Parents' evening, an evening children and parents alike dread. And I suspect a fair few teachers would rather miss it too.
However, it is an excellent opportunity to catch up on how your child is doing, and if there are any areas you can help to improve.
If they're carried out correctly, that is. But a recent study suggests that this is not happening in many schools.
The study suggests that over half of parents (55%) leave the evening without fully understanding how their son or daughter is progressing, and a third of parents only get invited to one parents' evening a year.
The results come from a survey carried out by Leapfrog Toys.
Parents' evenings often only allow an average of 13 minutes to discuss how each child is doing. This is usually split between several teachers, making it difficult to discuss areas your child could be improving on or is currently struggling with.
The study also discovered that a third of fathers admitted that they left parents' evening attendance to their partner. Understandable when the evenings often conflict with work, but it can make family discussions regarding progress more difficult.
So, what have your experiences been of parents' evenings? Do you find them useful?