Stupid rule about sending school an email

[Winebomb]

So preparing to write an email to my sons school about snack times (see my other thread) but just remembered we got a newsletter the first week of school stating:

"If you want to email the class teacher it must be sent between the hours of 8am and 5pm, any emails sent outside of this time will not be responded to"

Now I get there are some parents who are batshit, and think that if they email the teacher at 11pm they will have a response personally at the school gates the following morning, when they drop off their precious little snow flakes.

But isn't sending emails like writing a letter. I will write it at a convienient time, it may have been written at 11pm at night. But I am not batshit and expect it to be read either the next working day or at least the next working day afterwards after it's been delivered.

I work in the private sector and receive/send loads of emails post 5pm, and the same rules apply. Who are these parents who are just being bonkers???

All I can think of is writing my email and timing it in Outlook to be sent within the allotted time. But it just seems pointless.

Sorry probably answered my own AIBU and this is turning into more of a rant! But really!?!? Who are these people...

Back for good, but why does your need to do your correspondence at 11pm trump a teacher's need to have an evening free of communication from parents?

We have 30 sets of parents, and they are not all reasonable, rational or kind. There are parents who email daily, who fire off drunken late night emails that you still have to spend time responding to, that are aggressive at the school gate so your heart sinks when you see an email arrive.

You could do your correspondence at 11 and set the email to auto send the next morning, or, if you prefer to send it straight away, send it to the school office and ask for it to be forwarded to the teacher.

It's an unusual rule, and I can see why some people think it's unnecessary, but if that is the way that that school wants to do things then I can't for the life of me understand why it's a big deal. Maybe, when the head suggested handing out direct email addresses, this was the compromise.

I think the idea is that if I go on to email some work to myself or a colleague then that's my choice. But if i go on and there's an email from Mr Blogs kicking off about something then that's likely to cause stress.

Personally, the best schools I work on have a 2-3 working day rule on emails from parents.

You seem reasonable but I've had emails like this:

• email at 11pm Tuesday telling you the child wouldn't have done their homework for wednesday and thay they've told their child they'll let the teacher know.
• Why has my child got a certain level? I'm not happy. (When it says in their marking what went well and even better if) What intervention are YOU doing for this? (Um, none. Nobody is perfect. They are still learning. If they listen to my guidance theu will get better)
• email at 930, 2nd email.at 11, phone call at 1130, complaint to senior leadership because "I have REPEATEDLY tried to engage with Mrs Pops but she can't be bothered to reply to me". ... i was busy teaching!

Some people can be quick to fire off emails for things that they'd never sit and call the school about.

There aren't many professionals or service providers that you expect to be able to contact directly, rather than through a central office or secretary. This school, like many others, has provided you with that option but asked you to respect their staff's work-life balance by not contacting them out of working hours.

You'd think that was fair enough but no, here we are with lots of people saying it's ridiculous, that they can only draft emails after 5pm, that they don't want to put it on a timer, that they don't want to send it to the school office.

Generally happens to control the amount of emails received. If you allow emails 24-7, you'll often start the day with a back log and so urgent stuff can get buried.

I'm actually surprised parents expect or get responses from emails from teachers. From the 3 I sent to class teachers (dd is yr5), I only got one in return. We also send to the admin mail address and they're bounced on and I can imagine teachers prefer to be emailed than accosted in the playground. Twice my mails have been about the times tables tests because they're not well thought through and causing a lot of children issues. The other time was because dd told me about some racist bullying of another child. So nothing requiring immediate responses.

Rather than putting the onus on thousands of parents, many of whom won't remember to stick to the ruling, it would be better for the school to find a better solution.

Rather than putting the onus on thousands of parents, many of whom won't remember to stick to the ruling, it would be better for the school to find a better solution
You mean rather than asking parents to be considerate, the school should do something that makes life harder for their staff to do their jobs like switch access to email off after a certain time?

Most parents ARE considerate and respect it when schools have limits on email expectations.

Having worked where parents expect 24/7 replies (e.g. emails on Saturday asking dor help with homework due Monday!) some schools need guidelines to point out what is/isn't reasonable.

Totally ridiculous - can't believe the number of people defending it on here! Totally fine to ignore emails until a suitable time, but to say that simply having them unopened in an inbox is too stressful for the teacher is an absolute joke.

What a silly rule . Surely most working people have to find a way of managing the avalanche of sometimes-stressful work emails in their free time?

Assuming that they've set up a separate work address (easily done) teachers can direct internal emails into a separate folder to read immediately and emails from everyone else into a non-internal folder. Attach auto reply to the non-internal folder promising a response within two working days and turn notifications on that folder off. Job done.

How ridiculous. Our school had this rule for about a week once before it realised how stoopid it was. And it actually puts people at a disadvantage if they WORK.

