To not want to give my email/phone details to the class rep?

[WrongWayWound]

Well, self-appointed class rep, unless the PTA had a vote I haven't heard of.

It's 'so we can all keep in touch'. Frankly notes in the book bag, or seeing me at the gate is fine in my book. I've been politely evasive a few times but it's getting pushy with even asking family members for my details if they pick up. This morning I was nearly jumped on and pointed at by 4 women calling out DD's name, I said I had nothing on me.

So as not to drip feed:

-they are VERY pushy for money, it's already starting to grate only 7 weeks into reception. Not the normal amount, I work in a school and it's WAY above the norm.

-The mums I know and like have my details, I'm not hard to track down. I am polite to everyone, and have friends. I've never criticised or moaned about anyone. I foresee my details being used to extend playground squabbles to home from an overbearing core of difficult mums (from playgroups they were cliquey, pushy and not very pleasant to DD, but now we've been thrown together closer by school)

-There is already a lot of pressure from school mums with doing bits, I'll do my bit (though I work when they have all PTA meetings during the day). I don't want 'everyone needs to do this...' or 'your daughter was not nice to xxxx today' in my mailbox. There are other channels to find me, quite easily.

AIB miserable? Does EVERYBODY else always give details? I'll admit I'm just a bit spiky as DD is not having the best start. Not awful, but a lot of being side-lined and under-estimated and a loss of confidence.

John and backforgood...

Cooking (and reading rotas) - many parents are volunteers who go in to school perhaps fur an hour a week or so, to take a small group if children for a cooking lesson or listen one to one to a child reading. We only have one teacher and one assistant for thirty children, so any parent help is beneficial to the children.

Snow tree - this has never been needed in my time at the school, but it's like a flow chart for when all parents would need to be contacted quickly and unexpectedly. For example, if the children are going to be back late from a school trip, and it can't go on a group text fir whatever reason. Person A at the top phones parents B and C. Parent B phones D and E etc. obvo office staff could do it but this is quickest way if making sure everyone's got message. Never had to use it!!

Our class rep organises this stuff. It just helps teachers and school staff out, which benefits the pupils.

Right! Thank you for the explanation - every day is a school day on MN

We have parent volunteers. All managed by the school. I manage my own time with the school, who then decide where the volunteers are needed. No need for a parent to get involved because realistically they don't know the daily running and where best to send volunteers.
A lot of schools including our are subscribed to a text service. One text sent to everyone. So again, no need for class rep. All this phone, a who phones b, who phones c, rather time consuming and surely no quicker than the group text from the school, and calls to the few remaining that are not in the group.

Our school sends out texts if school is closed or coach is late from a trip. Sometimes there are reminders (inset days or early finish) bit not for mufti days. We do get a weekly paper news letter though.

We sometimes struggle to recruit class reps for the PTA, I imagine it would be a whole load harder if they had to manage contact lists, snow trees and volunteer rotas on top of PTA stuff, I certainly wouldn't do it.

But no, rather than send one group email, which you can ignore, you want them to seek out every parent individually, or write thirty notes for book bags.

Don't get it. Party invitations are personal. School stuff is dealt with by the school. What is the need for a class rep?

Our school directly texts us with information, so if the crossing patrol isn't there, if a bus is going to be late, to remind us about payments/events. It is much better, direct communication, no need to involve class reps or parents. We used to have a class rep in one school but she was more to communicate between parents and schools, not organise social things etc.

Lol at all the social exclusion bollo! I am never at pick up because I detest school gate rubbish. I would rather hack my own arm off than go on a parent social (seriously I have better criteria to select friends by than "has child same age and lives in same neighbourhood"). As far as our primary school is concerned I have been aloof and disengaged for 18 years now. However my dc are well liked, have extensive friendship groups and are constantly with friends after school and at weekends. Handing over contact details to the pta has no effect whatsoever. It's just the current trend for being over involved - very American.

School is for children.

I thought this stuff was to organise parties etc. There are so many threads in here moaning about no RSVP to party invite and haven't got an email address for parent. An email list is really useful IMO. If someone's trying to complete a list, it must be frustrating for them to be missing one persons details. Also useful for finding out who might have picked your dc coat up etc.
Requests for money - never heard of this. Just say no if it's not something you want to be involved in (I cannot imagine what it's for unless teacher present?)

With a dd aged 14 and a DS aged nearly 11, I've never come across class reps at any school around here.

