual.
I don’t know why you’re being so aggressive here. I haven’t seen anyone saying that teaching is easy and plenty of other teachers are saying it’s a reasonable part of the job.

I think Dumbledore because it is coming on top of two revision sessions after school, a weekly twilight until 5:30 (PE are on top of this not instead of) and it's irritating. I don't mind staying late when there's a purpose e.g. helping children pass their exams.

But when it is just to sit and clap like a seal or to repeat something I have already said, it means that my husband has to leave work, early, drive to where my children's nursery is and put them to bed, meaning I do not see them. This is upsetting for both of us. And for what purpose? It is that which is so irritating.

Surely you don't have parents' evenings in he same week as your twilight unitl 5.30? You might want to discuss that kind of thing with a union rep.
tbh, I have more of an issue with all these revision sessions which enbale students to believe that all the hard work for exams is done for them by teachers. I'd rather sit in a PE and tell parents and students what THEY should be doing AT HOME. But that's another debate.

My school (for most staff) is good at the only one after school thing a week rule of thumb. This seems to have been eroded in quite a few schools, I've noticed.

I think two per year group is very unusual. I’ve had one per year group since I started teaching, about a hundred years ago.

Posters thinking it’s just like “working late” haven’t done too many parents evenings I suspect. It’s being in a client facing role after a day spent in a different client facing role (with tricky customers in both groups) and knowing a few hours later you’re back at work again. We don’t even get toilet breaks written in to a pe it can be a nightmare.

I’m not saying it isn’t annoying. Nobody loves doing parents evenings but it is important. Parental engagement is one of the most important factors for attainment. Keeping parents informed and giving them the information and advice they need to help their children will help your students to pass their exams.
Personally, it’s written reports that I find to be a waste of time. Mercifully our school has now scrapped them. Talking to parents is really important and parents evenings are the most time efficient way to do that. I do not want constant parent phone calls and emails to become part of my job. We don’t give teacher emails to parents at my school as it hugely increases workload.

Best look for a school that doesn't do parents nights then.

That's only a total of 20 hours over the year. That doesn't seem unreasonable considering the hours you work spread over a year (taking into account the long holidays).

Part of the job surely?
Can you not do your marking or planning during the "trapped" time?

As a parent I find these evenings very useful, far better than a phone call or email. I appreciate they may be awkward for childcare but there are solutions available. If you don't care that the evenings are useful to parents and help them to engage with their child's education then I really hope that you decide to leave teaching.

I'm sorry I cannot see the issue op.

I'm not a teacher and I earn considerably less than a teacher (if that is relevant, since I used to earn more before moving) but I am compelled to attend at least 18 evening meetings per year. My role is community based. My DH and I juggle childcare.

As a parent 2 parents evenings a year seems about right. This is our kids education and future. That said i never bothered seeing the pe teacher! It's how the school organise timetables of course, bigger schools have staff who only teach half the year group

The problem with saying it’s an important part of the job is that could be used to justify ten Parents’ Evenings a year now, then twenty a year then thirty a year...where do you stop? It might be important but that doesn’t mean that it’s practical or reasonable.

Actually, I find having regular email contact with a key group of parents far, far more effective and considerably less time consuming. A lot of Parents’ Evening is wasted time. But even if you prefer Parents’ Evening to email, there still needs to be a limit on the number. I think two per year group is excessive and I don’t believe that it is useful beyond a handful of students who need that extra input - whose parents you probably do ring and email quite often anyway or whose parents won’t come to Parents’ Evening at all.

In ten PEs a year, a lot of that time is going to be spent having a series of pleasant chats with parents of students who are doing fine. It might be nice for parents to hear that, but it isn’t important enough given the other demands of the job.

Workload is driving teachers away, as much as anyone wants to come on and tell us that workload is the same in any other job - there is a massive crisis in teacher retention right now. There are many elements of the job which are important; we can’t do all of them all of the time. There has to be balance. Ten Parents’ Evening a year is not balanced.

In my school, we have seven year groups but we only do three Parents’ Evenings a year and we only invite the parents that we need to see. Not all staff have to attend prize givings and Open Evenings - it’s shared our amongst us so we do one each. As a parent, I wouldn’t like that much as I’d likely never meet my children’s teachers, but at least I’d know they were spending their time on actually being able to do their job effectively and my kids would be getting a better education as a result.

