Parents’ Evening: Scripts & Top Tips for Teachers

Few teachers look forward to parents’ evenings. In just a few minutes, teachers have to summarise each student’s progress, address concerns and strengthen the home-school partnership. 

Moreover, parents can range from the utterly uninterested to the incredibly pushy. Couple this with often unrealistic expectations, and you may face tricky conversations or even conflict. And all of this at the end of a long day at work.

This guide offers practical scripts and top tips to help you navigate every conversation with confidence, from praising high achievers to handling challenging discussions.

Key Takeaways

• Parental engagement (opens in a new tab) strongly boosts student learning, making parents’ evenings vital for strengthening home–school partnerships.

• Prepare thoroughly with up-to-date data and SMART targets to provide clear, actionable feedback.

• Keep meetings structured: start with positive comments, discuss concerns, agree on next steps and close warmly. Allocate your time equitably.

• Handle difficult conversations calmly, focusing on facts, empathy and collaboration (rather than blame).

• Follow up after meetings to maintain communication, build trust and ensure agreed actions are implemented.

Why Parents’ Evenings Matter

According to a major review by the Department for Education (DfE) (opens in a new tab) “parental engagement has a large and positive effect on children’s learning.” 

Get your students’ parents on board, and you’ll find your students are more likely to behave better, work harder and study independently. 

Parents’ evenings represent a golden opportunity to create and nurture these relationships. In addition, parents’ evenings give teachers the chance to:

• Share meaningful feedback about student progress.

• Identify barriers to learning and plan joint solutions.

Parents’ evenings also allow you to add value: talk about suitable career paths, work experience opportunities and university applications. Teachers who show an interest in their students’ futures will reap the benefits in terms of subject engagement.

How to Prepare for Parents’ Evenings

Having up-to-date evidence at your fingertips is key. You need to be able to support your assertions with data. Before the evening:

• Review student data: Know each child’s current attainment, targets and recent work. Print relevant data sheets (or bring your laptop) and have student work to hand.

• Prepare key points: For each child, try to start with some positives and then focus on actions to improve attainment. Make sure each target is SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound).

Top tip: Depending on the format of your school’s parents’ evening, you might find you have dead time during the evening. Always bring marking or other work.

Parents’ Evening Scripts for Common Scenarios

Below is a list of suggested scripts/phrases that you can adapt to your tone or subject.

High-Achieving Student

Goal: Praise success, maintain motivation and suggest stretch goals:

• “Your child has shown outstanding effort this term - particularly in [specific topic]. They’re exceeding expectations in classwork and assessments.

• “To keep them challenged, we’re focusing on [extension topic / enrichment activity]. They need to read beyond the syllabus or take part in [club/competition] - this will really help them grow further.” At this point, make specific suggestions.

Keep it balanced: Celebrate progress and identify how they can keep improving, while ensuring that the student doesn’t become complacent or arrogant.

Underperforming Student

Goal: Raise concerns constructively and agree on ways to improve:

• “I’m concerned that [student] isn’t yet meeting their full potential, especially in [specific area]. Their recent work suggests gaps in [topic/skill].”

• “The good news is that they respond well to feedback in class.”

• “At home, you could help by checking their homework planner or encouraging 15 minutes of daily review.”

Tip: At the start of the conversation, ask the student how they think they are doing and what they think they need to do to improve. Nine times out of ten, they will already know how they could improve their performance.

Student With Behaviour Concerns

Goal: Stay calm, focus on solutions and never make it personal:

• “We’ve had some issues with focus and behaviour, particularly during [context]. I want to understand if there’s anything affecting [student] outside class that might be contributing.”

• “We’re working on improving consistency through [strategy - e.g. sitting the student at the front of the class]. With your support reinforcing expectations at home, I’m confident we’ll see improvement soon.”

Avoid labels: Describe behaviour, not the child e.g. “[Student] sometimes struggle to focus in lessons, and this is affecting their ability to learn”. Then ask the child why they think this is the case.

Student With Little Progress

Goal: Communicate concern without discouragement:

• “At the moment, progress has been slower than expected, especially in [subject area]. I’ve reviewed their recent work and identified a few misconceptions.”

• “What’s encouraging is that they’re starting to engage more during lessons, and small improvements are showing.”

