School WhatsApp groups never disappoint...

[SausageChipsBeansAndGravy]

I'll start...

Our rather overzealous PTA informally announced that if children didn't bring in a raffle prize donation, they'd have to wear school uniform on non-uniform day.

One mum decided to send her kids to school in full uniform in protest, announcing it to the WhatsApp group. The group was silent for a change, with people not knowing quite what to say.

I could see what she was trying to do, but it seemed a bit harsh to inflict it on her own kids, especially as everyone knew the school wasn't actually going to enforce the rule.

Do your WhatsApp groups have any stories?

If you have more than one kid or kids in different schools or too many mails are sent out, I tend to file them to read later (and frequently forget I ever got them) and I get mixed up between different kids and different schools.

When my kids were younger. I remembered everything. Now I have kind of zoned out.

I delete all PTA mails immed. as they irritate me.

Did you even read the post 🤣

Quite funny really

I certainly did thank you. I was puzzled as she seemed to know a lot of what's going on on the WhatsApp group. I just can't believe that parents of secondary school children think they need to be telling the teachers anything that happens on a WhatsApp group. As the PP said, it should go direct to the school, if it's important enough

When I was at primary school in the 90s, the PTA fell out and one woman threw a cup of coffee over another. The second lady reciprocated and threw her coffee over the first lady, except her coffee was hotter because it didn't have any milk in it so everyone decided she was the terrible person. I remember my Mum telling me about it at the time. I have therefore resolved to stay well clear of PTAs, although my friends who have joined them are all nice, normal people.

FFS, just take something in from the back of the cupboard, they’re not asking for blood, it’s to raise money for the school, not for them to go out on a jolly.

You’d be surprised how many professionals also don’t read their emails and use the work WhatsApp groups to get their junior colleagues to find out for them (juniors who don’t get the original notifications).

The best issues we've had are over the class teacher present. A small group of mums always want to do something 'thoughtful' which typically means doing a book or something from their darling children with photos of their children in it. They are always shocked when a lot of us say that the last thing the teacher probably wants after having to teach are little bastards for a year is to have their annoying faces in a book. Just get a voucher ffs!

Once there was a power cut and my daughters’ primary school. The parents were up in arms that the school hadn’t closed because it meant ‘the fire alarm system wasn’t working and what would happen if there was a fire?’. The company my husband works for maintained the fire alarm system and it had 9 hrs battery backup. After multiple pearl clutching messages I announced this on the WhatsApp group. I should have left it there but couldn’t resist adding that most fires are caused by electrical faults. Funnily enough the WhatsApp group was silent after that. 🤔

Reminds me of my non-uniform days. Me and my friends would pocket the pound and tell the teacher on the gates our parents forgot to give us.

Either they’d let us in anyway, or send us home for it, in which case we could muck around in the park and miss half of first period. By the time we got back no one would be on the gate.

Have they moved from another school? As DD’s primary always finishes at 2pm on the last day of term, every time. There’s no need to be nasty. Some parents are military and go through several schools

Jesus fucking Christ! How ignorant can you be? Not everyone has ‘spare’ food Talk about out of bloody touch….

We had a mother who spammed the group with advertising messages for her side-hustle business.

Yeah, we’ve had a mum spamming us with her Arbonne MLM and trying to get us to join her team

I avoided the WA chats - if it was important enough the school could tell us via an official channel or email/text. Not Sandra down the road who thought she owned the bloody community

My company doesn’t allow the use of WhatsApp and it thrills me no end. I’ve advised the school, PTA ‘president’ and school secretary that under UK data protection law (the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018), parents cannot be compelled to use a particular commercial messaging platform simply to receive essential information and I will check the school portal each evening.
Never missed anything important and it means I miss out on all the Mean Girl/Passive Aggressive stuff. I’m NEVER asked to do PTA stuff and every Christmas donate generously enough to fundraising that they leave me alone. It’s bliss.

We have one particular dad who treats ours like his own personal assistant. Instead of googling anything he just asks the 'mums' when the last day of term is, or what the school phone number is. I'm irrationally angry about it! And even more angry when 2 or 4 mums reply with a screenshot, having had to google it themselves. Aaaarghhhh

2 great ones that stand out for me:

the parents who apparently had no clue that the girls uniform changes to a summer dress from Easter to July. Despite it being on the uniform list available on the website, given in paper form when your child starts and images being on the school’s social media.

the parent who was adamant that there was a charge for breakfast club (there isn’t, breakfast club is free, but there’s a charge if they eat breakfast), repeatedly responded that there is a charge, same as ASC, nothing is free, etc. then when someone screenshot the info from the website said “well I wouldn’t know, my kids are late every day” then why answer the question?!

Not my year group but the year 2 parent who sent a picture of head live to confirm if it was head lice. Reader, it was head lice.
Then when in year 1 the endless messages about how Saffy wasn’t in because she had vomitted in the night. Arlo’s mum let us know that he had vomited the week before and hopefully the two weren’t related. Well, Rory sat next to both Saffy AND Arlo, thanks for letting me know I’ll keep an eye out. Oh dear, Buzz didn’t eat his pasta today I hope he’s not coming down with something. I muted the year 1 WhatsApp group in the end.

By authority of the peaky blinders

My company does not allow the use of WhatsApp for work related purposes, but surely in your private life this is allowed?

You have no authority here Jackie Weaver

We’ve had a mum using the school WhatsApp group to boast about her child’s achievements. Any excuse to post a photo of little Sophie in her ballet dress with her medal, or congratulating her daughter on her amazing school report.

I love these mums. I often miss the emails but nearly always see WhatsApp messages..

Class whatsApp groups shouldn't be a venue for bitching about teachers! How would you feel if 30 adults were all complaining about you behind your back? That's bullying. Parents should go to the school if they have concerns. Also even if there isn't a staff member in it, it will always get back to the staff from well meaning parents or parents who are friends with the staff.

In our recent heatwave one parent kept complaining that the school was open at all (closed at lunchtime) as she had "seen some things on tiktok". Just don't send them in! You don't have to spam 50 other people.