Parents’ evenings can be extremely beneficial for parents, pupils and teachers. However, they can be ineffective and frustrating when certain aspects of the process do not run smoothly.
Here are some parents’ evening tips to help your school run a successful event.
Review your process
Most primary schools have a structure in place of how they want their sessions to run. But when was the last time you actually reviewed it?
Long queueing times, delayed appointments and no-shows – we’ve all been there! It’s a good idea for schools to review their processes each year, implementing small changes to hopefully avoid, or at least reduce any problems reoccurring.
Manage the crowd
Despite best efforts to manage time and appointments effectively, parents’ evenings can be extremely busy at times.
Even if you have appointments booked, meetings can, and often do overrun, leaving the next meeting to be delayed. This leaves parents waiting around with their child. To avoid disappointment, schools need to view the event from a parent’s point of view. This will help you to make the process as efficient and stress-free as possible.
Use booking software to help your school
On that note, the most effective tool for a successful event is our specifically tailored Parents’ Evening booking system.
With our system, parents can book, amend and check their appointments on the SCOPAY website.
They can then make any amendments needed up until your deadline, without relying on children relaying notes back to the school!
Additionally, parents can set up alerts in SCOPAY, to be notified by email when a new event is available to book.
Moving away from paper forms and endless phone calls eases stress for both parties. Importantly, it also reduces time spent by school admin teams coordinating your event.
The module also enables schools to share documents before meetings, and gives the option for parents and teachers to leave notes. The school configures the notes feature as desired; either just for teachers, or parents too. For example, parents can let teachers know what they want to discuss. For added security, the notes are only visible in the parent’s and teacher’s accounts – administrators cannot see them.
Video calling option
Following COVID, schools still want to retain the flexibility of remote sessions. So why not offer busy parents a video call option as well? This feature is included at no extra cost.
The benefit of this is teachers will never overrun. Parents are given a set timeslot to chat to the teacher remotely, and displays a countdown as the meeting draws to an end.
Two parents/guardians can dial in from separate locations, ideal for busy parents.
Can we help you?
If your school could benefit from reviewing your current parents’ evening process, see how our Parents’ Evening module could help.
Call us on 02380 016 563 or email to find out more.
