To think a hard boundary should be drawn with teachers?

I think part of the problem is that teachers don't really have any admin time. PPE time is for planning lessons, teaching time is obviously that, so replies to emails do usually happen at odd times.

Yes, but I believe anyone in a job should have boundaries. But in this case too many entitled parents are causing this issue. They are already marking and doing work outside of their working hours and this needs to be stopped and supported by senior staff who make the decisions.

I think people in general are getting less patient, I work in a solicitors firm and people will complain that they call up and the solicitor isn’t available to take their call immediately, it doesn’t occur to them that they might be on the phone to someone else or busy doing work that needs concentration. They’ll complain they don’t get an immediate email response to something that might need looking in to or just isn’t urgent so needs to be deprioritised behind things that are urgent.

Agree with you OP. It should not just be teachers that should have a hard boundary, however. The French were going to introduce one, not sure if it happened though.

Two way street this.

Secondary school would be crazy with all emails via admin staff, there's not enough admin staff for that and they'd end up forwarding stuff that could be sent direct.

I sometimes forget to schedule send and reply at 10pm to an email. It suits my life to leave school by 4pm, deal with my kids, and then do school stuff later. I don't want to have a 9-5 limit/expectation, because I'm not there at 5.

I’m a SENCo and it’s got to the point with several parents now that they will email or phone the school for me and expect an immediate response. I’m often in meetings all day (or supporting dysregulated pupils) and so can’t always respond. They get angry that I might not have got back to them the same day and then complain to the headteacher about it.

I also have parents emailing me in the holidays wanting responses to things, even though I have an out of office on every holiday stating that I might not have access to emails and stating the date I’ll next be monitoring and responding to emails. I’ve got one parent who I can see has emailed me weekly about the same thing and I can sense her frustration in this week’s email that I’ve still not responded.

I’ve also got some parents who will email me and then immediately phone the school office to tell them to tell me that they have emailed, who will then get angry on the playground with me when I’m on gate duty that I haven’t responded yet.

It's completely fine to say hi in a friendly way to a teacher if you see them out and about.

However a colleague of mine got approached by a parent about a school issue on her day off whilst having her nails done. Completely unacceptable!

I've also had parents email me at 6pm and then expect it dealt with the next day and these things can be very hard when you are teaching all day.

As soon as I leave school I put my out of hours on with a message which includes my working hours, a reminder of my school’s communication process (e.g. I have 48 hours to respond) and contact details of relevant authorities in case of immediate safeguarding concerns. I’m lucky that my SLT are supportive in this area and we are encouraged to do this (and also end abusive calls immediately and pass on abusive emails).

I think most parents do respect hours of communication and don't expect immediate responses.

In over a decade of teaching I've only ever had one parent be rude when I didn't reply immediately.

We did coaching/wellbeing sessions after school for 10 mins every day with 1 or 2 of our tutor group on a rota. They were compulsory (lessons ended at 3pm and school day ended 3.15pm so in school time). This boy insisted on his own slot and wanted a particular slot. He then didn't turn up which meant a lunch time detention allocated. His mum then sent me a long ranting email saying he didnt know (he did - he chose it) and all this other nonsense. This was sent 6pm.

I didn't reply as I had a staff meeting then picking up DS, dinner, bedtime, lesson planning etc... I came into school the next morning and at 8.40am in tutor time the boy handed me a hand written letter with 5 sides of A4 going off on a rant about the school, the system, what an awful uncaring tutor I was for not replying to her email.

Some people are just deranged!!

I don’t think anyone is saying teachers are special but parents are likely to email after their own working hours, which is also outside teachers working hours except teachers engaged with classes don’t have the capacity to reply in their usual working hours.

If there’s an expectation of a timed response, teachers need to be able to do that without working til midnight. A secondary teacher could have 150 kids whose parents email at any point - they need working time to do that.

I think it's up to teachers to hold that line. They are the professional in the situation. I'm a social worker, I've had many people moan about not being able to get hold of me when I've not been in work. I politely let them know I have a personal life and will not be doing work in my personal time. They have the number for the emergency duty team if something is needed when I'm not available.

As a tutor, I am available 24/7. It's part of my service (unless I'm out of the country and then no, I'm not going to respond - I have a right to a holiday too!).

