To be a bit peeved with the school's last-minute attitude.

[AutumnSummers]

The last 2 non-unifirm days were for Children In Need and Sports Relief. We got letters about both only 2 days before and both were very specific about what they were to wear. Each cost £1

The one for Children In Need was a pyjama day so I had 2 days to get her a pair of jammies that would do her for being outside in November and the Sports Relief one was to wear red. I looked but she has all pink / purple / white or black stuff and no red so ended up going in with a fancy dress Santa outfit over black leggings and a black t-shirt. She looked lovely though and had a great time playing dress-up for school (She's only 5)

We've only had a matter of days on notice for other things too, like photos and the book fairs.

Yesterday though, they sent the kids home with a timetable for every holiday for the 2012/13 school year!!

How can they be so organised in one sense and so last-mionute with other things?

WIBU to have a word about this? It isn't always easy to come up with money on the spot like that. DD almost missed being able to get a book from the book fair 2 weeks ago. I had to borrow some just so she could get it.

hockey on the pyjama day I called and asked if DD could wear normal clothes instead of jammies because the idea had her in a tizz. I had told her it'd be great fun but she got a bit weird about it. So I called and aked and the Head told me taht it was eother jammies or uniform because everyone had to be the same. DD compromised with me and took them in her bag, put them on later and had a great time.

Given how the school was about the specifics of the dress for the day on Pyjama day, I didn't want to NOT send her in in red on Friday.

Then you have my sympathies, because quite frankly the school is bu in making a big deal out of it. Do you think next time you could just not ask and send her in whatever - is it the sort of place where her teacher will make a comment on it? ( as you can probably tell it wouldnt even cross my mind to, but I know some people are uptight about these sort of things).

the term dates are published as soon as possible because some people (including the teachers) might want to plan holidays, weddings etc around them. Other, much smaller stuff just doesn't get thought of that far in advance. I know its irritating (DS is only two and has has three "wear this tomorrow" emails from pre-school already) but I'm afraid, along with all the other things that teachers have to do, they are not going sit down and google the 2012/13 dates for all the various events that come up and then work them into the calendar. I suppose a parent could do that and then give the list to the school at the start of each term maybe? They could then, have one meeting and sort out what the "thing" for each one will be.

Hockey To be fair, I really think it's just the Head who's like that. DD's teacher is actualy a really lovely and down-to-earth lady. The Head's very much a "the rules are the rules" type. But she's only in for half the week (She's the Head of 2 different schools) and the assistant head is pretty mellow.

trixie I agree with you that they should at least try to plan a bit in advance.

I'm definately going to mention all the short notice to her teacher in the hopes that she forwards it up. I doubt it will change anything but I'm usually happy just to have said my piece.

Oh to have 2 days notice!! We often get the text at about 4pm the day before - or they tell the kids, but not the parents. I quite often have very stressful calls with other parents on the morning to try and work out what they are supposed to be wearing.

I am afraid you are going to have to live with it - that seems to be all schools ...

trixie123 I think that comment is rather unfair. Many many parents work very long hours and have the statutory holiday entitlement most of which they use compensating for their absence in relation to their children.

I recall many times when there has been an instruction to bake a cake, send in something for a party, etc., with notice on a Tuesday for Thursday or Friday. It is very hard to get it organised if one is out of the house all day and constantly on the run to relieve au-pairs, nannies or collect from after school club.

Whilst appreciating how hard teachers work, I really do think teachers underestimate the flexibility they have to get to the shops between 4.30 and 6. It's much easier nowadays and especially in London when the shops are open almost all the time but not always easy when 3 very tired siblings are collected from three different places and possibly have to be dragged out again to Sainsburys to pick up the bits and pieces. Or the stupied comment to a 9 year old that games is cancelled because of the weather but we've got a slot at "goals" so go to the office and give your mums a ring to get your football boots here if you want to stand a chance of being picked for the team

Well teachers are parents too and have their own childminders, nurseries and school pick-ups to contend with and no-notice days as well so they aren't doing it to hack parents off specifically.

Ours is the same. They sent a questionnaire home to parents recently and something that came out of it was apparently "we need better communication". Of course on the same day we got the "non-uniform day on Friday" note!

I have pleaded with them that we need a weekend (at least) to organise anything that requires a trip to the shops.

I would say that at my sons' school a lot of these events are PTA organised, rather than teacher organised.

YANBU. Our school sends a weekly newsletter by e-mail which is really handy and avoids those last minute panics. I was able to tell DS2 when he came home from school today that he had a mufti day he hadn't heard about yet on Friday Is yours the kind of school that takes suggestions well? If so I would mention the e-mail thing.

I was once the hapless PTFA secretary at our school and as well as send out letters I used to distribute termly posters with full diary dates for events, and there would still be complaints that there wasn't enough notice. Send a letter out too early and a large proportion of parents will forget/never see the letter in the first place as it has disintegrated underneath a pair of whiffy trainers.