Are you ALWAYS available if school calls?

[m0therofdragons]

School secretary has been on the phone with a question about dd (age 7). Nothing major but she was really rude because she called both dh and I on our mobiles and my work phone which my manager answered and took a message.

Dh and I both happened to be in meetings.

We both called the school back about 25 minutes after they initially called. The third contact wasn't tried.

Usually I'm contactable. Her argument was I didn't know what the call was about and it could have been an emergency. My meeting was in a&e as I'm hospital management so if dd was being ambulanced in I'm in the right place but occasionally I have to go to other hospitals for meetings which could take me up to an hour and a half away. Less than once a month.

Do all other working parents work within 5 minutes of school and have their mobile on at all times?

@Reallybadidea I think Romany might be getting confused with the Catchment area stipulations for over subscribed schools. DDs school which she attends preschool at, is over subscribed, so as a result they usually only end up with kids within the catchment area and few to none from outside that boundary (10 mins drive)

No I couldn’t I’m not allowed my phone at work because of data protection so it would could be potentially an hour before I could ring back luckily I only work part time otherwise this would really stress me out

@MsRabbitRocks thank you.

My dc are remarkably well adjusted with the appropriate amount of craziness thrown in. Today was unusual and unfortunate but I couldn't help thinking this would be the norm for many parents.

Nope. My phone is in the staff room and we’re only allowed them during breaks
So could be several hours before I can check it

Fortunately our school understands that parents work

Not realistic at all to expect working parents to answer the phone immediately at any given time. I can usually ring back within 20 minutes or so but school have usually got in touch with someone else by then. I apologised once and they said don’t worry, if needs be we would just keep working down the contact numbers until we reached someone. Thankfully my mum and mil are retired and are numbers 3&4 on the contacts. I also work in the hospital where my dc would end up in a absolute emergency so that is quite reassuring!

I'm a specialist nurse covering a large area, I check my phone periodically during the day but am often an hour or more away. Also I'm a single parent so no dh, there are some family members a bit closer but everyone works.

I keep my mobile under my desk and will check if it rings through as I have an Apple Watch on which vibrates. Glad I’m able to. Earlier this year school rang me at 8.55am (in itself unusual) so I answered before I was about to call in a patient. Luckily I did, because my son had fallen at the before school club and obviously broken his arm (it was bent out of shape). Luckily I was able to leave straight away and get to school in less than 5 mins to take him to hospital. My husband would have taken at least an hour to get back so I would imagine school would have had to call an ambulance if they hadn’t got hold of me...

Where are all the teachers “locking away” their phones?? My bag stays with me all day

I put mine in the (department) staff room. Keypad lock on door so students can't enter, and I trust my colleagues not to steal my belongings while I'm teaching!

No, I'm not. It's why they asked I gave them numbers for other people. Being contactable at every second of the school day personally is entirely unrealistic, and she shouldn't have had an argument about your availability.

Nope and I'd be unimpressed if school claimed not to be able to cope or lied about a ten min rule being an admissions rule.

Had 3 kids go through 3 schools over several years and its not been a problem. Had to collect more for snow and technical failures than illness (twice at most) and they've waited or I've sent someone else.

Yes.

BUT I work all shifts and at my job I'm ok to answer my phone unless in a meeting.

Id be pissed if they called and it wasn't an emergency or wasnt saying DD was ill or needed to go home.

Tbh they are pretty good. Maybe add another emergency contact? I have 4 for DD at school. Myself first as im available to answer most of the time, then each of my parents then her dad.

No. Doctor. Not close, with phone on silent or in theatre etc cannot get out until between cases. I live in hope that in a real emergency they'd call an ambulance but when there was quite a significant head injury they just called me and waited for my arrival.

Nope. If there was an emergency situation the school would have to tell my admin assistant and she would interrupt my therapy session, buy I wouldn't expect that to happen for anything less than a hospital admission. I am lucky that my retired mum is an emergency contact too.

Yes I live down the road from school and works a bus ride away. I do get sick of the constant calls it's normally dd has bumped her head off another child. I've had them ring to inform me my childminder was 10 minutes late and they think I should know! They rang twice last week when I was on holiday to ask why dd wasn't at school and to say the childminder was wondering where my daughter was. I filled out holiday forms etc. Unless she's actually been sick broke a bone I don't see the need to ring me.

I'm contactable but often 30 minutes away from the school. My husband is an air traffic controller and when he is plugged in he is obviously without his phone. He is plugged in for 4 hours at a time, so it is a long wait before he can get back to them.

Surely they must realise that in some jobs there are times where having your phone on you is impossible.

I guess my situation is quite unusual, but here goes..
I live in a very rural area of the Yorkshire Dales, miles and miles away from anywhere. I work about a half hour drive from my DC's school, and cannot access my phone at all times, and DH can be anywhere in the UK on any given day. He works for the MoD, and needs to surrender his phone when on site anyway due to the official secrets act.
My DM lives in a care home in Glasgow with dementia, and has long forgotten the purpose of a phone. DMIL is perfectly fit and healthy, but lives in South London - so, a good five/six hour drive away. We do have a couple of local acquaintances, but we only moved here 18 months ago (due to dh's job) so I'm talking people we are just on nodding terms with - I barely know their first names.
So, I have no-one on my emergency contact list at the school, other than DH and I - and it's quite conceivable that neither of us could be there at short notice.
Such is life, we need to work, there's bills to pay, and not everyone has a support network. Fortunately, the DC's haven't had an immediate emergency, but that's just luck.
The school receptionist is extremely cross that I don't have a list of additional contacts, but I'm not sure what to do about that.

