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...

PLEASE realise that a "work related email" for a teacher is supposed to be one from your boss, or a colleague, passing on info or asking questions about the week ahead. It wanting emails from parents coming at all hours is not the same as not wanting any work-related emails.
Many schools get by just fine without any email contact between individual staff and parents.

You can't dictate to parents and impose all manner of rules, like you're used to doing with your pupils.

Schools and teachers need to manage expectations.

Why not put on an auto-responder to say something like "we aim to answer emails within 3 working days but if your query is urgent, please contact reception on (01234) 56789 or email [email protected]."

Schools/teachers have the ability not to receive emails outside the hours they choose. No one is forcing a gun to their heads to check their school email address. Email programs usually have lots of options re checking emails, notifications, etc. If a teacher chooses to ignore these facilities, then they need to accept the risk of getting occasional annoying emails when they don't want them.

Many schools get by just fine without any email contact between individual staff and parents.

And many schools actively encourage parents and pupils to email their teachers, to the extent that email addresses are on the school's website.

I thought the whole point of email was you could send it whenever and it could be responded to when convenient.
Silly rule.
I can get work emails on my phone but have turned off sync so only see them if I actively resync. Not difficult to do.

You can't dictate to parents and impose all manner of rules, like you're used to doing with your pupils.

You can. It prevents teachers from being snowed under by emails about the nature of an individual child's snack and the fact they are hungry at night. Really not a teaching issue.

6pm? Why does your Head think you're obligated to reply to email at 5.30pm?

Because it's a sort of reasonable mid point in the evening, I suppose? I don't know why 6 would be any less reasonable than 5.30 or 6.30?

In fact, could this not be a safeguarding/confidentiality issue?

I'm not sure that teachers having their school email on their phones is a good idea and it may even be a breach of the data protection act. Are the schools actually checking that each teachers' phone is properly secured, i.e. password protected? There could be personal information on unsecured phones.

Perhaps we need a different discussion about whether teachers should only be able to access the school email system via a school computer/device which is under the control of the school's IT department? That would end the argument as then teachers would only access the system when they're in school or when using a school-provided device.

Incidentally, when I was at school during the 80s, there was no such thing as email. So if a parent needed to speak to a teacher they would do it at drop off, or call the school office. I would imagine that parents have higher expectations these days, but I can imagine that teachers would get a lot of unnecessary emails
Yes. I don't think parents contacted teachers very often in the 70s/80s. My parents wouldn't have been at all involved in my homework or exams and it would never have occurred to my parents to question a detention. (I like to think i wouldn't do that either.) I only ever remember one parental complaint and that wasn't until i was in the sixth form. And i think it was unusual. (It was because a teacher had called a girl a name to some other students when the girl wasnt present. )

I do wonder though if they've set up a rule on their server to delete emails sent outside this time?

I used to work in HE and instead of parents emailing with daft requests, it was the students. As a senior administrator, I'd receive 200 emails a day easily.
Can you imagine suggesting to students that they can only send emails between the hours of 9-3 or similar ridiculous suggestion?

PLEASE realise that a "work related email" for a teacher is supposed to be one from your boss, or a colleague, passing on info or asking questions about the week ahead. It wanting emails from parents coming at all hours is not the same as not wanting any work-related emails.
Many schools get by just fine without any email contact between individual staff and parents

Absolutely not the case in many schools. I often need responses from parents before I can finish a task.

And no email contact would be a nightmare for me. I hate the phone. I have between 5 and 50 emails a day from parents on average. Very few urgent of course but mostly not unnecessary.

I do wonder though if they've set up a rule on their server to delete emails sent outside this time?

Very dangerous to do as presumably teachers/schools would be using the same email address for other work related organisations, such as exam boards, book publishers, regulators, etc., who wouldn't know of silly rules like that, meaning the teacher may not receive potentially important emails.

I'm not sure that teachers having their school email on their phones is a good idea and it may even be a breach of the data protection act. Are the schools actually checking that each teachers' phone is properly secured, i.e. password protected? There could be personal information on unsecured phones

Huh? If you have internet on your phone then you have email access on your phone, surely? That's how mine works, anyway. I don't need any special settings or an app.

You can delay sending emails from outlook

I didn't know that! Would it be possible, theoretically speaking, to pretend you were still working at 5pm when in fact you were sitting on your arse watching Flog It?

Just asking for a friend, like.

And the school's diktat is just silly. Many parents will have jobs where they can't send private emails between 8 & 5, wtf are they supposed to do?

True Kazzy! Op, can you send an email outside the times specified and request a read and delivery receipt and keep us posted? 😁

If teachers don't know how to turn off notifications then it's about time they learnt.

Well said. But, I really don't think they should be accessing emails via a normal email system anyway. At my DS school, they use Microsoft 365 so you have to log in to MS365 via a browser to send/receive emails, so it's an "elective" decision to check your emails and it has it's own security built in, i.e. user name and password to access the 365 system. It means you won't be bothered by emails at times you don't want to receive them.

manic you may be able to access your emails but you might not be permitted to unless your phone is compliant with all the required data security measures.

I do wonder though if they've set up a rule on their server to delete emails sent outside this time?

Surely not. What if an important or emergency email was sent during that time.

As an example - I got an email at 5 this morning (didn't read it at that time!) informing me that a child was upset and tired this morning because their dad is stuck in Mexico City and they had only just managed to make contact with him. Now I'm sure anybody would put aside a verbal rule about not replying for something of that nature. But if it had been autodeleted that would be awful!

But the email OP wishes to send to the teacher is a prime example of the sort of email that should be filtered out by an administrator and not burden the teacher.

Lots of parents (myself included back in the day) suffer a culture shock coming from nursery which reports about every little toileting, food and sleep issue. The PFB starts school and suddenly the parent has only the vaguest idea what is happening all day. It is a misunderstanding of the role of the teacher.

Penggwyn, you would have still received most of those emails though, if they were only allowed to come through between 8 and 5? And if those emails had come to a central point, if they were related to your department (eg grades queries) they would have been forwarded to you as HOD. My department always forwarded them to me so one person was dealing with it all.

Engaged parents are a double edged sword. In my recent experience, the school with the highest number of nitpicking emails from parents was definitely the school with the best student outcomes (attainment and progress), to give a completely unscientific piece of anecdata.