to be frustrated that parents who aren't at the school gates struggle to find out key info

[latenightmum]

so dh & I work, need to work, work for the money... make the most of any time even if just an hour early on a Fri with the kids. Ds1 is like Daddy = smart and so into everything. We chose a school that will suit no end. We pay lots, the uniform is overpriced, we are being hit up for £kitty already etc... £s in the meter to park there... we have chosen to spend all of our disposable income on the kids.

So at the very least I hoped for some clear e-mails... instead it seems that most of the wives can afford not to work & find me strange. Its early days but fed up....

wasn't the uniform ect in the hand book, school website ect

Well, why didn't you ask about this at Parent's Evening? if you're not at the school gate how do you know that the parents waiting there are kept any better informed than you are? Has your child only just started, if so you'll probably find that he starts to come hone with notes in his book bag. I'm sure the school will keep you informed of anything important.
There's no need to be so snidey about the mums who don't work, have you ever stopped to consider that perhaps some of them don't work because they can't afford childcare and don't have grandparents they can "use", as you charmingly out it, for school pick ups.

Avoid school gates - talk to the school.

If they are complaining that X is not happening, point out you work and can't hang around school all day, ask why you don't get told and what they are going to do to get the message to you and all the other working parents.

My youngest has just moved into year 3 (so from key stage 1 to 2 within same school). At parent information meeting the teachers were talking about PE and how the children hadn't got the appropriate PE kit, it quickly transpired (at first I thought it was just me as like the OP I am rarely able to do school pick up) that school had forgotten to inform us of the changes and had assumed we all knew. A letter home quickly followed so parents who hadn't been able to make the meeting were also informed.

I sympathise with the OP, most of the big things we are informed of by letter (school are very good at giving us prior notice of inset days etc) but it is things like the Christmas party, food lists, school fair requests that I rarely know about as it turns out it will just have been a poster on the classroom door etc

OP, you are not giving us enough information to work on. MN is no more spiteful than it was YONKS ago, when I joined. I work part time. Many Mn'ers work full time. But your posting style, and lack of clear info, is making me confused as to what the ACTUAL problem is here.

I think the problem here is that you're taking a legitimate complaint about lack of communication from school and using it to make snide remarks about people who have different work/school pick-up arrangements from you. It's extremely frustrating to feel out of the loop with regard to such an important part of your child's life, but every parent has to deal with it at some time or another if they send their children to school. The only additional information you'd normally pick up from being in the playground is gossip about people you don't know and half-arsed theories about what goes on in the staffroom.