When I was a teacher, no way was I responding out of school hours. I was in school from 8am until 6pm or later. If anyone had wanted responses outside those hours they could damn well pay me. And believe me, some parents did try it on and were told. They might well be indignant that they didn't get instant responses - tough!

I think the best way for teachers to manage this is to not respond out of school hours.

If teachers want to respond to emails after hours they should schedule the emails to be sent the following morning. This is what I do in my line of work as I don't want to advertise to people that I am available at any time (and it's a bit embarrassing for people to see that I'm reading work emails at 10pm)

I know and hear that too much is expected of teachers but I don't think they do themselves favours if they make themselves available at all times - boundaries come from the individual!

ETA - social media is not an appropriate way to communicate with teachers and they should ignore this. Again - boundaries!

I have email contact with some staff at the school but not individual teachers. They often email me in the evenings and in the holidays about specific things to do with my daughter, but I only email them during school working hours. I’ve even had phone calls during holidays from them. The suggestion that parents are forcing teachers to work 24/7 is laughable.

If a parent has a teacher’s email address, it’s because it has been given to them. If the school is allowing or enabling that, it’s a management issue. If teachers are responding to emails outwith their working hours, that’s their choice. Nobody forces them to.

If I discovered any staff member engaging with my daughter on social media, there would be trouble.

Absolutely agree. I have no idea how it would be policed.

what if a teacher prefers to respond at night, what if it is a serious CP matter.

what about a local doctor, or a solicitor, a minister.

I think in general society, as a result of technology has grown to expect everything now.

gone are the days where a letter was sent out then an appointment was made to discuss. The second the email goes it hits the recipients phone and they are on the other line.

This is true. Some parents struggle to adjust to not knowing exactly how much their child ate or if they had a wee. We have parents ask questions that seemed very strange to me,
until my Child started nursery and I get a ping every time she goes anywhere or does anything. I get told if she ate her snack, if she’s gone to the garden or to another room etc…

Same expectation as other professionals.

Either fine for all or unreasonable for all. Not sure teachers are special

What concerns me is that I don’t have confidence that if he was struggling that I’d hear about it before June.

A bit more detail would be helpful, I’m not expecting nursery style daily updates but some kind of communication at least in the second term would be great. Even if it’s just - reading still on track, work on X. Socially getting on fine. It’s doesn’t have to be an essay.

I think unfortunately it’s schools expecting this, not always parents. I think the problem though is education is an after work thing for parents because it’s part of their home life. But it’s work life for teachers.

Time needs to be built in to working hours for things that have to happen after 5pm. I work in higher ed and it’s totally expected of me to work outside of 9-5 hours. I don’t get a hotel paid for if I have to travel for a work meeting and won’t be home til 10pm. I have meetings scheduled early in the day and to 6/6:30pm. But I also have flexibility to that time in lieu as necessary. I think at the moment teachers are expected, by leadership, to work beyond contracted hours. It’s easy to say no to parents or students, but I find it’s not so easy to say no to your line manager at 8pm who is emailing you from her holiday.

I've been surprised by a response from a teacher late night when I sent one fully expecting it to be dealt with the following day

If he's doing well I think that's fine. If he struggles all year and you're only told about it in the end of year report, not fine.

Teachers should not be engaging with pupils/ parents on social media
its not allowed unless you are friends out of school which is still on dodgy ground

To balance this, my son is early years primary school in Ireland and I get one parent teacher meeting of 10 minutes max in November and his school report in June. That’s it.

Im conscious of not being overly demanding, but I think that isn’t enough feedback at all.

YANBU.

I wonder if it starts from nursery with constant updates on Tapestry etc and then individual handovers. It sets up an expectation of direct contact with teachers as well as in-depth knowledge of their school day.

Yes, I think that’s true, but whose blurring the boundaries?

We have a 48 hrs response policy to support this, but plenty of teachers respond to emails after work. My guess is to try to get ahead for the day, but it just changes expectations from parents.

I’ve also emailed my own children teachers in the evening, wouldn’t expect a response for a day or so and they have replied late at night. My opinion is that it shows lack of leadership within the school, and lack of support for their staff if they are working such long hours.