It's an email. They are silent and invisible until the recipient choses to read them, unless the recipient choses to have alerts and be disturbed, which is totally their choice and under their control. Its not a psychic link straight to the teachers brain or a bang on the door at home in the middle of the night to demand the spelling list.

you simply must email them and ask them to clarify. and also explain that for most parents it is simply easier to email after 5 pm or before 8 am, and no of course parents dont expect an immediate answer.

I use Yahoo. I'm not even sure if there is a way to delay sending emails.

EMails are great and a good way to communicate - but they almost make it too easy. Any issue, send an email. In 'the old days', people would have phoned, gone in or written a letter. Or not done anything.

Communication with school for parents is important. But email can be too easy and can overwhelm people.

Just the same for at work - so many people send emails for trivial things that you can get overwhelmed.

I do get the impression the only teachers on mumsnet are childless some days. You work all day (maybe teaching) pick dc up from afters hooligans club AT 5 (or 6,7,whatever) head home, make tea, deal with homework, bathtime story and bed (maybe also some littler ones), maybe even have a pee yourself, then reply to an email from school. Then you're out of the house (all of you) to work the next day (maybe teaching or similar, where you "don't sit it front of a computer all day".

Coi I do sit in front of a computer a lot of the day. I send emails for "home/family" things as and when they crop up or they get lost. My work email comes to my iPad all hours. I turn the volume off when I'm not up for it interrupting.

Rainy I have direct email addresses for my doctors and solicitor. They take a while to get back to me, but that's fine. If it's urgent I'll call and ask for a call back or make an appointment. I wouldn't expect anything otherwise from teachers either.

That's odd.

I would have thought - we will endeavour to read emails between 8-5. However due to teaching thus may not be daily. We will respond to emails within 48 hours where possible. We may need longer to give a response but will acknowledge receipt of an email.

this is batshit.

Every other profession has to handle work email that comes through 24/7. It doesn't mean that it has to be responded to straight away. It doesn't have to be looked at until convenient.

If teachers want to be able to check their personal email without seeing subject titles of teaching related emails then they need to set up a separate email address for work (or ideally the school should set them all up for them). Allows proper segregation of 'work' time and 'personal' time.

A letter saying parents shouldn't expect an immediate response - agree. A letter saying abusive emails will be disguarded - totally agree. But this? Batshit.

I contact ds keyworker by email and she does the same to me.

Was extremely easy at start of our relationship for me to say to her my emails are likely to be written and sent at sunrise or sunset due to my lifestyle but I understand she will not be likely to read and/or reply to some point after school the same/following day. I also said if she emails me during the day then I won't be able to read or reply until later that day - except the odd occasion I find time at lunch.

So an easy way to communicate with a mutual understanding. If I need to speak to her or her to me we also discussed times we'd both be available.

www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2016/04/04/pushy-parents-bombarding-teachers-with-emails-late-at-night/

Bizarre. Surely the point of email is that sender/recipient can deal with it at their convenience?

I have my work email on my phone. If I choose to look at it in the evening or have notifications pinging through the night, that's my look out.

We (with DD15s and 16) have managed to get to sixth form without emailing a teacher. People need to remember they do not exist in a vacuum.

DD's English teacher for example has over 400 students. I wonder what percentage are emailers. Maybe the ruling cuts down the number of emails received?

The timings of emails never really bothered me.

This school has either worded their statement badly or is trying to protect staff but doesn't really get emails.

There are those who don't get emails; can they be sent from different computers, will they work from other countries, the reply all function etc.

It was the parental expectations/demands that grated/took time/wasted time.

I taught one pupil in a 1:1 class after school a gcse 2 years early. The Dad's almost daily detailed emails questioning what we/I was doing took up more time than the teaching. After a couple of weeks I, and my hod decided to ignore them. They dried up. No real thanks for helping him get the A* either.

The absent father who decided he should get involved in his son's education all of a sudden. I was the lad's form teacher. We'd never met. His solution was that I should send him a daily email report detailing his son's work and attitude that day. I told him that to do this would be impossible as I'd have to find half a dozen teachers at the end of each day and have a discussion with each one. In my younger days I'd have felt bullied into doing this. Eventually we met, by the end of y10, he attended a parents' evening.

One pupil's mum thought that her son was being bullied. She'd send in long emails first thing in the morning and expect a reply by break time. I'd have to find the lad or keep him back and discuss what had gone on. All too often he couldn't remember, it was nothing or had been sorted the day before..

It's the teacher's responsibility not to have their work email on their personal mobile, it's not unreasonable to send emails whenever. I turn off the internet on my phone except when I want to use it (rarely) and rely on a laptop to check emails and then I do it when I want to and on my terms. It's not rocket science.

Is this primary school? We didn't even have the teachers email address, it all went through the office. Very sensible imo.

I don't think it's great that teachers (and any other employees in any other sector) can access work emails on their personal phones. Employers should be considering whether this complies with data protection rules - I suspect not.