DLD College London Parents’ Evening goes virtual

This week saw the second round of Parents’ Evening of the academic year take place, with more than 1,000 appointments. This time though, the evenings were all held virtually.

The virtual Parents’ Evening, which has been rolled out across all year groups, was delivered using online cloud-based technology called Parents’ Evening System, provided by SchoolCloud. The system, which prides itself on taking the hassle out of Parents Evening, offers parents and guardians the ability to pre-book private time slots with specific teachers, Heads of Department, Directors of Studies and Houseparents. For parents, this offered a seamless booking process, and for College, a simple and effective management system, which provided a smooth experience for all involved.

Private video appointments gave staff the opportunity to engage students and their families in open and honest discussions about their achievements and development points. The system, which is also optimised for mobiles devices, also provided all parties with a full agenda of their evening, meaning that teachers and parents were automatically connected to the next person in their appointment schedule, taking the hassle out of online conferences.

Initial feedback from all involved has been overwhelmingly positive and the online sessions were classed as a great solution that allowed safe and purposeful face-to-face communication between parents and teaching staff.

One parent, said: “We have just had our last meeting for Parents’ Evening. Incredibly smooth and focused. No technical difficulties. It felt much calmer at the end of it.”

Assistant Principal Teaching & Learning, John Branney, who masterminded the move to online Parents’ Evenings added: “I’m extremely happy with the feedback from parents on how well the system worked for them and how it enabled them to get personal feedback. This technology is allowing us to continue our usual programme of Parents’ Evenings throughout the year.”