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?

Italiangreyhound for the sort of incidents described, specialist school isn't going to happen, no matter how much bitching the other parents do.

Spikey I don't think the poster specified what the behaviour was did they?

We have a folder at school informally known as 'Facebook crap' full of printouts of screenshots that we have been given. Some of the comments are awful - naming members of staff, saying they are shit (this particular person was outstanding), paedophiles, bullying. No evidence to support any of it and no possibility for the teachers to reply abs refute these claims. If you have a problem please talk to the school directly. We have had so many minor issues blow up because they bitched on FB, other parents chipped in and wound them up further and all reason goes out the window. Schools and teachers aren't always right but in my experience FB never helps.

Christ, I can well imagine pigeon. Facebook just seems to whip people into a frenzy.

There is definitely nothing wrong with constructive criticism, as long as it is actually constructive and it's given to the person or organisation you're criticising.

I agree Facebook should be a big no no....We've had a few minor thefts at school and parents have been on the PTA Facebook site, summising who it is and what a little sod this child is, blah blah, should be strung up etc..... Absolutely appalling, they have no idea if it's one child or lots of different children or any reasons behind it...Total witch hunt.

We have a PTA facebook group which is closed - all applications to join have to be approved. It was set up by the PTA, with the knowledge of hte school and we use it to share information about our events and other school related information - when is the end of term assembly, Mrs X has had her baby, selling a school blazer, what's the P3 homework etc.

We foolishly thought parents could be trusted to use the group properly and behave. After several threads which were openly hostile to the school and PTA, and one thread which deteriorated into a slanging match between two mothers, one of whom removed her children from teh school over it, we had to put the group on high levels of moderation - all posts approved by an admin.

It is naive to think "having a moan" is OK because it's not, it quickly escalates, people take things personally, people type things they would never say.

I can't help but think of the old adage that if you wouldn't be comfortable with what you have written being seen by the person you're discussing, then you shouldn't be putting it on social media at all.

OTOH I can see the benefits of being able to exchange views. But can you imagine how you would feel if you discovered that your employer had a social media page where customers and clients could directly criticise you by name, whilst you had zero right of reply? If there's a problem at school then surely it should be raised directly with them?

Set up your own private group for moaning and invite only those people that you want to be in it.

It's not really up to you who people add to groups that they set up, particularly not because it doesn't fit with the types of posts you want to make in that group.

I wouldn't change what I posted simply because the school account was a member of the group. If I wanted to say something negative about a policy or action, etc, I'd still say it. Whether the school account could see my posts or not, I wouldn't be posting "Miss X is such a bitch the school is shite" stuff anyway.

We have a school FB group. It is private but it is NOT a place to bitch and moan and diss the school. The purpose of the group is somewhere else to post things that people miss and to ask questions. The PTA have a seperate group for their stuff but PTA members do repost the major PTA posts in the school group as well.

We have the school term dates in a sticky post. It is used to post newsletters, remind parents of events run by the school or PTA, ask questions about trips, homework, school procedures etc.

People have posted problems but this is generally stuff like "I can't log into payment gateway, who do I contact" or "is X's mum here, I dont know who you are but my child wants to have your child round for tea."

Anything that generates into personal attacks or bile is deleted. People who have issues with teachers or school procedures are asked to take it up directly with the school. There are about 4 of us that are admins. It's not to hard to keep up with. We are lucky that mostly our parents are polite. The ones who aren't HAVE been called out on it.

The school itself does not have a FB account but they know what is going on. It wouldn't bother me if the school did have an account on the group as if you have an issue with the school then the school itself is EXACTLY who you need to tell.

HelenaGWells that sounds really sensible a d the same as our one.

Blimey this got a bit bigger than I was expecting!! The vast majority of the posts are exactly that, lost and found, chasing up party invites. All very dull.

However the school has a very active twitter account and pulls up parents for such things as classes (named) not putting up enough volunteers for pta events (in this case they were proved wrong and several parents feelings hurt) and there is and notable theme of parent shaming where the parent has no right to reply. So the groups feel like little safe havens.

Wrt to the pta stuff parents were able to express upset with the situation, which was very unfair, without crying at a teacher.

Also things such as are your kids getting enough for r lunch, I'd like to garner opinion about rather than just complain immediately so I'm not wasting school time iyswim.

I find it odd that every uninspiring post made is being viewed.