Can you give party invitations to the teacher ?

[Brilliantlydone]

Is this the done thing ? Disclaimer, I am a teacher, but at 11-18 school. So part of me feels this is very much not the teacher's job.

My Ds just started school. His birthday is in a couple of weeks and I want to invite the entire class. I work full time so he is at breakfast club from 7.30 and stays until 5.30, so I won't see parents at the classroom for drop off.

Is it ok to give a pile of party invitations for her class to the teacher and ask her to put them in bags? Or if not, how do people do it ?

We don't really do this as it can cause issues at times.

But if you explained, and it was a whole class party, then the teacher or TA may be able to help your child to do it.

We definitely won't hand out invitations where it isn't whole class though, and don't let children hand them out in class time. They have to be done before or after school in the playground.

Unfortunately there is always this risk if it coincides with a very busy day, lots f other school based letters to go out, or they get out on a shelf for safe keeping, etc.

Eyfs teacher here... I am happy to hand out whole class invites.

If it's for the whole class yes. I won't hand out to individual children.

Our school will put them in book bags, although it's been a bit hit and miss, some children have not received them for some reason, possibly absent the day they were given out. But they won't give out a list of names (for safeguarding/data protection reasons understandably), so we had to do blank invites, which also increases the chance of a kid getting missed.

We do. It’s much less faff than asking the child to do it (and they might lose one, so someone gets left out).

No, or if there is, I'm not in it 🤣 I only know one parent and as I've said I will never be there at drop off or pick up so unsure how to meet people .

About contact books - do you read them for every child every day? How do you know if I've written anything ?

I need a 'systems at reception for the not very aware parent' booklet 😂

It’s worth asking the other parent if they know of one. They are pretty standard these days but do tend to grow organically rather than have one person ticking names off a list. It’s also sometimes presumed that anyone not in it didn’t want to be in it, rather than them not being aware. Some groups have a bad rep for being cliquey, or bitchiness, but ours is very practical, just questions about “did they give them a spelling list this week?” or “did anyone pick up an extra jumper after PE, we’ve lost ours”. And of course the parties. I only do one pick up per week (morning and after school groups otherwise) and feel perfectly included in the WhatsApp, it’s a good substitute for the school gate chat that I am not getting.

I don’t know how we’d invite everyone otherwise. We aren’t allowed a list of first names either, and pick up/drop off are so chaotic I’m sure many children would be missed.

Without a name list there is no way to know who has been missed.

@Brilliantlydone I used to read them every day yep, and respond if it was something that needed a response. Often it was "x came home with another child's jumper yesterday, I've put it back in the bookbag so you can return it" and those ones I'd just put a smiley face so the parent knew I'd got it. If it was a message for the teacher I'd leave it on her desk and she'd get to it at some point during the day.

I miss EYFS 😢 its hectic but wonderful!

Yeah I've asked , but no one has heard anything about a WhatsApp yet... but they've only been at school three days so I'm sure there is time yet!

Good to know, thank you.

As a TA it is much easier to put 30 unnamed invites into book bags or trays. I'm in year 1 and at the moment still check the book bags daily for hats or letters from home so would shove them in then.

One teacher I used to work with used to do "Air Mail" and throw them to the children at the end of the day to put away themselves. The kids loved it. 😆

As a TA it is much easier to put 30 unnamed invites into book bags or trays.

As a teacher, I totally agree! It’s much easier to give out 30 unnamed invitations than ones with the names on!

Not allowed at our school, all invites have to be given out away from the school grounds. Most just text or WhatsApp these days

I also thought you meant invite the teacher (& I have been invited to a fair few parties though usually decline with a polite excuse).

We give them out. Including when not everyone is invited - just don’t make a big thing of it if that’s the case.

I think that's totally reasonable, except for reception, when people don't know one another I suppose. Not that it's the end of the world if your child doesn't have a party, but it is nice.