Is this not bizarre mum behaviour?

Just read your update before replying. I think that's the right thing to do. From a safeguarding position, that's something school are likely to take very seriously. It sounds like this mum is just very heavily involved with their child's life, but stalking trips from afar is OTT. If she wanted to be that involved, surely she could just volunteer to go and help. Very odd behavior and given parents have to consent for pics of their children to be distributed, completely against school policies.

no one said you should join one. But as DH and I are both working, we didn't have the luxury to be available during working hours.

Again, I am grateful for people who bother giving their free time to organise things. I think kids were also very grateful that they didn't miss out on meet-ups and days out. I would never have heard of them otherwise.

Hahaha we had a Mum at my DC’s pre school who did exactly these two things 🤣….the creepy covert pictures was always pretty odd.

Fair enough if you find them useful, none of what you have posted has ever made me need one though!
Our schools didn’t have their own transport either so we had to get them to after school stuff but either dh or I would take them and it was only really relevant for short period of of time.
I can imagine the groups being active and frankly annoying for me and largely irrelevant so no regrets not joining one!

Send her a private message stating the purpose of WA group, and explain that it is not the same as a Facebook page.

The point is first to stop 50 parents each calling the school office with the exact same question 😂

We have these groups, I do find them useful. I am not that perfect that a reminder about xyz hasn't come in handy. Parents with older siblings clarifying things , and finding parents to arrange lifts to various events - that would not be organised by the school. We had links to cheaper shops for outfits, for holiday clubs.

Yes, our school is poor, for any sport event and the likes, parents have to do the drop off and pick up themselves. I am quite grateful for the admin who takes the time to deal with all that.

You sound like a right twat if you post the first message. Why do you think you are any more in charge of the group than anyone else, if you are not the one who created the group, the admin and the one posting all the actual admin info?

If you get so over-involved, you should become the class rep yourself.

I don't disagree that it's boring and cringey, should be pretty obvious no one cares anyway, but you can mute or leave the group.

If you think some of the info are useful, then just scroll past.

To be clear, I find the superior attitude of people like you a lot more annoying than the bored housewives who are over-involved.

I don't find that that weird tbh, just fairly annoying due to the frequency. A few mums in our Whatsapp group also post about their days out especially if it's a local, kids-friendly activity. That's useful and appreciated by most. Pictures of a field trip from afar is also not that bizarre, a bit overprotective perhaps but if you had nothing at all to do that day and knew your kid was on a trip, it's not a far stretch to just go over the see what's going on.

To be honest it sounds like she's quite lonely and thus volunteered to be class rep. The repeated posts is just to elicit some sort of response as many people are addicted to getting notifications on their phones. She might also be neurodivergent and have problems reading social cues and what's "normal" within a chat group. Posting pictures of your everyday life could be a learned, masking behaviour and thus she does it regularly in all her groups regardless of what topic or who are in it. Nobody would bat an eyelid if I posted the same things you described in a family chat, but obviously it's a bit cringe in a class chat.

Final theory is that she's a vacuous person who consumes a huge amount of trash family content from social media and has somehow internalised that behaviour. So she's used to seeing loads of Instamums post random stories of their day and she's attempting to emulate some of that without realising that her audience aren't interested.

Dd attends a club and the group chat is getting like this.

If dd can't make the club I say "Dd won't be there tonight, back on X day" but some are OTT, actually can't wait to have a laugh now summer holidays are near.

"Little Eugene won't be in today, he has got an award for being absolutely outstanding at everything he does and so we are going to X fancy restaurant to celebrate his amazing achievement"

"Oh lovely, little Delilah got that award when she was only 6, however she won't be in today because we are off to Disneyland on one of their VIP packages, back next week"

"How wonderful that you're going to Disneyland, our Talulah couldn't possibly go back after going on the Disney Cruises as we have been so spoiled, we will be in the Suite, couldn't possibly slum it in a cabin 🤣, back next week"

It's actually hilarious, I'm poor so I can't contribute unfortunately, funny to watch though.