Any info comes from the school by Parentmail or SchoolComms, including info on all the PTA activities. And as a Chairman of one PTA I don't have any access to the parents contact details in that school, that would be a breach of the DPA by that school.

As for school trips, we get a message from the school, no class rep required there.

I love our class reps. We all share emails and get reminders about when the school photographer is coming in and we give each other a heads up when there are nits doing the rounds. Really useful and not at all intrusive but if you don't want to then don't.

Don't the school do all that though Quangle? Ours do.

Ours does but our class rep thing is great. It's a small school and we all know each other so there's lots of "did anyone find X's school tie?" Or "bad news - we've got nits. Let's all go on nit patrol this weekend". Or sometimes "does anyone understand q4 on this week's badly photocopied homework?"

I genuinely find it useful

Fair enough, we do all that stuff by chatting in the playground, but it would be hard if you weren't there, or weren't chatty by nature. I think we have got possibly the most chatty playground there could be!

Maybe that's why. I'm not at pickup or drop off so I rely on the class reps for a lot of this stuff and it's rarely about money.

I wouldn't like that either. What on earth do random PTA people want your details for?!
I don't get the argument that some say that it's to send out messages about school fetes etc.
That's what the school office is for! The school office has relevant phone numbers and e-mail addresses,and I get e-mailed the newsletter or fetes and dress down day type stuff gets texted.
I wouldn't want other mums having my numbers unless I knew them properly and wanted them to have it in the first place.

I can only assume that schools where these class reps exist don't communicate with parents themselves and that's why these roles are needed.

I get texts directly from DS's school with reminders and I can check anything else on the website or online newsletter. Why would I need to give some other random parent my details just because they have time to email everyone or enjoy organising people when it's the school job to do all this?

Personally if this person keeps harassing you I would make it very clear you don't want to share the information and complain to the school about her.

All those saying 'they're not needed' are missing the point . Of course they're not 'needed' , but the more helpers there are to make your child's education better, the better for them surely? If a parent can take a job off the office staff or teacher, this frees them up to do something else. So, benefitting the children.
Example - my dds school - way way above national average on everything. Because the vast majority of the parents help out. Every day, my 5 yr old reads one to one with an adult. You wouldn't be able to do this without parent helpers. Or paying for private.

I used to have a stalker. Does ds really deserve to be cut out from social arrangements with his school friends because I can't trust a large group I don't know well with my contact details?

Example - my dds school - way way above national average on everything. Because the vast majority of the parents help out. Every day, my 5 yr old reads one to one with an adult.

My school does that. Very involved parents. We don't have class reps.

It can be a dangerous path to have school info going out not under the school umbrella. There are enough power-hungry, over-involved parents out there. Anything pertaining to 'official' school business should come from the school.

I arrange the occasional night out via email - if people don't want to be included in that, it's fine by me.

I don't think I'm power-hungry or over-involved, but I do have a very small yearning to take part in The Apprentice, so maybe I'm not normal.

It's your child that will miss out. We have a class email group - not used very often but occasionally in the holidays to arrange a meet up at soft play/picnics. Also useful if you end up bringing home random clothes in the PE bag or trying to locate your own. Once a year we might arrange a night out. Class reps also remind when it is our class' turn to run the cake stall, we might offer lifts to others attending the same porting events, offer childcare for those who struggle on INSET days, help/loan each others costumes for the school fayre, offers to pass on outgrown uniform.....that kind of harrassment really!

It's your child that will miss out.

If PTAs have responsibility for providing a "service" to parents, they are subject to Equality legislation and must ensure that their services are inclusive.

Communication of necessary information to parents (as apposed to personal invitations and reminders) is a "service" and exclusive communication by email is not considered inclusive. It discriminates against the protected characteristics of disability (those who cannot read), ethnicity (those for whom English is not their first language) and (as it's a public body) socio-economic (those who cannot afford to access email). It could also be discriminatory by gender (non-resident parents may be inadvertently excluded, for instance).

A child who "misses out" if their parent does not subscribe to the PTA email list, is being discriminated against.

This is why parents should not take jobs off the school staff unless they are fully aware of the legal implications - even if it does free the school staff up to do other things.

My kids classes all have whatsapp groups. Fine with me, as because I work I often miss stuff like MUFTI day, or similar. No compulsion to take part, just say no, but then don't be annoyed if they all go out for dinner together and you don't get asked, or if your child isn't invited on a playdate (mums often post offers of spontaneous playdates, eg does anyone want to come and play with my child now).