Parents’ Evening Trial for Reception to Year 6– Autumn Term

Dear Parents and Carers,

This term, we will be trialling a new format for Parents’ Evenings: each year group will now have a designated Parents’ Evening date rather than appointments being spread across an entire week. Many primary and secondary schools have successfully adopted similar arrangements, and we are hopeful that this format will provide a more efficient experience for both families and staff.

On their allocated day, teachers will be released from class at 1:00pm and will hold appointments through until 7:00pm, allowing us to offer a greater number of appointment slots in one day.

 Booking Appointments

Appointments will be booked through Arbor. As this is our first year using Arbor for Parents’ Evening bookings, we kindly ask for your patience while we become familiar with the system. Further booking information will be shared nearer the time.

Monday 19^th October – Reception, Year 1 and Year 2

Wednesday 21^st October – Year 3, Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6

 Appointment Arrangements

• Appointments will last 10 minutes maximum.
• To ensure everyone keeps to schedule, teachers will need to adhere strictly to these timings.
• Books and examples of your child’s work will still be available to view.
• Meetings will take place in the hall rather than in classrooms.
• If for some reason you are unable to attend, your child’s teacher will arrange a phone call appointment.
• We recommend booking your appointments as soon as it is released especially if you have more than one child in school.

Appointments on Arbor will open on Monday 5th October at 6pm.

Booking system will close at 9am on Thursday 15th October. 

Please note that Mr McFarland, our SENDCo, will not be attending Parents’ Evening appointments in the way he has done previously. To better support families of pupils with SEND, he now has a dedicated system for meeting with parents throughout the year, outside of the general Parents’ Evening arrangements. Families requiring SEND-related discussions should continue to contact Mr McFarland directly to arrange an appropriate meeting. NewdaleSENDco@taw.org.uk

 Arrival and Departure

• Please enter through the main office entrance.
• Exit will be via the hall doors.
• Due to limited waiting space, we ask that you do not arrive too early for your appointment.

As this is our first Parents’ Evening of the year, the focus is on how your child has settled into their new class, building positive relationships, engagement, discussing attitudes to learning, and identifying areas for development.

As a result, we will not be sending home our usual ‘What My Child Has Achieved’ summary during this Parents’ Evening week. Instead, these reports will be shared later in the Autumn 2 term, once children have had greater exposure to their year group’s curriculum and teachers have gathered a wider range of assessment information to accurately reflect their progress and achievements.

We believe this will provide parents with a more meaningful and comprehensive overview of their child’s learning and development.

 Children at Parents’ Evening Appointments

• Please note that children will be unable to attend Parents’ Evening appointments during the school day (1:00pm to 3pm).
• We understand that childcare arrangements can sometimes be challenging. Children are welcome to attend appointments after school; however, this is entirely optional. As space within school is limited, we kindly ask parents and carers to make alternative childcare arrangements where possible.
• Any children attending an appointment after school must remain under the direct supervision of their parent or carer at all times. Thank you for your understanding and support.

 Separated Parents

We appreciate that some separated parents may wish to have individual appointments. Where possible, we kindly ask parents to attend together. However, we completely respect that this may not be suitable in some circumstances and will accommodate separate appointments where needed. On Arbor, parents will be able to make one appointment per child. Should you wish for a separate appointment, please contact your child’s teacher directly.

Please note that there will be no onsite parking for parents apart from blue badge holders during parents’ evening days.

Thank you for your understanding and support as we introduce this new approach. We look forward to hearing your feedback following the trial.

Miss Cook