How to run a parents' evening

A planning guide for small schools, nurseries and clubs: the timings, the booking, siblings and the evening itself.

1. Pick the slot length first

Everything else follows from it. Five minutes is a hello; most primary schools use 10 minutes, and 15 minutes suits a SENCo, a nursery key worker or a music teacher going through a whole term. Keep one length for the whole evening so families can move from one teacher to the next on the hour marks.

Work out the capacity before you announce a date: slots per teacher = evening length ÷ slot length. A 16:00 to 18:30 evening with 10 minute slots gives each teacher 15 slots. If a class has 28 children, that class needs two evenings, or a longer one.

2. Leave room for the evening running late

• Build in a short break for each teacher every hour or so, by leaving one slot free.
• Ask teachers to keep to time and use a visible clock or a timer in the room.
• Put each teacher's room or table in the booking details, so nobody spends their slot looking for the right door.

3. Open booking fairly

A sheet on the classroom door at drop-off favours whoever is at the gate that morning. Parents who work, or who share care, miss out. Open booking online at a set time, say when it opens in advance, and keep a few slots back for families who need the office to book for them.

4. Book siblings together

The most common complaint about parents' evenings is waiting around between appointments. A family with children in Year 2 and Year 5 should see both teachers one after the other, not at 16:10 and 18:20. Whatever you use, let a parent book all their children at once, and plan their appointments as one run.

5. Tell families exactly where and when

• Their times, the teacher, the room, and the date written out in full.
• A calendar file or a reminder, because a paper slip goes missing in a book bag.
• How to cancel, so their slot goes to another family.

6. On the night

• Print each teacher's timetable and put it on their door.
• Have one person on the front desk with the full list, for anyone who forgot their time.
• Keep the last half hour for families who missed their slot.

The short version

Choose one slot length, check the capacity, open booking online at a fixed time, book siblings together, send exact times with a calendar file, and print a timetable per teacher.