The school know to phone my work not my mobile because we have to have mobiles switched off and put away. They could phone dh but they haven't so far. I work next door to school, dh works an hour away so I can get to the DC's very quickly if needed.

Your manager answered your phone and took a message. If it was a life and death emergency they could have pulled you out of your meeting. So you would have been contactable in an emergency this just wasn’t one. She’s being very unreasonable.

When dd was at school I had a job where I was pretty much uncontactable and even if they did get hold of me it was doubtful I'd be able to leave. For life and death I obviously would but there have been times when I knew dd was in a&e and I didn't/couldnt leave work.

Dh worked about 90 mins away but was fairly easily contactable. Apart from the weeks where he was working abroad!

When dd was at primary school my mum was still about so picked her up on the occasions she was sick.

But no I certainly wouldn't be able to answer phone calls, etc. School on their contact sheet info had a "don't try and ring me unless you really can't get hold of anyone else" after my phone number.

It’s amazing how resistant schools are to specific instructions which could get them through to a parent. When three years in I went into the office and politely pointed out that my previous instruction to ask for me by my maiden name hadn’t been noted, and that if they called in an emergency and asked to speak to Mrs Marriedname, they would be told no-one of that name worked there, they just sort of sat there behind the glass and blinked at me. No notes made, no looking at the computer record. I gave up at that point.

Yes, but I'm predominantly a SAHM ( I do some volunteering). I am one though due to DS2's medical needs so need to be available to pick him up fairly regularly

Ha just remembered another.

I was called first (first on the list so natch) couldn't do it within 45 minutes, Mrs Waitrose said that is far too long we will call your DH.

So I said, no problem just to be sure I am being stood down, and your are contacting his dad... she barked YES.

Fine thank you for letting me know.

Ten minutes later......message on my phone........Umm Umm Mrs Naomi ...Mr Naomi is in Switzerland.

I was already enroute, but there was deliciousness to the whole thing.

We both work about 1hr 20 from home, though only both the two days out of the week. My MIL is around during the day but does work part time in a job she wouldn't be able to leave, and they're really isn't anyone else I could put down as a contact.

I guess this is why women take local, poorly paid jobs. Certainly I'm seeing that it would be much easier if I had one.

Some schools really need a reality check.

I've been reminded that even 20 years ago no one had mobiles so the chances everyone was always immediately contactable were slim. And before that, when I started school 40 years ago we didn't even have a house phone!

7 or 8 years ago I had a run in with my DCs primary school over this instant contact issue. They had called me on my mobile and I hadn't answered (as I was in a client meeting and my phone was on silent in my bag), they'd called my office no and gone through to my voicemail (because I was in the meeting room not my office) and they'd called DCs dad, my Ex, who couldn't answer because he was working on a hospital site where phones had to be switched off...I called school back post meeting about 30 mins later but that wasn't good enough.

They told me that in future I HAD to be contactable immediately AT ALL TIMES. I offered to divert work landline to a colleague who could come and get me out of a meeting. No that wasn't good enough. They insisted that unless I said I would have my mobile always with me they would report me to SS as they had concerns over my DCs welfare. I did try to explain that sometimes I might be on another phone call or in a meeting and I simply couldn't answer the phone, they said
Could but chose not to! And better still if ever I didn't call them back within 10 mins (having chosen not to answer the phone which it was made clear I should always do) they would report that too. I have anxiety now and I am bloody convinced it was dealing with their crap that brought it on.

This was the head teacher and deputy head. I shouldn't be surprised because the previous head had told me once she considered I shouldn't be working full time as I didn't have my parents to help with childcare (both my parents died before my DC were born, she knew this!)

Where we live the catchment for the primary school is approx 6 miles in each direction, DD goes to school on a bus, thankfully the school are sensible and know that if a child lives 6 miles away, their parents do too and therefore will unable to be anywhere near the school in 5-10 minutes even if they were sitting at home by the phone, they also seem to understand because we are rural that most people are working in the town 8-15 miles away or the nearest city 28 miles away
The secondary catchment is even bigger with some children living more than 20 miles from school
I think as some city schools have catchments of about 500 metres they think that no-one is ever more than 500 metres away even SAHP occasionally go to shops or other things during school hours

@velvetspoon social services would laugh don't worry it's jusyt like saying your kid can't walk home at age 10 because they have a rule they need to be 11, if you say your child can walk home age 9 there is nothing they can do about it, because social services will only do something about it if this is a risk for that child going that route at that time so if you live 100 metres from school with no roads needing to be crossed; social services probably would not be interested if your kid was 7 never mind 9
social services are not for upholding school rules or head teachers convenience but for genuine cases when child is genuinely at risk
not when child is at school but mother and father at work 10 miles away there is no legal or enforceable requirement to be contactable at all times