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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think school heads should be contactable in school holidays

752 replies

EloiseMinch · 23/07/2018 16:28

A secondary head is likely to be on 70k+ and a primary head of 50k+. Those are high salaries for positions of senior management responsibility. AIBU to think they shouldn't just cut off completely in the school holidays?

Maybe some heads really are working in the holidays but I know the head at DC's school definitely doesn't. She is, for example, completely uncontactable from the end of one term to the start of the next.

OP posts:
MaisyPops · 23/07/2018 20:03

They've gone back to the other thread.

Will we get a 3rd thread I wonder GrinWine

WeightedCompanionCube · 23/07/2018 20:06

The PTA are just parents. They are in action all the time
Nope (and if someone started hammering on demanding the PTA fundraised for a TA's salary it would be the day most of us stopped doing it) - the only members of our PTA still working on anything PTA related over the summer are a small subcommittee organising one event that takes place fairly soon after the start of the new school year - and we're working doing things like laminating stuff and making props and stuffing sweetie mixup bags... not dealing with funding requests!

As for the contact thing - our school office inbox is monitored over the holidays and priority stuff would be answered at a time someone could - but it's not being religiously checked and nope, we don't have access to the Head's email address either (and this is in a school where the Head is very open and approachable). I have the email addresses of a few of the staff members who've replied to emails via their named accounts... but I don't use them for anything other than dialogue about what they'd emailed me from them.

Our Head deserves some break as much as the staff do - they've all busted their absolute arses all year and really are looking completely knackered. They'll all be back in school at various points during the holidays (one teacher is a standing joke among all the school community - even colleagues - about how much they're in the building) but that's their prep time for next year, not sorting out some parental vendetta that's been running all year.

To be honest OP - it sounds like the relationship between you and the school has gone beyond a point it's fixable really. I've been there - a head who really was detached and hid in their office lest they encounter a terrifying small child or wild parent, and stuff going on in-school I really wasn't happy with and wasn't getting satisfactory answers to. We moved schools and it was by far a better course of action than trying to fix a shit situation which was never going to be fixable. Value our current school so much that I'm down there helping doing various bits so much the joke is I should be on the payroll (tempted to go for governor but not sure I'm at all competent to do that and it might be a bit overinvested/try hard).

WeightedCompanionCube · 23/07/2018 20:07

Our head's still skipping around the office over the Ofsted report to be honest - she's pretty much been stuck on a victory lap arrangement for about three weeks now with a vocabulary reduced to "ooh aren't we outstanding."

It's rather sweet!

serialtester · 23/07/2018 20:11

Heads do a lot of their strategic work in the holidays (eg planning, data analysis etc..). They are always available for serious safeguarding concerns and other critical issues that might occur while school is closed.

They also do stuff like appearing at court regarding CP issues. training and networking.

They aren't generally available via email to parents for issues surrounding the PTA funnily enough.

smallchanceofrain · 23/07/2018 20:12

What a brilliant read this thread has been!

I think you know that you're being unreasonable OP. Or if you didn't, you do now.

It sounds like you think the school, and the HT in particular, are horrendous. Perhaps you need to burn your bridges and look for better educational provision for your child.

If I was the HT I wouldn't want you to have my email address either. I can imagine their misery if they got back from a couple of weeks holiday and opened their inbox to see your emails. It sounds like the HT deserves a 6 week break from you.

susurration · 23/07/2018 20:14

A) what makes you think she is actually on holiday for 13 weeks? She just doesn't necessarily speak to parents in those 13 weeks. As I said before, you had 39 weeks to raise this issue, she is busy doing other stuff, like you know. Running the school. She might be on holiday right now, but back on 1st August and work all of August. How would you know?
B) you seem so insistent that a teaching role is different to a head teacher because they don't stand in front of a class all day. What do you think they actually do, other than just sit around waiting for you to moan at them?
C) stop with your goady fucker smiley face at the end of every sentence. It literally makes me want to slap your smug little face.

donquixotedelamancha · 23/07/2018 20:16

I think you know that you're being unreasonable OP. Or if you didn't, you do now.

Oh, how wrong you are. Take a look at the OP's posting history. Nothing is going to shake this obsession.

LuluJakey1 · 23/07/2018 20:22

IsItThatTimeAlready But you did have a way of contacting them. You had an email address and you used it and the Head rang your mobile and said it had been read and he/she had authorised the absence. So it worked. It sounds like he/she was very supportive but even if they had not read it, and were not going to authorise the absence it did not matter because it was important enough that you were going whatever.

JustlikeDevon · 23/07/2018 20:29

I do shit loads of work during my holidays, but not one tiny bit of it is engaging in email exchanges with parents, particularly those who seem hell bent on ensuring that in addition to being difficult in term time, they want to upset my holidays too.

