Progress Evenings
Each year groups will have one progress evening a year. These provide parents the opportunity to meet with class teachers for each subject to discuss general progress within a 5-minute appointment. Appointments are 5 minutes long to provide an opportunity for appointments to take place across all subjects in one evening. Please do not wait until a progress evening to make contact should you need to discuss an issue with a teacher. Parents are encouraged to make contact as and when issues or queries arise so that they can be addressed in a timely manner. Please do so via mailin@malmesbury.wilts.sch.uk. Parents are also encouraged to leave notes when booking appointments should they have specific questions to discuss – this helps teachers to use the appointment most efficiently.
How to book and attend appointments
Progress evenings take place online, via “SchoolCloud” – SchoolCloud – Malmesbury School.
You will receive an email roughly a week before the evening to indicate the time and date that appointment booking becomes available. Bookings can then be made via the link above.
Support regarding SchoolCloud for parents can be found here Video Appointments – SchoolCloud Parents’ Meetings.
The main guides that we recommend parents view are:
Parents – How to attend appointments over video call – SchoolCloud Parents’ Meetings
Video: Troubleshooting Issues – SchoolCloud Parents’ Meetings
Video – Teachers – viewing/adding notes during a call – SchoolCloud Parents’ Meetings
Technical Issues
Occasionally, teacher and parents experience technical issues where appointments do not connect. Sometimes this presents as a “black screen”. Often this can be fixed by closing down the browser and logging in again. There is a guide linked above to help troubleshoot issues, however the most important bit of advice regarding the most compatible browsers dependent on devices is copied below:
- iPhone/iPad: Safari, Chrome
- Android: Chrome, Firefox or the Samsung Browser
- Windows: Chrome, Firefox or Microsoft Edge (Chromium – download here)
- Mac: Safari, Chrome or Firefox
- Linux: Chrome or Firefox
Most appointments do run perfectly without issues, however if an issue does arise that prevents the appointment from taking place teachers will make alternative contact with you. Please email mailin@malmesbury.wilts.sch.uk naming the teacher you wish to hear from should you not receive any communication within two weeks of the scheduled evening.
If you experience issues with the booking system, and have read the guidance linked above, please contact mailin@malmesbury.wilts.sch.uk as soon as possible so that we can look into the issue.
There are some instances where a teacher will teach so many students in a year groups that it is not possible for them to have appointments with them all. We try to minimise the occurrences of this, but should you not be able to make an appointment and require feedback please contact mailin@malmesbury.wilts.sch.uk asking for contact with the teacher at an alternative time.
FAQs
Q: Can we have longer appointments?
A: It is not possible to run progress evenings with appointments longer than 5 minutes due to the amount of time that the evening would require, or the number of evenings we would then need to run. Progress evenings/parents evenings have always been designed to offer an opportunity to discuss general updates, and more detailed conversations have to take place at another time.
Q: Can we have face to face evenings?
A: We moved to online evenings due to the pandemic (2020) and found that the online system fixed so many issues that existed when we ran face to face evenings. Online evenings allow parents to attend from multiple locations and fit appointments around other commitments. The online systems also ensures that the evenings remain to schedule; within the face to face format, one appointment over-running would have an impact on many others. The online format also helps to improve teacher availability. We are aware of some schools that have returned to face to face evenings, and have feedback about a number of issues that have arisen which we used to experience.
Q: My appointment cut off mid-sentence, what do I do now.
A: The timer on screen should help parents and teachers to ensure what needs discussing is done within the time given. However, should there not be enough time to finish off a conversation, then please contact mailin@malmesbury.wilts.sch.uk to request contact. Teachers will try to follow up on any of these instances as soon as possible anyway, but contacting will help to ensure it happens as soon as possible.
Q; What is the policy for separated parents.
A: Online evenings allow parents to join an appointment from different locations, using the “invite” option available in the booking process. We do not have capacity for a teacher to hold multiple appointments for one child, and require parents to find a solution where they attend the same appointment, or provide feedback to one another. If there are certain circumstances, such as court order, that you wish to discuss with the school, please make contact so your case can be reviewed.
Q: What other feedback can I get about my child’s progress?
A: Students have one progress evening and three interim reports a year. However, students are constantly receiving feedback within lessons. Student should be able to share with you information from recent lessons, test scores and we encourage you to look though their books with them to see their work. If a teacher keeps the books in school, we can permit them to take them home on request for this purpose. Written comments will not be present in all books, as more effective feedback will be given constantly throughout lesson, but their bookwork will provide examples of the standard of their work.