To have thought an email would suffice?

[DaysDragonBy]

Sent DS's teacher an email 3 weeks ago saying he wouldn't be in school this morning because of orthodontist appointment.

Suddenly thought as we were leaving that maybe I should remind her. Wrote text. Before I could send it she called asking why he wasn't in school!

I must admit I assumed she'd have it in a diary and she would think I was being patronising to remind her!

Should I have done it yesterday? Sent a text earlier this morning?
Or is it actually ok to assume an email a few weeks in advance is sufficient?

Why would you email his teacher and not the office staff? And WHY would she ring you herself?? How odd.

We are told to email the form tutor. However, I do that via the main admin email address rather than direct, although you do gradually pick up some of the individual email addresses when the teachers reply.

Did you receive a reply? If not, I'd have sent another email.

But otherwise, one email should be sufficient.

An email a couple of weeks prior is not enough. And it’s the office staff who monitor absences, not the teacher.
You should have called the school first thing to make them aware of the absence.

There are no office staff. Small school. Yes, I received an answer.

Oh good grief. So it slipped her mind from an email three weeks ago. Do you have any idea how much she is juggling? Can't you just take it as a positive that if your son did happen to go missing on the way to school that at least they have followed up on it?

It’s not exactly a huge issue is it?

At least they followed up on where he was.

I'm not annoyed. I want to know if I need to apologise!

How can a school not have any office staff?

So it slipped her mind from an email three weeks ago. Do you have any idea how much she is juggling

If the teacher is juggling so much, surely she would put any info about planned absences in a diary to avoid it 'slipping her mind'

OP just politely remind the teacher of the email you sent 3 weeks ago to which she replied, and apologize for her forgetting.

Is this school in the UK? Or is OP going to come and say "Oh we're in McTardy Island...only a population of 12" or something.

No apology - just say as per my email of (date) we are at the Orthodontist today. ds will be in school by (time). See you later.

I would have thought that any form of written communication whether it be an email, not in the book bag (Primary), note in planner (secondary) or a letter would be sufficient notice and the form tutor would have automatically passed it on to whoever is responsible for recording absence.

Certainly I have alsways emailed my children's school (3 different schools) as soon as I have known appointments, and never had any issues.

There's max 130 children in the school. There is a secretary but she only works Mondays and Wednesday am, so absences etc are dealt direct with class teachers. I really assumed there would be a class diary for planned absences, we can't be the only ones who have appointments.

Even with 130 children there should be someone in the office every day.

Maybe not give quite so much notice in future. Monday would have been fine.

Even with 130 children there should be someone in the office every day.

Agreed-who fields phone calls while all the staff are teaching? There’s MASSES of paperwork that needs to be managed. Two mornings a week is nowhere near enough to make a school run.

Wow you've made this difficult!

I would have sent a note/email yesterday saying 'Jonny has a appointment tomorrow, and will be in school at 11'.

If you can send an email, you can send an iCal calendar note they could put in their diary (depending on how their client is setup, it can happen automatically).

I've had this happen several times with dd's orthodontic appointments. We have to tell the class teacher so that she can arrange for dd to leave at a certain time. Teacher forgets to tell the office. They ring us, we explain, they're happy.

Not a particularly big issue, just one of those things.

OP: ‘This is how things are dealt with at the school my child attends and that I deal with on a daily basis’.

Half of MN: ‘Well I don’t know which school it is, where the OP lives or anything about the situation, but she MUST be wrong!’

What was the point in emailing so far in advance? I'm not surprised she forgot. An email the day before would have been more useful.

It seems ridiculous that a teacher can't write "Henry at dentist" in a diary when they receive an email, even if they have to turn over a few pages. So no, I wouldn't be apologising.

You have done absolutely nothing wrong. The teacher forgot- it happens - but you don't need to feel bad about it.

However I would expect an all school email later in the day subject headed: appointments in the school day coming up with a new procedure for informing them. (And if it's anything like my kids school managing to make it seem like you should have known this procedure even thigh they just invented it )

You don't need to apologise OP.

You've followed the procedures of the school. It isn't hard at all to write "X at dentist" in a diary when the email is received, especially as she's replied to the email.

If you're following the school's own system, then the problem is that system, not you.

Most schools get folk to ring in or notify them on the day for a reason.