Parents' Evening

I'm half way through parents' evening/day and it's one aspect of my job that can be quite depressing.  In England, I always found that the parents who make appointments to see you and turn up are rarely those that you really need to speak to.  They're normally the responsible ones whose children are equally responsible and are doing fine in school.  In a way, it's nice to be able to feedback the positive and to guess whose parents you are speaking to if the pupils don't come with but I have too much of a glass half full attitude to ignore the fact that those who don't turn up to appointments or don't even bother to make them are the reason that their children behave the way they do in class and it's a really negative reflection of society.  

Having had a brilliant up bringing, I was shielded from the kind of thing I see in my job now.  I'll never forget my first parents' evening where I had one hyperactive pupil and I told his mother and step-father that his German was good but would be improved by better concentration and the step-father told me to call home straight away next time and he would beat it out of the pupil.  It really opened my eyes and the kid in question could have run riot the rest of the year and have behaved much worse and there's no way I would have called home.

I guess I just have to take from it that the kids need all the help they can get and that that makes my job worthwhile.