Re: Parent Teacher Conferences

["St Jerome's Catholic School" <jerome@IINET.NET.AU>]

Hi,

At my school the staff agree to hold interviews on particular afternoons and
evenings. Each teacher puts up a booking sheet with 10 minute interview
slots (and staff coffee breaks) (supplied by Admin) outside their classroom
door at the same time, on the same day, and parents fill in the interview
time they prefer.

Parents are responsible for choosing a time that suits their family and for
being available on time. Teachers are responsible for starting and finishing
each interview on time.

Teachers are told to ask parents whose interview is not satisfactorily
completed in the allotted time to make a furher appointment in the following
week to discuss matters more fully. This is not required very often.

The Principal cruises the school or works in his office so as to be visible
and available if needed (and as a result, rarely is).

At the end of the interview time the siren sounds and a PA announcement
tells everyone to clear the buildings as the sercurity system is about to be
turned on, and so there is no question of parents staying on.

Because we allocate more slots than there are students in each class,
teachers do have some gaps to do other work, take a breather or catch up. If
they are lucky they will have an early finish on at least one day.

Some teachers invite parents to make appointments for days in the week
before the designated interview days to lighten their load on those days.
The Admin accepts this so long as the evening times are still available for
parents who require them.

Years ago we used to ask parents for their 3 preferred interview times, and
then schedual the interviews so that they could move from one child's
teacher to the next with only a 10 minute gap between. It was a huge job for
the Admin staff. This works well and we have minimal Admin work involved.

Lynley Gibbons

St Jerome's Catholic School
Troode St
Munster
Western Australia 6166


Our email and www addresses are:

jerome@iinet.net.au     http://www.iinet.net.au/~jerome