Is it possible to contact head teacher during half term?

[elliejjtiny]

The local authority have refused to assess DS5 for an ehcp. Head teacher is not impressed and agreed to come to mediation meeting despite it being half term which we are very grateful for. I let the lady from global mediation know that he was coming 2 weeks ago and gave the school office email address as there wasn't one on the website for the head teacher. I explained that the only email address I had was the school office one but they can pass on stuff to the head teacher. Last week she asked for the head teacher's email again. I explained I only had the office one again. Now today she has said that she has emailed the head teacher via the school office but nobody is responding (understandably) because it's half term.

Meeting is on Thursday this week. I haven't got any ideas of how to contact the head teacher without resorting to things like contacting him via facebook which I am reluctant to do as it feels like crossing the line and something that would be too intrusive of me. I'm really nervous about this meeting going wrong though and don't want to jeapodise it because I was too polite. I've seen children be unsupported during secondary school. One attempted suicide, One caused a power cut at school and several others became school refusers. I don't want this to happen to DS5. He is really struggling and so is his teacher who is trying really hard and has the patience of a saint.

Any ideas on how to contact the head teacher? He already has the link for the meeting (it's virtual) so I'm wondering if what the lady from mediation wants to talk to him about and if she doesn't, will it really matter?

You can’t contact him via Facebook.

but email him and cc local authority, making it clear you had organised to meet with him and haven’t been able to contact. Leave a clear message of time and date you expect him to be there

Just phone the school reception and explain the situation and ask for the head's email address. Sadly, the head probably hasn't even taken half term off anyway!

Is there not an email address for any of the other SLT at the school on the website. Ours are all under the staff members, rather then the contact us page.

This depends on the school, my kids school no longer have support staff/admin on site over most holidays due to cost cuttings. Where as the last school I worked at most admin where full time but that was 6 years ago and there have been a lot of cut backs since then.

Worth a try over Facebook though!

Does safeguarding page have headteacher contact details?

A lot of heads can be reached via head@ followed by the standard school email address. You should try this I reckon.

Is the head's email address not on the school website? No other staff members are on ours but the headteacher and general office addresses are listed.

So did the head know rhe date and time of the meeting before the holidays? Did they recieve an email invite then? Did they accept it? Or did the person inviting them only send the invite this week? If the first then trust they will attend. If the latter then it is too late to arrange during a school holiday. It needs to be rearranged for term time with suitable notice.
Do not try to contact the ht another way.

As others have said it will be

Head@ whatever the normal school email address is.

I personally would be reluctant to chase them especially in half term. Heads have a massive workload and are under a lot of pressure.

Yep head@ but also someone you know must have once received an email from them before, could you ask around?

I do think this is too late to arrange now. Unless they knew previously.

My direct email is my name - not head@.
If she has sent a link to him for the meeting wasn’t this sent using his/her direct email? My email is also in the safeguarding policy and complaints policy which should be on the website.

Emails in schools tend to follow the same format so if you know another member of staff, you should be able to work it out.

Good luck

I suspect it's too short notice now anyway. He's probably made other plans with it being the holidays.

Don't contact him on FB. Do you have class Dojo (or a similar app for school). We can contact all staff on there. Our head definitely monitors his messages over the holidays on there

Most schools only have a skeleton staff during the holidays and this has always been the case, nothing to do with cost cutting. People work in schools because they want the school holidays.

Is this formal mediation ? It takes time to organise and the mediators should ensure everyone named can attend before it takes place.

Had the head definitely confirmed attendance on Thursday?

There likely won’t be anyone in to answer the phones.

The local authority will have his email address. They should give it to you. Alternatively, is it on the EHCP application, which you should have a copy of?

My advice to you would be to rearrange the meeting to take place when you know the Head will be available - ie in term time. it’s likely that the SENCo would also need to be involved in the meeting.

You shouldn’t contact them via Facebook, that’s a step too far. They are on holiday and will no doubt be wanting to spend time with their family relaxing. If it’s essential for the head to be at the meeting then it should be rescheduled.

Teacher emails are usually name followed by generic email address. So if he is called John Smith and the school office email is [email protected].uk his would be [email protected].uk.

Are you in Surrey by chance? I am in Surrey and also refused for assessment and we declined mediation as we felt it was a waste of time and it's a stalling tactic to further delay the process. This was based on my solicitors feedback.

Reason I mentioned Surrey is that they have a high rejection rate in the hope that parents drop the case early.

Good luck through the process

When was the date confirmed? If the head knew the date and time before the holidays then I'd expect them to be in attendance. If the date has literally only just been set then I would ask for it to be rearranged as it's too last minute to expect them to attend.

Do you know any support staff, kitchen staff etc that could pass on the message, does the school have social media pages you could contact so not the head directly.
if not can you reschedule for a week later