I’ve never been in a school/class WhatsApp group, I don’t see the point of them!
If school have an important message to get to me I’ve always received it by text/phone call/email. What’s the point of them?

this parent sounds a bit crazy, are you sure they weren’t actually a helper on the trip?

I could imagine someone without friends or family doing this. Sometimes mental health conditions can mean that people become isolated. She could be hoping that friendship comes from her post. I'd be less judgemental about 'mentally bizarre' behaviour. If you are uncomfortable with the school trip situation, speak to the teacher.

Yes this. Sounds like not used to a ‘work setting type professionalism’ perhaps a stay at home parent and a bit lonely?

I have to say, I am really grateful to the class reps and the work they do. I often get kindly reminders etc so if they are a bit over enthusiastic ( one of mine is too) I just remember it’s an energetic kindness they are showing!

It sounds as if she doesn’t have enough to do tbh. She’s bored and lonely.

As PPs have said I couldn’t really get excited about the first part: I just would tune it out. But taking pictures of other people’s kids without consent needs to be flagged to school.

My DC is a sixth former. We spent a few years at a private school after relocating back to UK from US. One of the parents in our year group there produced a directory of contact details - names of parents and children, addresses, emails. This was updated and sent out by email every term by him. There were not very many posts that parents would send out to the whole group. They fell into two main categories - X has lost uniform item and parent is doing sponsored cycle/walk etc. Weirdly, no one objected to the volume of sponsorship emails but more than one complained to the admin guy that they didn’t like people posting about lost uniform items. I didn’t understand that then and I don’t now 🤣

Just put the group on silent and check in as and when

Or maybe she's just a lonely SAHM trying to promote a bit of conversation.

Is there any need to be so harsh? You could just ignore it.

@Halfheadhighlights our school encourage it but we’re a private school so don’t know if it makes a difference- same as the school has social media and posts photos of the kids (with permission).

There were issues in yr1 with parents airing a fight between their two kids amongst the rest of us but someone had a word and we’ve gone back to party invites, reminders and the odd can anyone recommend a good local plumber type thing.

Just leave the group. You’ll get information from the school and for the birthday parties if your child is invited you’ll get an invitation. I’ve had hassle on these groups from idiot parents who think they’re in charge. If leaving isn’t ok because of the left group message just archive it. I’d also say to inform the school that photos are being posted of the class - even blurry photos ant school/ on school trips are not allowed without consent. Also update the school that this parent is ‘attending’ the school trips from a distance.

In both schools DS has attended, it’s very much not anything official, not school or PTA, just an organised parent (who has also been the PTA rep for the class some years) making a point of asking new class parents if they’d like to join and adding them if so. I don’t know how it began in reception as DS was 7 when he moved to this school.

And it’s fine, very much just lost jumpers, missing homework questions, and reminders about bake sales — not much traffic, and nothing not school-related.

I lasted 1 afternoon in the group chat set up for dd in year 6 years ago. Honestly op just leave. School letters and emails will keep you up to date.

Do some schools actually have formal WhatsApp groups created by the school or is it some over eager parents?

We had a parent like this on our PTA. She posted pictures of a child who was subject to court order (we didn't know this) on our school WhatsApp group.

All hell broke loose. She was invited to meet with Principal and chair of Board of governors along with the creator of the WhatsApp group.

Said parent left the whole PTA and is rarely seen in school now. The principal and PTA chair took advice and now anyone who joins any of the WhatsApp groups is made an admin. That way no one person is responsible and everyone has to be careful what is posted.

That's put an end to all those shite posts. Job done.

First bit can be addressed by putting a reminder of what the WhatsApp group is for in the chat... "Quick reminder everyone, this chat is for school related issues only. Please don't add any other content as it makes it harder for us all to keep on top of the important stuff."

Second bit needs to be raised with the school as it's a huge safeguarding issue. She has no idea who in the class has/hasn't got permission to be photographed. There are lots of reasons why a child should not have their photo published, she needs to be told to stop what she's doing immediately.

Oh god, the thought of yet another whatsapp group to keep track of brings me out in hives. I really miss the days when a weekly newsletter came home crumpled in their school bags.