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...

OP, with the best will in the world, you may well be 'one of those parents'.

You do not need to e mail them about snacks. They will have developed a system that works for them and the majority of kids.

Give your child an egg for breakfast rather than Weetabix. And a hot meal with protein when they get in.

Check whether your child is actually hungry - some want food when they are actually thirsty, some want food as a displacement activity or for comfort eating.

Dh is a teacher. He leaves the house at 7am each morning & returns at 7.30pm. His school is in a 3G blackspot. If he needs to contact ds's school then it has to be overnight.

And yes we have emailed school st 11pm at night - ds confided a serious safeguarding issue & ok I was waiting at the door at 8.30am the next morning but at least school had warning.

Such a rule is absolutely ridiculous. Many people don't necessarily have access to email during a working day & when parents feel they can't communicate that's when small things escalate.

Were I still at the chalkface I would use a cheap pay as you go mobile if I were forced to provide a number for parents, this would be switched on when I arrived at work and off as I left. Parents do not have the right to 24 hour access to teachers, contact should be made through the school office during school hours. How many have 24 hours personal access to their doctor and dentist?

AlexanderHamilton, nobody at op's school is stopping parents from emailing the office overnight or whenever suits them, just a request that teachers not be contacted directly outside 8-5.

How many have 24 hours personal access to their doctor and dentist?

And how many would email the doctor or dentist to request better magazines and snacks in the waiting room or demand they find their precious umbrella if they did? "We treat, you entertain yourself and look after your stuff" for doctors and "We teach, you feed and lost property is in the school office" for teachers.

1wanderer, I said something similar earlier and a poster came on to say they have 24/7 direct email access to their doctor and lawyer. It's like a race to the bottom.

Parents do not have the right to 24 hour access to teachers, contact should be made through the school office during school hours.

Where did anyone say they should? This thread is about a school telling parents not to SEND emails between certain times - it's not about whether the parents expect the teachers to respond during those times outside school, which most sane people don't expect.

As for contact instructions, that's for the school governors to decide. Many schools provide their teachers' email addresses and encourage parents to email the teachers. If a school doesn't want to provide emails then it doesn't have to. If a teacher doesn't want to receive emails out of school hours, then it's up to them to set their device so that they don't!

You can't stop people sending emails - it's all about managing expectations and best practice about how to deal with emails.

Our local prep school has this rule. The main reason was that they found it reduced angry/rude emails which seem to be written late at night. By forcing parents to wait until the morning the result is much calmer emails. It also ensure teachers aren't tempted to check emails at 10pm and don't arrive in to a barrage of emails.

I does sound a bit bonkers on first reflection but in the days when I was at school you could only call in the day and our parents managed!

Write the email whenever you want. Press "Send" during school hours.

badbadbunny no one has said they should have 24 hours access but some parents believe they do - hence the complaint to the head about me not replying to an email sent at 4:30pm Friday and not replying by 9:30am on the Monday.

hence the complaint to the head about me not replying to an email sent at 4:30pm Friday and not replying by 9:30am on the Monday.

That's a single parent being an arse who needs to be dealt with individually. It's a sledgehammer to crack a nut to ban all parents just because a minority are idiots.

Some parents don't have access to email during the working day, or a break in which to catch up - I imagine it would be a very effective way of ensuring doctors and nurses cannot email the school so this "just email between 9-5 it's not difficult" doesn't apply to a great many people.

My DCs schools do publish email addresses, but say that ethey will not answer emails after 6pm at night or before 8am in the morning and when the teacher has had an opportunity to look into the issue and respond.

m0therofDragons

That makes sense. Although it is very frustrating as it penalises more sensible parents . I could never imagine emailing for reasons described by MrsHathaway. Totally ridiculous. Don't know how you have any hair left receiving mails like that.

Dd did harvest festival last week. She was on stage once and said practically nothing. Her friend was on stage 4 times and said more. So uneven designation of roles. The teacher had planned for her to read her poem out then said she couldn't because a girl from the other class was doing it instead (rather cruel and why they couldn't both have done it is beyond me). I was bloody pissed off, but what am I supposed to do? Complain about upsetting her? Tell the teachers they need a tally chart to make it fairer? I know they're busy and it's not personal so I keep my mouth shut and talk about real issues if/when they crop up.

What with this thread and the other one re customers/facebook, it's clear that teachers don't want any interaction with parents except on their own terms, i.e. to report behaviour problems or to ask for donations (or parents to make them cups of tea!!). We've really not moved on from the "we know best" and "take it or leave it" attitude of the public sector have we?

This thread perpetuates the teachers' preference of punishing everyone because it's easier than tacking the individual - in exactly the same way that teachers still, to this day, give "whole class" punishments and the "whole class" rants which are grossly unfair to the ones who behave and do their work as instructed.

But these days you can access your emails on your mobile phone? If it's saved in drafts you can send it during the day, it will just take a minute whilst on a break.

What a pathetic rule. Are these teachers so inept they're unable to manage their own work-life balance? My guess is they wouldn't last 5 mins in the real world.

Mummyoflittledragon why were you bloody pissed off that other children had bigger roles in the assembly than your dd?

My guess is they wouldn't last 5 mins in the real world.

This has made me lol like nothing else. I work in a very real world situation and I'd bloody walk out if I was treated like teachers are and expected to work like that.

I do think the rule is daft - teachers ought to be able to manage their own time and use their devices appropriately to do that - but the idea that teachers aren't working twice as hard as everyone else is a bit bloody stupid.

If you are a doctor, you generally cannot have your mobile phone with you while you're on a shift. Same for nurses. For some reason, its discouraged. It also applies to barristers, judges, retail workers, drivers, other teachers, factoruy jobs and many office jobs. It is a luxury to be able to use a mobile phone or do home emails in the working day.

My guess is they wouldn't last 5 mins in the real world.

I would argue school is the real world.

If the time teachers are receiving emails is causing them a problem, then schools need to look at how teachers receive their emails and discourage staff from having work email enabled on their personal phone. If the type of emails teachers receive is causing them a problem, they need to rethink whether allowing parents to have the email addresses of individual teachers is an issue. The answer is not to tell parents that an email sent at a particular time will not be read. I doubt it will dissuade unreasonable parents anyway- if they're the type to send unreasonable emails they are also the type to ignore these rules.