No pta and no parents communication group

Our school has no PTA - summer and Xmas fair is organised by teachers and support staff, class fundraisers by class teachers. No class wattsapp groups.
But I have a mouth and are quite capable of talking to other parents at pick up and drop off. I can phone school to talk to staff or speak to senior team on the gate.
I don't think it's a red flag or they're trying to silence and isolate the parents

Our year group WhatsApp is primarily asking questions that can be answered 99% of the time with ‘we were sent an email’. So you’re not missing much!

Sounds brilliant to me.

I left the parents WhatsApp groups cos they were pointless and annoying.

Full of pointless questions that could be answered by just checking your own email or googling.

They were definitely set up by a parent though not school.

Although no PTA slightly more concerning as that would surely mean no extra funding for "fun" stuff?

Ours raise money for school books, tablets, props for school plays, playground equipment. That would be a concern cos they've funded some really good stuff... Must be nice not to have to worry about going to meetings and organising school fairs etc tho...no fun at all but glad they benefitted the kids.

We have 2 very active class WhatsApp groups (only 2 classes in the school) set up by parents. All very civilised. Mostly used for arranging after school paddleboarding, for whole class party invites (in the KS1 class), and reminding each other of important dates, events etc.

School is mostly middle class professional parents so i think most people understand how to act on a screenshotable shared group.

Our PTA is pretty much run by staff as parents won’t get involved, and the staff have enough to do as it is, so it’s an extra burden on top. What’s App groups are the work of the devil😇

Our school doesn't have a PTA or a WhatsApp groups and it's excellent. We're 4 years in and I've not felt the need for either.

If you want a class WhatsApp group, start one.
Make a few friends add them to a group and ask them to add others and there you go.

But they really aren’t necessary - they weren’t a thing when my kids were young and we all found out everything we needed to know.

Read the school emails and letters home and you’ll be fine.

No PTA is a bit strange though, how do they do events and fundraisers? Our school always has fun events on for the children, and lots of fundraising, there’s always new equipment bought every year from funds raised by the PTA.

PTA needs many parents to function -
think chair, treasurer, admin person etc …
it’s a massive undertaking -
it’s not a ‘red flag’ that the school has no PTA -
it’s a reflection that in society it is almost impossible to get volunteers to take on these roles !!

class what’sapp groups ???
more hassle than it’s worth !!!
not a red flag at all there they aren’t encouraged -

i can imagine the utter bollocks that gets reported to teachers / heads / schools about poxy what’sapp groups !!

We have parent WhatsApp groups for each class at my DDs school, but these are set up by parents every year, school has no involvement.

PTAs are actually a LOT of work for school staff who are already overworked and underpaid! WhatsApp groups - just get each others numbers and put in some leg work - our school has WhatsApp groups but the school isn’t involved in them.

I've never known of any school involvement in a What'sApp group. At my children's schools, someone just takes the initiative to start one and add a few people they know, who add people they know etc.

It's only on mumsnet that I've seen parents WhatsApp groups. My kids have been to a couple of schools and never had them. And from all the angst they seem to cause it's probably a good thing!

Most schools don’t get involved with WhatsApp surely?

we arranged it ourselves via a class year private Facebook group and moved it over to WA

if there is no PTA do they not do events?