LuluJakey1 · 23/07/2018 20:31

This year, one of DH's senior staff who deals with behaviour and guidance has been contacted over 400 times by a parent who thinks she should be at her beck and call over every demand or concern she has about her son, however irrational or unreasonable it is. She makes huge fusses over everything eg he lost his football socks when he left them in the changing rooms on a Friday night. She emailed on the Saturday morning, the Sunday morning, the Sunday evening, the Monday morning. She rang at 8.00am on the Monday morning by which time the member of staff had been to the changing rooms and the socks were not there- no surprise as the community uses the changing rooms and sports facilities at weekends.
This went on for three weeks and turned into allegations of him being bullied, of teachers not taking care with children's belongings, of the school not check g quickl6 enough- until the Assistant Head agreed the school would replace the socks- just to stop the saga. At that point she produced a receipt for much more expensive socks because they were all she could manage in her lunch hour. When he said they would pay the price of the original socks she didn't say thank you, she complained to the Chair of Governors formally in writing and a whole complaints procedure had to be followed. There are times parents are the biggest difficulty in their child's life and an absolute hindrance to a school

This parent has spent three years now behaving like this.

kmammamalto · 23/07/2018 20:46

I really really hope the OP has gone to find a hobby. Because she really really needs one!

spanieleyes · 23/07/2018 20:47

We have one parent who messaged the class teacher 5 times in one day including:

  1. Little Freddie was badly behaved at home last night, can you make sure he stays in at break. ( Errr, no!)
  2. Little Freddie doesn't like ham sandwiches, can you make sure he eats them ( so why did you pack them?)
  3. Can you make sure Little Freddie brings his jumper home ( he's 8, old enough to bring his own jumper home)
  4. Little Freddie has fallen out with Billy, can you make sure they don't play together ( actually, they are together having a whale of a time)
  5. Why haven't you answered my 4 other emails ( because it's 10 o clock and I'm teaching!)

And this happens EVERY day.
Some parents think the world revolves around them!

GoofyIsACow · 23/07/2018 20:57

PA to a HT here, emails are most certainly monitored, only life alteringly important ones are replied to but all are read.
IME that will be the case with your head, which kind of answers your question...

blinkineckmum · 23/07/2018 21:10

No they shouldn't. It is a holiday, not that headteachers take it as such. I wouldn't do that job for all the money in the world.

kittymamma · 23/07/2018 21:17

Just a few little things.

The NASUWT guidelines should not be used in regards to the headteacher's contract. They are for normal classroom teachers and middle leaders only. Once teachers move onto the leadership scale, they usually move into a more suitable union. The guidelines do not detail the obligations for headteachers.

Secondly, as previously mentioned, the head probably does have work to do, but dealing with parents is one of the jobs left to do in term time only. But even if the head is not working at all over the next 5 weeks, it really is none of your business. Let it go, it can wait till INSET day - most schools will have an INSET day on the first day of the Autumn term.

As said over and over again... it is irrelevant if you think she shouldn't have as much of a holiday as she does. That is reality, she does have that much of a holiday, your complaining is ultimately futile.

Rebecca36 · 23/07/2018 21:17

A Head or Deputy is usually contactable during the holidays, or another number given if both are away at the same time.

Why are you so desperate to contact them anyway?

mmgirish · 23/07/2018 21:22

OP, you keep claiming that this head is taking 13 weeks of holiday. How do you know that? Or are you just speculating?

BakedBeans47 · 23/07/2018 21:24

Thanks cantkeep. It’s a paper form but I’ll definitely post it in :)

huggybear · 23/07/2018 21:26

The HT is the boss of the school though, I've never come across a big boss or in most cases a line manager that isn't contactable when they're on annual leave.

GladAllOver · 23/07/2018 21:30

I can just imagine the internal emails going round the school staff at the moment...
"That bloody nuisance woman has been on again. I just ignored her"
"Doesn't she ever give it a rest, even in the holidays?"
"And now she's on Mumsnet! Poor cow won't get much sympathy there."

PurpleFlower1983 · 23/07/2018 21:34

The senior staff in my school have and do deal with serious issues during the holidays. Child Protection issues, safeguarding social services involvement etc. They have attended and run CAF meetings/annual reviews etc. They wouldn’t be dealing with issues between children though, that can wait until September!

MaisyPops · 23/07/2018 21:35

glad
No internal emails as most of us won't be sending any over the holidays but the sentiment is spot on.

Some names get a mention and everyone goes 'ooh yes...' and knowing looks are shared.

Shootfirstaskquestionslater · 23/07/2018 21:37

Having read your other thread I can clearly see that your THAT parent and I’m not surprised you don’t have her email address all you would want it for is to complain about how you don’t think she deserves 13 weeks a year holidays she needs all that time off to get over having to deal with a loonatic like you for most of the year is it any wonder she hides away in her office she doesn’t want to deal with you and the rest of your playground mob. Leave the poor woman alone and stop complaining about how many holidays they get and wanting a performance review for the HT.

chocfireguard · 23/07/2018 21:47

I suppose I regard 13 weeks holidays as too much for a manager on a high salary.

I am a teacher. I am taking 2 weeks off this summer, but will otherwise be in school. During the 1-week half term holidays, I bask in the luxury of being able to go in each day a 9am start rather than a 6.30am start. At end of term holidays, I do a week in and a week off. So I will have had 4 weeks of holiday this year, from a job where I work 60 hours a week. I'm sure the head you mention, is not resting on his laurels for 13 weeks of the year.

katedan · 23/07/2018 21:52

I work in safeguarding and agree a member of the senior management team at both primary and secondary school should be contactable in school holidays to attend child protection meetings. In primary school the head of safeguarding is often the head but in secondary schools this differs so I just think there should be an on call facility where someone is contactable.