Spanish parents’ meetings…

A different arrangement…

One thing that wasn’t really discussed in much detail during my interview was how the parents’ meetings were arranged given that there are two teachers and two classes. I remember asking the question, and the English head dismissing it saying that it was something that the two teachers arranged together and delivered together. Considering how they are organised back home over one or two evenings, the thought of having to do the same with two classes was quite a daunting thought! However, I was slightly reassured after discussing how this was arranged with one of my English colleagues. Only slightly reassured though, as I still didn’t quite know what to expect and discussions with parents can be a bit unnerving.

My English colleague explained that during his interview he was told that there would be occasional parent meetings, but not all in one evening like we do back home! But instead, as I discovered, there are parent meetings every Wednesday after school with one to three sets of parents one after the other. This is every Wednesday from early November until pretty much the last week of school in June.

The parents just phone the school office and book a particular date and time at the beginning of the year and then this gets put in our diary. We tended to see the new children’s parents first to discuss how they had settled into this type of school. Or, if there was anyone ourselves or the parents had particular concerns with.

Time slots…

There were 3 time slots each week, each for 30 minutes. This slightly worried me when I first found out how long we had to speak to parents for! Back home it was usually 10 minutes. And most of this was the parents looking through their child’s books and asking me questions with me commenting on their achievements and next steps we were focusing on in their learning as they flicked through the pages. What did we need an extra 20 minutes to talk about for?

But here, the meetings took place in one of the school’s meeting rooms away from the classroom. So the parents didn’t get to see their children’s work, or classroom very much throughout the year. A little sad I felt, as I’m sure the majority of the parents would have appreciated this. But, I also found it odd that they accepted this and didn’t ask or question it. But again, it’s just how it’s done and is different.

So, every Wednesday evening we had 3 back-to-back meetings of 30 minutes each. As these meetings went on over the weeks I was surprised to find that 30 minutes wasn’t quite long enough and we overran on most meetings! Some by a good 10 minutes. But, the Spanish do like to talk!

Alternative arrangements…

Some parents were unable to make it on a Wednesday, so of course, we made alternative arrangements for another meeting just as you would back home. Only, back home we would meet with the parents one afternoon after school. Here, the alternative was a lunchtime meeting. To be fair, this was rare but there was one week we had these alternative lunchtime meetings Mon, Tues, Wed and Thurs, as well as the usual Wednesday meetings after school. No joke, and an extremely tiring week! I was certainly smiling through gritted teeth when these meetings overran!

Getting lost in translation…

As the weeks and months went on, I was also surprised by how many of the parents didn’t speak any English. I’d heard stories about some having worked and lived in England, and America and so just assumed they might know a little. Saying that my Spanish still wasn’t great. But I knew just about enough to get by now. For the small amount that did speak English, it was a lot easier to communicate and nicer to discuss their child’s progress without the embarrassment and awkwardness of the language barrier. And it was easier for the parents to ask questions and discuss certain aspects of their child’s learning and English language, or any concerns in more detail.

And for the parents who weren’t able to speak English, I would write down in my notebook what I wanted to say and discuss. Then my Spanish colleague would help me to translate and write that translation so that I could read it out to the parents during the meeting. My Spanish colleague would then help with some of the pronunciations and the parent’s questions so that we could identify and discuss points in more detail and what I was going to do in class to support their child with whatever it was. Honestly, my Spanish colleague was amazing to work with and always went above and beyond to help wherever she could!

Although this was helpful and the parents seemed happy enough on the whole, I would always sit in the meeting feeling like a spare part at a wedding frankly! My Spanish colleague would usually start the meeting. She liked to talk so this would take up a big chunk of the 30-minute meeting. Then she would give me the nod to read my translated script before the parents would ask their questions etc. I’d often sit trying to stay focused, but really not having the foggiest about what she was saying. Just picking up the odd word or phrase here or there as she spoke so fast. I would just sit and anticipate my part really. But this was part of my Spanish colleague’s personality and demeanour also. A natural leader, whereas I am anything but!

When it came to my part, before giving me the nod, she would always start by asking the parents if they could speak or at least understand English. I used to take this as my cue! When I heard ‘Nada’ I knew to read from my translated script. You would think this experience would have helped with my Spanish! I thought it might have too, but my pronunciation was terrible frankly! Maybe it was more so that I was under pressure and my nerves got the better of me. But quite often my Spanish colleague would have to pronounce particular words correctly on my behalf! This led to a few sniggers and raised eyebrows at times! Or the parents just looked puzzled and would just look at my Spanish colleague waiting for her to translate! This was before iPads had become so popular in class and nor were we able to use our mobile phones in these meetings. So I couldn’t even use my old pal Google Translate to bail me out!

It’s a cultural thing…

There was one particular meeting when a parent raised his arm in the air to stop me after I’d only spoken 4 words! ‘Please, stop and just say it in English!’ Then there are the greetings and goodbyes to these meetings. I was happy to and wanted to embrace the Spanish culture. But, when it came to work and greetings with parents I appreciated those parents who tried to be British about it and greeted me with a firm handshake rather than the two kisses! The cheek kisses are fine, and obviously part of the Spanish culture, only I was always terrified that I was going to get it wrong and somehow end up meeting someone in the middle instead of their cheek! Imagine misinterpreting that with a parent!

But thankfully, no such mishap occurred!