Tip: End on a positive note - parents need to feel their child can improve. Ask parents to support (e.g. limiting screen time at home or checking the quality of homework). Also, ask the student what they think is holding them back.

Limited Knowledge of Student (e.g. new class)

Goal: Be honest, professional and proactive:

• “As I’ve only recently started teaching [student], I’m still getting to know them and their work habits. From what I’ve seen so far, their participation and attitude have been positive.”

• I’ll be setting a short baseline assessment next week to get a clearer picture of current student attainment, and I’ll follow up once I have more detailed feedback.”

Honesty builds trust - don’t pretend to know more than you do.

Tips for Managing Time and Staying on Track

Post-Covid, some schools still host parents’ evenings online. The tips below assume that your school’s parents’ evenings are face-to-face. If that’s the case, and you have numerous parents to see, the evening will move fast.

Try to allow each parent a similar amount of time; that means being scrupulously fair and avoiding parents who seek to monopolise your time. Here are some tips for making that a reality:

• State, at the start of your conversation, the amount of time you have to spend with each parent; be charming and self-deprecating.

• Structure your talk: Start positive → share concerns → agree next steps → close warmly.

• Have a polite “wrap-up line”: “It’s been great to talk - I’ll follow up by email with those details, so we can keep momentum going.” Standing up is another useful visual cue that the conversation has ended.

• Avoid rabbit holes: If a discussion is running long, suggest a follow-up call: “I am mindful that I have other parents to see, so let’s talk further later this week. It looks as if we have lots more to talk about”.

Handling Difficult Conversations

I prefer to call these courageous conversations - they need to happen, but take courage. Sometimes when a teacher holds a child to account, the parent can take this personally - are their parenting skills being questioned? In this situation, you need to be careful how you approach the issues at hand.

• Keep your comments fact-based (never personal).

• Try to empathise - we can never truly know the lives of others, but listening to parents carefully will help build a more positive relationship.

• If things escalate: “I think we should continue this conversation with [Head of Department / Year]. Hopefully they will be able to help.”

If you have solid foundations for your concerns, hold your ground, while staying calm and professional. In the long run, you will earn their respect.

Involving Parents in the Next Steps

Parents want to leave with something actionable.

• Suggest one clear action they can take at home: “Encouraging them to review key terms for 10 minutes each evening will really help.”

• Summarise next steps collaboratively: “In school, I’ll support by [strategy]. At home, it’d help if you could [action].”

Encourage them to take notes and direct them towards great resources.

What to Do After Parents’ Evening

During the parents’ evening, make your own notes and follow up on your promises. Even if there were no actionable points, a follow-up email will help strengthen the partnership: “It was great to see you on Thursday. Should you ever have any questions about [student’s name] progress in [subject] feel free to email me.” 

Also:

• Email quick summaries to any parents who couldn’t attend.

• If required, share concerns with pastoral staff or department heads.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should teachers say during parents’ evening?

Stick to clear, evidence-based feedback: strengths, areas for growth and next steps. Always try to start with some positive comments.

How do I talk to parents about behaviour issues?

Focus on the actions of the student, not the actual student. Explain patterns and issues factually (backed up with data - e.g. behaviour logs), share strategies to improve, and ask parents to work collaboratively with you.

What if I don’t know the student well yet?

Be honest, highlight early impressions, and explain how you’ll gather more information over time. Parents respect transparency.

How long should each parent meeting last?

Typically 5–10 minutes, depending on the size of your class/classes and the amount of time allocated to the evening.

Final Thoughts

Parents’ evenings are your chance to show parents you know their child, care about their progress, and have a plan to help them succeed. When you’re calm, clear and solutions-focused, even the toughest conversations are likely to result in positive outcomes.

References

• DfE - Review of best practice in parental engagement: (opens in a new tab)https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-best-practice-in-parental-engagement (opens in a new tab)

• Education Endowment Foundation (opens in a new tab) - How Can Schools Support Parents’ Engagement in their Children’s Learning? Evidence from Research and Practice: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/evidence-reviews/parental-engagement (opens in a new tab)

• Parent Kind (opens in a new tab) - The National Parent Survey: (opens in a new tab)https://www.parentkind.org.uk/research-and-policy/parent-research/parent-voice-reports (opens in a new tab)