But when it is just to sit and clap like a seal or to repeat something I have already said, it means that my husband has to leave work, early, drive to where my children's nursery is and put them to bed, meaning I do not see them. This is upsetting for both of us. And for what purpose? It is that which is so irritating.

10 days out of your 195 days of teaching means you can’t put your children to bed and you both find it upsetting? 🙄. I work evenings 3 nights a week all the year through. My children are put to bed by their dad 3/7 nights a week all year long. Just for perspective.

I work in education.

My ds secondary school holds 1 parents evening per year year age group (KS3/4).
They run the speed dating style evening where you get 4 minutes per teacher. Also extremely open door re emails.
Sometimes I don't feel this is enough for some teachers and feel under pressure to find things to discuss 'just because they are happening'.
I'm lucky because ds has a keyworker through his EHCP so I can contact freely as and when needed feather than that 4 minutes per year!

They have just had a consult and will have an early finish weekly whereby they will invite parents in for longer meetings then if needed.

I agree with you 10 per year is a lot. I would suggest looking at what other schools do and making suggestions for better ways. Change happens because people take positive action to make it.

OP isn’t saying no parents evenings at all, she’s saying that two per year group is excessive, and it absolutely is.

And as a PP said, it would mostly be a series of nice chats with the parents of kids who are doing fine, not the ones that you would actually need to see twice a year. And then they’d turn up the second time as well because they’re nice interested parents, and you’d have to say the same ‘doing fine’ stuff all over again. Waste of time.

One per year group is reasonable.

I agree 2 a year is excessive but I'm alarmed that you think parents evenings are a waste of time. I wouldn't dream.of emailing a teacher to find out how dd is doing but parents evening keeps everyone informed and hopefully parents can then back up the teacher.

"Clap like a seal" are you depressed OP?

Perhaps the OP posted in “the staff room” to get advice from other teachers about their working conditions, rather than non teachers telling her to suck it up (waiting for the bingo to start..)
OP since you’ve twice as many parents nights as many schools, presumably your school has arranged it so you have much less of something else?

As a parent of a happy on track year seven I would hate two parents evenings. But I think my friends who's children haven't settled as well / are struggling would appreciate the time. Yanbu that the one size fits all approach is a bit pointless. As it is, I've only booked in to see the "hard" subjects and it as I see the rest as fun but pointless. Now there's a point of view that won't go down well ;)

Is it a private school/ free school, OP? Or part of a MAT? These seem to be the places where STPCD are interesting ignored concepts.

My DH (private school) has two parents' evening per year group, but that is in consecutive weeks with the year groups split in half (which means sometimes 4 appts per evening, spread across three hours : now that really is a waste of staff time!) but I don't think that's what you are describing?

If this is a change to your school calendar, your SLT really should have explained what they have taken away and/or persauded you it fits into your directed time.

Is your DH being a bit inconvenienced and then putting his kids to bed really such a big deal? If so, I think that's your real problem.

I agree that 2 for every year group is excessive, though if you are only an 11-16 school it doesn’t really work out any more than ours 1 per year group, 2 for y13, sixth form open eve, main school open eve, tutor evesx2 for y7 early on in year. You should probably be getting a union rep to take it up with slt, especially it there is another late night that week. Better a rep rather than you though if you are going to use phrases like clap like a seal 😳. Personally though i do find pe useful, it is good to actually meet the parents ( and particularly of the difficult kids) and get a dialogue going. I would far rather see 35 sets of parents in one go ( and yes it is bloody hard work after a whole days teaching) than spend every night and weekend emailing parents and trying to catch them on the phone.

Nearly all professional jobs require long hours these days. At least you don’t have to stay away from home and during the times when the pupils are on holiday you are able to have more flexible hours. Yes, I expect it is a pain organising childcare, but it is only for a few hours. Count your blessings!

I used to teach.
Two a year group sounds a lot but your childcare issues aren’t the concern of the school.
Count up your directed time if you feel too many demands are made of you.
But also reconsider how you approach parent Eve. Strengths and weakness. Targets and ways to stretch themselves. Lots you can usefully communicate to parents and students. I never found them a waste of time.