To think the school has no place to be part of this group?

[Rainer]

The school has a fb account which they use to share a twitter feed.

My older child has a parents class page on there which is somewhere we can go and share information, get homework that had been neglected by our wayward children etc. And of course the occasional moan.

However my younger children started in September so have joined a new parents group for that class and the school's account has been added to the group. And always appears on the 'seen' section of any posts made.

A member of the pta set up, and invited the school to, this group. The group for my older child was set up by the school.

Which a) suggests that the account isn't just for sharing the twitter feed, it is manned, and as such being their 'friend' means they can see all that we post. And b) we are unable to post freely in the group which is a private group just for mums and dads of the class.

The school are very concerned about how they are portrayed on social media, but this is a private group for mums to talk freely and get to know one another. The interest in the page on behalf of the school is unnerving I find. Aibu?

I'm presuming someone who created the group allowed them to join?

Sorry is the parents class page a separate group on Facebook or Twitter?

Id set up a new group and not invite he school that saying a personal hayred of mine is people moaning about teachers by name and not approaching the teacher/school about it.

we are unable to post freely in the group which is a private group just for mums and dads of the class

If you thought that you could post criticisms of the school without it getting back to them, you were being naive, even if nobody from the school was in the group.

So for your older child's group, were parents moaning on a site that had been set up by the school? If so, this may be why they have made sure they get access to this new group?.

Why don't you start a new private group separate from anything officially 'school', you can explain your reason for doing so and emphasise to everyone it's not about being negative towards to the school but having a private space to get to know each other.

I'm not sure why a space for "moaning" is required really. If there are genuine complaints bring three to the attention of the school SLT or the school council. Moaning on FB seems fairly unproductive.

maybe this isn't a bad thing. Surely moans and complaints would be better actually taken to the school rather than shared on a parents Fb page? Advice sought anonymously somewhere like MN is surely better. I say this from a school's perspective as so often Facebook posts from parents are sent/shown to school and SO often contain incorrect information. This is really damaging and quite unfair. I think an open group that doesn't contain opinions that should be kept 'secret' is much healthier.

Our similar group is purely to help parents with errant homework, lost and found and helpful reminders.

I wouldn't be bothered if the school FB admin were a member too, it's not a space to air my views on teacher's performance or school issues.

Privacy and social media is a living breathing contradiction - anything that can be screenshot and shared is never guaranteed to be private no matter how awesome your privacy settings.

my sons school have fb page where there is a member of staff on, most the posts are asking stuff about holidays/trips etc normally the member of staff can answer better so maybe someone was trying to make it more like that? this ones not very sociable

I'm of the opinion that the less parent Facebook sites the better, because you find parents ask each other for info rather than looking on the school website. Such as "what date are they due back?" , "When is the school trip?", and "how much is dinner money.?"....All questions they would be better going to horses mouth about, rather than other Mums, who may have it wrong. So other than "I've got a school jumper that's not ours, is anyone missing one?", I can't see the point of separate groups.

by page I mean a private group as above

Our school did this, they took over a Facebook group due to comments made by parents about staff. They threatened legal action if anyone mentions staff or policies etc.
You are only allowed to ask if someone has found a jumper etc

To be honest, anyone who puts anything on such a site that they wouldn't want the school to read probably shouldn't be posting it.

If you have a complaint, speak to the class teacher, head or governors.
If you just want a bit of a whinge, do it here ;)

I can see the benefit of a group for parents to help with things like finding out how pervasive a problem is, or to start organising on an issue. Though I think it's easy for them to dissolve into unproductive moaning. I don't think there's a particular "right" to be able to do so on social media without the school finding out about it though. In many ways whoever set up the group did everyone a favour by inviting the school since you are all much more aware that you aren't talking in secret. If they weren't invited they may well still end up seeing the messages if another member brought them to their attention and then you'd feel a bit blindsided. Particularly when talking in a small community, it's a good thing to remember you need to own your words.

You wouldn't need to be unnerved if you were only discussing issues that you would happily discuss with the school.

I hate moaning about the school on our Facebook page. Man up, grow up, have some respect for the importance of the relationship between parent and school and discuss issues with your child's teacher. Bitching on Facebook achieves nothing except encouraging a negative view of your child's school.

What do you want to put on the page that you don't want the school to see?

So there's basically two groups, probably more for other years.
The older class has a group that was set up by the school for school related stuff?
The younger class group was set up by someone from PTA for that class and has added the school?

Why are parents getting involved in their children's homework to this extent?

If they don't understand the homework they've been set/or are unsure when it needs to be in, surely the kids should be encouraged to speak to their teacher?

I don't see what the problem is here. Facebook isn't the place to be moaning about school. Discuss it with the school directly instead so that there is a chance of addressing it. If you do that then anything else you post should be fine for the school to see?

And you'd all have to be pretty daft to think any 'moans' and 'gripes' about the school, don't get back to them anyway.

Of course they do, either through the parent governors/volunteers or just anyone who thinks the school should know what's being said really.

So no-one should be posting anything they wouldn't be prepared to say to a member of staff anyway.

The school is being sensible because private discussion groups have a tendency to turn in to moaning and slagging off the school (with a couple of disgruntled ringleaders), which inevitably gets back to the school/teacher and ends in lots of hassle.

If you want to slag off the teacher in private, do it to your mates, not to the entire class of parents. If you have a complaint, go through the official channels.

Any moaning about the school always gets back to the school. That applies to anyone moaning on their own page too.