Parents evenings are an integral part of the school calendar – will happen a couple of times each year and something you will have to get used to.
So how should you approach a Parents evening and what sort of things will happen?
Parents evenings will vary from school to school. Not only will the time of year vary but the actual formats required by the school itself.
A general approach by schools
To give you some idea if you are completely new to this then I will outline a typical school approach to Parents evenings. Schools usually have 2 parents evenings in a school year. The first will be in the autumn term and is designed to inform parents how their child is settling in to the new class and also allow parents to meet their child’s teacher if they haven’t already. The second parents evening will be held in the summer term after all the tests and assessments have been carried out and is a chance for teachers to comment on and pass on test results and any concerns that they may have for the future.
Parents evenings can either be set for 1 evening with parents being given pre-booked time slots of 10 minutes or spread over 2 evenings with the same time allocation allowed. Personally I like the 2 evening setup as to cram everything into 1 evening becomes a sort of endurance test for all concerned and trying to talk any sense as the clock approaches 10.00 p.m is really difficult!
About 2 weeks before a parents evening, notes are sent home asking parents to book a time slot on one of the evenings (if there are 2) – there are usually bands of times for them to choose from for example. ..3.30 – 4.00….4.00 – 4.30…4.30 – 5.00…5.30 etc etc. Parents will select a time band and return the form. You should then have a master sheet for the whole time allocation for each evening; as forms are returned you give the parent a time within their chosen block and note it on your master sheet – you also fill in the time on the return slip that goes back to parents….make sure you keep a pile of the parent returns.
So here you are gradually filling in your time sheet – if your school is organised on this then you may or may not liaise with other class teachers if any of your pupils have brothers and sisters in school so that time clashes do not occur and between both teachers you can arrange some form of continuity for the parents visiting. (what you don’t want are parents seeing you about 1 child and then having to wait an hour before they can see another teacher about their other child!)
Organising the evening – again you must follow the school approach to this and again schools may vary! Here are the basic different approaches to the evening…
- The classroom door is shut and parents wait outside for their time slot…however everything always overruns so you may have to call parents in when it is their turn. The interview list is on the door.
- The classroom door is open and parents can come into the classroom as they are waiting for their turn. They tend to wander about the room looking at the displays.
- The classroom door is open and all the children’s books are on their desks and parents can sit and look at the books while they are waiting. The disadvantage of this especially in the first term is that you are probably still cracking the whip as regards standards and so things may or may not look so good. If you are going to adopt this approach then it is better to do this in the second parents evening. But do make sure all work is up to date and marked!
- Most schools will arrange to have 2 chairs next to the teachers desk so that parents can sit and discuss things with you – however some schools where the books are placed out for parents to see will have to approach that the teacher goes to the child’s desk and discusses things with the parents. This is not so great as discussions can get side tracked as parents pick out specific pieces of work to query or talk about.
- It is also becoming the norm for the pupil to be present at the discussion. Is there any advantage – no none whatsoever. In this case you have to involve the child in the discussions. So you will be saying things like ” I really liked how xxx joined in on the science project and that’s a subject you enjoy isn’t it xxx – what I would like is that you join in a little more with maths group work and I think you would enjoy it more don’t you?” Everyone will smile and nod! The discussions will centre around the child and keep it low key and especially encouraging and with low level criticism if necessary!
If your schools approach is to allow other parents in the classroom while you are commenting on someone else’s child this at first will seem wrong and you will feel slightly awkward doing this. However parents evenings are not designed to be times when you are going to be going into any great detail about anything really! They give a general broad based overview of where the child is at the moment academically, their behaviour and attitude and any ways that the parents may be able to help.
If you have anything that has more depth than this then Parents evening is not the place to be dealing with it. If you have greater concerns about any aspect then you would be asking the parents to come to meet you after school one evening where this could be addressed in privacy.
What you need to talk about – It depends on the timing of the parents evening. If it is the 1st then you will be telling the parents about how the child has settled and how they are managing with the workload. You may also be commenting about how confident they are in their new class and how they are approaching the work – perhaps the child needs to ask questions more if they get stuck or need not to chat so much…its pretty general really. If its the 1st parents evening you should be able to tell the parents which groups the child is in for lets say spellings, or comprehension etc . But always end on a positive note – settling in, adapting well to new challenges, looking for a big improvement and you are confident they will be able to do it….you get the idea. You want parents to go away having met you and having confidence in your ability as a teacher to be the positive influence in their child’s education. Always end by saying something like” if there’s anything or you have any concerns just pop in to see me after school – its not a problem”….it makes you seem friendly and approachable, which of course you are !
In the 2nd parents evening we have a different scenario – here you need to be armed with stats! These at this point are usually test results – there is no need to show the papers themselves but parents will generally like to know how well their children have done. Dependent on the type of parents you have they may or may not be interested in the detail and will ask if they are. ..which of course you are happy to provide within limits. If parents wish full details then you must cut them short and offer them a chance to speak to you at another time when you can discuss things further. Parents evening is not a time for detailed stuff like this and you will start to slip time and all your meetings will back up! You will need to use general phrases like ” good grasp of concepts, needs to improve on xxxx aspects, his/her work is good but they need to work quicker in test situations, tried very hard and really improved , I am really pleased with, I know he/she could do better and I am sure Mr/Mrsxxx will be concentrating on this next year” and the final one “ready for the challenges of year X”
What you don’t want to do is drop bombshells at this meeting – if you do this then parents will rightly be annoyed and want to know why they hadn’t been informed earlier (and in private).
Just as an aside I once did a 2nd parents evening of a school year and so of course was armed with all the stats. I remember explaining all about the tests and gave the parents the results that their child had achieved (this happened quite a few times in this particular class – it was an inner city very tough area). After I had passed on all the info I paused and asked if there were any questions they might have on anything. Dad looked at me and completely disregarding all I had said about the tests said ” That’s all well and good Mr Watson – but how’s he behaving?”….it all depends on priorities …
Parents evenings are a necessary part of the school calendar – if you are new to teaching or even teaching in a new school then you will soon get used to the procedure. For new teachers, you are a novelty so everyone will want to meet you so your timetable will be full. For the rest of us old stagers it follows the same approach every time and we know how it runs.
Do remember that they are not occasions for hard hitting and critical commentary – this should be done in private at arranged meetings. Parents want a brief overview of how things are going and if you have any concerns then you have everything in hand and it will get sorted out. Always find something positive to say to finish and be pleasant and welcoming. If you do have any parents who are not happy then arrange another time to discuss things or advise them that in this case it would probably be better to speak to the HT (then make sure you get to the HT before they do so that he/she doesn’t hit this cold!)
They’re only twice a year – be prepared, don’t worry and keep smiling !
Oh just remembered – the parents of children that you really want to see will never turn up! that’s just how it goes. They’re either not bothered or avoiding the bad news!!
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Charles