Primary parents evenings

[Mikhillmin]

How many parents evenings does your primary school have per year and when are they? When are reports written?
Is there any limit on a how many parents evenings per year the school can expect? My school used to have parents evening from 4pm-9pm (!) twice per year in autumn and spring and reports in summer. Now we have a new head teacher and he has split the parents evenings down to 4pm-7pm for 2 evenings in 2 consecutive weeks but introduced parents evenings every term so we’ve gone from 2 nights to 6 nights of parents evening per year. He has also moved reports to spring term, so we are currently writing reports in the same weeks as doing parents evenings. He’s acting like he has done us all a massive favour because we’re not in school until 9pm anymore but I am completely overwhelmed (hence getting up at 5am to write reports and complain on mn). Is this normal?

Parent meetings every long term seems very excessive. And the hours of directed time they take have been increased from 10 hours to 16 hours - has that been taken into account in your directed budget?

I can’t believe that Zoom meetings are not the way forward. Better for everyone and the environment and easier on teachers.

Oh and we have two per year, autumn(Oct) and spring(Feb) plus one report in June.

@Benjispruce5

Oh and we have two per year, autumn(Oct) and spring(Feb) plus one report in June.

Same here

We have 3 parents evenings a year. Each parents evening is spread over 2 nights from straight after school so it equals 6 hours a term. I think it’s too much and the summer one isn’t really necessary as we have to write detailed end of year reports which go home at the end of June.

My school also has separate pupil premium parents meetings in addition to parents evening with targets and paperwork to complete. It is overkill.

I can’t believe that Zoom meetings are not the way forward. Better for everyone and the environment and easier on teachers

As a parent though zoom meetings are terrible.

@OfstedOffred I am a parent too, I love them. I have mine tonight actually. I don’t have to leave the house, can sit with a cup of tea, think clearly and speak in confidence without other parents hovering. I’m also not having to drive so less traffic on the roads.What’s terrible about that?

We used to have one in November and another in March - both from 3.30 onwards and staff made appointments on the days that suited them best eg if they were a job-share. They were on Monday to Thursday of a chosen week.

Reports went out in June and parents could write their comments and return them.

Zoom meetings are beyond terrible and unfortunately my sons secondary school have implemented this.

He has multiple teachers I’m not sure how I will even get to speak to them all.

@HariboMaroon I had mine with secondary school yesterday. It works like a dream. You book appointments from what’s available, log in and when it’s appointment time the teacher pops up. Mine were 7 mins long which is just anytime to get the important stuff and if you need a more in depth meeting you can make an appointment. Why such negativity?

We do one per term (November, March and June). “Mini” report in Autumn and a full detailed one in summer. We are an 8m dependent school though so at least it’s half the quantity of pupils but it’s a killer.

Plus of course the parents who can just never ever make it and need an appointment at a different time. Had that fun this week Paremts evening in a fortnight before Easter, parent emails today (keep in mind the dates are released at the start of the academic year so plenty of notice). She can’t make it again, could she come in the next night at about half 6? Yes of course, because I have no life to lead and would love to hang around 3 hours after school has finished while wait for you having been at school till 8pm the night before and round 2 the following day….

Our reports are released prior to paremts evening som8 can be discusssed.

@bananabuddy3 I hope you’re not going to wait around that long. At our school she’d get a phone call or zoom.

Expecting reports in the same week as parents' evenings is inhumane. That alone would see me looking for another job.

We have parents evening each term split across 2 nights. Reports in the summer term (we used to also write shorter reports in the spring term but those have gone now thankfully).

I don’t mind it actually - I think it’s useful to have regular meetings with parents.

Reports in the same week is unreasonable though, that should be better spaced.

@Benjispruce5 no thankfully not, my school is good. Any parent who wants a different time for a face to face meeting instead of the official parents evening slots has to come within half an hour of the school day finishing, our Head is pretty reasonable in that regard. The system of 3 parents evenings (each in two parts) a year has been discussed by our Head as possibly too much but the parents overwhelmingly want it so it has stayed.

@OfstedOffred

I can’t believe that Zoom meetings are not the way forward. Better for everyone and the environment and easier on teachers

As a parent though zoom meetings are terrible.

Completely disagree with this - far better online than queuing / waiting round for a seat to become free where you need to go (big secondary school).

Two per year but both are two nights so four I guess
Reports summer term

We using zoom again this term ..this week actually !!

My daughters school does parents evening during the day.. which baffled me initially 🙈 It’s 2.30-5.30pm, two rounds on two consecutive Wednesdays. Either face to face or a call at the parents request. They have 2x per year. Not sure what the kids are doing for the hour they have no teacher.. but I guess an hour is neither here nor there! It seems to work .. no-one seems to complain about it 🤷🏼‍♀️

We have it three times per year. October and Feb they get a maths, English and other target. Summer is the more formal one. They get the report the day before parents evening. They get the option of phone call/in person and it’s split over 2 days. 3.30-6 and 5-7.30. The early one is really tight as kids go home 3.15! Then you have to run round the classroom and set out books. Our SLT are panicking about parental feedback as their communication is crap and is rightfully criticised so it feels like we’re really pandering to parental whim so the ones who didn’t book in time are all being accommodated.

Ask your union reps to get a copy of the directed time breakdown, if you don't have one already. They can argue it's reasonable if it's within directed time, but without a breakdown, you don't know if that's true.

And as a parent I much prefer online parents eve, as I don't have the time to spend sitting in a draughty hall waiting for our appointment. I'd much rather sit at my computer getting some work done whilst I wait. Even better if they use something like School Cloud rather than Zoom, as it's impossible for the teacher to be late.