...to ask you how often you contact your child's secondary school?

[JustSpeakSense]

Not including parents evenings, how often do you contact your child's secondary school (e.g. Email / phone call)?

Do you contact them requesting information, discussing a problem, notifying them of an issue, complaining?

Just wondering what the normal level of contact is?

My mum went into school when I was in 6th form and asked my teachers to tell her if I didn't go to class.

Despite having never bunked off during years 7-11 .

I'm afraid I bunked off after that, especially when I got bollocked for going home early...even after I explained I'd started my period unexpectedly and had bled through my clothes.

That paints my mum badly, she was and is wonderful just a bit highly strung!

Sorry that is a really self indulgent post and has nothing to do with your question. My children are all primary aged

Oh god I've already contacted the school loads about ds. About his asthma , about when he texted me to say he had broken his ankle then promptly went incommunicado, about when he texted me to say he'd lost his bus fare home and again switched his phone off (school is four miles from home and no path for lots of the way so I didn't want him walking) and also to ask if I could come in to look for his v expensive pe kit which I didn't want to replace unless it was absolutely lost. Am I really one of those parents?

It varies hugely at my school. Some parents you can't contact for love nor money when you desperately need to (will ignore phone calls and emails repeatedly), whereas other parents will call in about any issue (15 year old child loses her own book - can you find it for her? type emails). We have a few prolific stalkers who will email every teacher in the school at least weekly, and clearly have far too much time on their hands

Only when they are ill. But dd had surgery a couple of years ago so had a lot of contact.

Dd1 Year 9 and Dd1 Year 7 I have never contacted them. Same with primary I don't get the parents who have to speak to the teacher daily unless there is something major.

We have an email communication system.
I use it a little, but not a huge amount:
Dd1-I used it a few times in year 7 when there was an incident which I only found out about after hours (got a phone call within half an hour of sending the email) and a couple of times about a bullying situation that was building up.
I emailed once in year 9 when dd1 had major toothache and was struggling through school, but not managing all the homework. I emailed two teachers who I knew would be sympathetic to ask for a couple of days extension so she could do it at the weekend.
I emailed once in year 10 when dd1 wanted to go on a trip on a first paid first served position, and it hadn't (by mistake) been put on her parent pay.

Dd2 I've emailed more. She suffers majorly from anxiety and also has physical needs (missing her hand).
Year 7: 2-3 times over stupid home economics teacher who thought she shouldn't be allowed to use a knife. What she thinks dd2's been doing at home for the last 7 years is beyond me.
5-6 times over bullying situation. emails/phone calls
Year 8:
Once over missing school for her counselling sessions
Once over absence for prosthetic fitting )actually that was snail mail as I was providing doctors' letters for her file)
2 times over bullying situation.
I will shortly be emailing school to inform them dd2's answer to the home economics situation (she only does it for a term). Going to be interesting. She now has a prosthesis with a knife on the end. This is going to be very amusing. Considering the home ec. teacher had hysterics over her handling a knife I'll put bets she's not going to be too impressed with this. I don't think she has a leg to stand on really though... (The irony of this statement is amusing me more than it should do!)

Some parents call in several times a week (usually to discuss trivial things and demanding an immediate call back) and some never ever make contact, not even to report absences.

I think at secondary, generally you should encourage your child to sort out issues without parental help, unless child is SEN.

Totally depends on the child.

DS1 - Was constant for a while when he was being stalked/bullied, but before and after that pretty much never.

DD1 - Never.

DD2 - Two or three times a week because of health issues and a woman who should never have been a teacher (I worked in schools, I back the school 99.9% of the time - this woman appears to hate children) who doesn't believe her health conditions are real.

Dd is in year 8 I emailed her teacher once because of a bullying issue I wanted to nip in the bud. So far in year 8 nothing.

DD's school encourages emails. So maybe I'd email for tutor or an indiv. teacher 2-4x a year per child. Clarify work experience question, ask something about drama club, ask them to put less pressure on DD b/c she's prone to anxiety attacks, apologise I can't make parents eve but pls let me know if there are any issues, etc.

DS's school, the office was great with passing emails on to student centre, but i never had email contact for indiv. teachers.

... oh, there were some pastoral issues to do with other children, not mine, but stuff I picked up about DC friends. So handy to email those concerns, too.