To think a school should be capable of including more than one parent per child in its text message service?

[FetchezLaVache]

Just that, really! ExH asked to be added to the school text message system, which they did - only they didn't tell him that he would be replacing me on the system as they can only send out to one parent per child. So DS ends up being the only child in uniform when they text out about an impromptu non-uniform day at short notice, for instance (ExH didn't think to let me know because as far as he was aware, I would have received the same message myself).

So I rang up and asked to be put back on the system, but the only way they can do that, apparently, is by bumping ExH back off it.

Is it me or is this bollocks?? He needs to know this stuff too as he has DS a couple of nights a week and is very involved. Sure, I could just forward him each message as it arrives, but honestly, I'm likely to forget why can't they just send the same message to both of us?

What systems do your kids' schools have? If it's relevant, it's a primary school of about 300 pupils. And should I complain to the head about it?

I'm not sure which system my DDs' primary uses but DH and I each receive texts for both DDs. In the past, our nanny also received them. Six identical texts per family!

if your child had died at school for instance, in that case it would be reasonable to expect a text to both parents (and preferably a phone call).

I'd like to think that no school on earth would communicate that via a texting app

It is often a problem even for parents who aren't separated. DH and I used to share school pick ups when dd was at primary, and quite often, there would be a last minute message to say x club was cancelled that day or whatever, so could we pick up earlier than scheduled. If the texts went to me on DH's pick up day, I wouldn't be able to read them while at work, and vice versa. The school would then get irritated if whoever was picking up failed to arrive at the earlier time, but they insisted it wasn't possible to text us both. I've always been contactable at work by phone in the case of an emergency, but I can't sit there looking at texts all day.

Now dd is at high school and dh and I both get all of the communications. Much better.

I use teachers2parents and it is very easy to add more than one contact number for each child and I could even add child -mum and child-dad
You can text the whole grou or individual parents, it's quite flexible

It's not in terms of tech, it's a cost thing. They get charged by the number of texts they send.

So with texts costing less than 2p each, even sending 1,000 less a month is only saving less than £20 ... seems an awful lot of effort to save fuck all. All that saving would be wiped out if someone left the heating on 5 minutes longer than needed.

Of all the reasons why 2 separate texts can't be sent, cost is most trivial. If cost is being touted as a reason, I suspect it's a misdirection to cover either an unwillingness, or an inability to enter the necessary details for the system to work.

Our school uses Parentmail and it's the biggest heap of crap ever. My account is never active for more than a couple of days before my child's details disappear. The school/Parentmail don't seem capable of sorting it out and the school office only sporadically remembers to send home hard copies of their communications. This meant that this week I wasn't at school to collect my DS after a club was cancelled. They didn't even remember that I wouldn't know about the cancellation until DS arrived at the school office and asked them to ring me.

Sounds like there's a gap in the market for a decent system, then ...

The problem with an awful lot of systems like this is they are designed and sold by people who have no practical experience of doing the job the system is supposed to help. So they end up over-complex, unintuitive, badly configured, badly maintained, badly operated, and pissing everybody off.

It gets worse when completely unsuitable products are selected (usually US-originated) which have no connection to the UK way of doing things. HR systems talking about "resumes" spring to mind.