Meet the Parents

Description

Five-minute fiasco or worthwhile communication? Parents' evenings can fill both parent and teacher with horror. Here we examine how to avoid the headaches and learn how to make a parents' consultation evening run like clockwork.

The staff at Tanbridge House School in Horsham are keen to ensure that their parents' evenings run without a hitch. With an army of prefects and a strict appointment system, headteacher Maureen Johnson feels their system is pretty efficient. But how do you stick to the five minutes allotted, and what about the parents who don't show up?

Maureen is now piloting a new system, the whole of Year 10 are taken off timetable and return to school for a 15-minute appointment with their tutors and their parents. The parents like the extra time to talk, the students are happy with a day off school and the teachers are pleased that they don't have to stay late. But will the new plan represent an improvement on the old system?