To think that postcards aren't an efficient form of communication

[pouffepants]

Dd1 is in year 7. I'm obviously eager for any feedback of how she's doing at school, but it really seems inefficient and expensive to send out glossy postcards for everything.

Yesterday I had 3 in the post. One for 100% attendance last half term, one for excellent effort in English and one for excellent effort in art.

They have my email, isn't it easier and cheaper to email me? The attendance one is pointless, and the other 2 have clearly been sent out automatically because she got higher assessment scores than expected. Which is fab, but her performance review says only satisfactory effort (grade 3) in english which is her lowest one, so makes no sense to congratulate excellent effort.

You're right, they shouldn't communicate with parents at all. After all, obviously, some parents aren't interested!

I guess the idea is to stick then on the fridge?

Surely they've got better things to be doing than handwriting and posting hundreds of postcards. i've already had the performance review. Surely an email is more efficient if there's anything else they want to say?

Do people put things on the fridge for high school kids?

We've already had about 15 since she's started!

YANB I have received these from ds school. If you think about how many kids parents there are to communicate with then sending cards is much quicker and easier. Can you imagine if the teachers had to send emails to all parents? There would be no teaching being done and then there would be uproar. I think its nice you have received cards to keep and cherish Dont think to deeply about about it. And as for being congratulated and with only a satisfactory effort. Does it really matter.

I love them! They're handwritten, very personal and usually out of the blue. Our best one was from dd3's form teacher explaining why dd3 was doing an amazing job as form captain (brought tears to my eyes) and the worst was an attendance one for dd1. "Dd1, you have made an amazing start to year 10, keep it up!" (Dd1 had had 6 weeks off in year 9 due to complications with an appendectomy).

Emails are NOT the same. We keep all our postcards and the good thing is each of my three dds only received about 3 each so they felt worthwhile.

I think they are a lovely way to communicate with parents in a way that is visual to the children. We use them (high school) and the pupils are very positive about them and often thank us for sending them out. It's a way if recognising the good work pupils have done and can go a long way in helping pupils stay positive about school in my opinion.

We don't use these in isolation - as we use emails/phone calls/texts and letters for communication also, but if think they are a nice addition.

YANBU to think they aren't efficient, but YABU to think that "efficiency" is what someone is aiming for when they send you a postcard.

The postcards are for the children. Positive reinforcement. Generally they love it and come in all happy next lesson saying 'Miss you sent me a postcard' with a big smile.

It has never occurred to me that a parent would be annoyed to get them. Another stick to beat teachers with.

We have an excellent system through the secondary school which sends good and bad news, with different levels, to us via e-mail. It's a system devised by the school, and sold to other schools, so the income from that generates prizes for pupils at the end of the year.