To think that teachers...

[mychildrenarebarmy]

shouldn’t be replying to work emails over the weekend? Seriously teachers, it is the weekend. If a parent has emailed you at 8.30pm on Friday night don’t feel the need to reply during your weekend. You have more than enough time of our children taking your time and attention during the week. You then spend hours planning and marking work. You need to take time out where you can because teaching is a bloody demanding profession with too many demands on your time.

My reason for posting - I emailed my son’s Maths teacher at 8.30pm on Friday evening. I got a reply Sunday afternoon apologising profusely for the “late reply”. I did, of course, thank them for the reply but also said that the apology was completely unnecessary.

So, if you are a teacher. Stop it. Seriously. If a parent emails you in the evening or at the weekend they can wait for a reply. They will either understand, or they are a wally.

And if you are that parent who does expect a reply in the evening/weekend. Well, remember everyone needs their downtime.

Thing is, during the week, teachers are , well, teaching. They will be using their weekends to catch up on emails, prepare lessons, plan schemes of work and mark.
I totally agree that parents should not expect quick replies in the evenings and weekends though.

Sometimes, the middle of the night when up with the baby or Saturday mornings when the children are at football etc are better times for me to reply than in the evenings when I’m doing their dinner or bedtime routine. So I do them then or save to draft so they do not ping in the middle of the night. There is not enough time during working hours to reply. Sunday evening many will be planning so have laptop open anyway. Some schools have set times teachers can reply which would annoy me!

But you are right, it’s hard to take real down time for many professions. Especially now emails are so accessible on our phones.

Unfortunately some parents think teachers are on call 24/7. I email our senco a lot to update her on things. Sometimes she replies out of school hours, sometimes she doesn't. I'm always very clear that I don't expect an immediate reply or this is for info only.

What you can do is be hugely appreciative of that teacher as chances are, they're one of the good ones who wants to put every child first.

I do a lot of volunteering in the school; Governor, PTA, reading and generally helping out with lots of things, I'm in and out of school most days. Anyway, if I email the Head or staff, they always reply. I said to the head last week that I wasn't expecting a reply (it was just to send over the application for a funding big we are jointly working on and meant we could access at school). He said similar to above that he always catches up on emails on the weekend or evening because during school hours he doing other things.

Funding bid ... sorry, it's been one of those mornings already 😂

On the occasions I have emailed school, it's been done at a time convenient to me. I would hope the staff would reply at a time convenient to them.
So, yes, I email after the kids gave gone to bed, or at a weekend. But I wouldn't expect a response at that time.

You want a reply during working hours, but evenings and weekends are usually working hours for teachers. Saying that a teacher can’t reply to a parental email on a Sunday is saying that they need to add it to the big list of things to do during the week when they are also teaching.

But when should they answer??? As a teacher I was on the go all office hours. Doesn’t any of the teacher moaning make sense to you? If you don’t do emails and admin at the weekend/evening, it simply isn’t going to happen in office hours.

Oh noble I think the OP was coming from the 'Teachers have enough to be doing' place rather than wanting a reply at her convenience.
Dd was telling me that her head teacher has targets for replying to emails which seemed a bit far fetched but she is 12.

But if you don’t want a reply to your email in the evening or weekend, then the only possible solution is to not email the teacher at all.

I'm a teacher who tries not to email at weekends. My phone is connected to my email in case of emergency so I get work emails from parents at all sorts of times. I find it hard to switch off when that happens and some emails are particularly stressful. Could you perhaps write the email when you have time and then set it to deliver at a specific time? Or else save it as a draft and press send the next day/during work hours?

AornisHades is correct. I am absolutely not complaining that the teacher replied at the weekend. I’m saying they shouldn’t have to or even feel they have to. Teachers workloads are insane. The requirements on them have become so great that they need to do things like emails during evenings/weekends. It really isn’t fair. A good teacher cares about their pupils, and being able to give 100% in any job relies on having some time out.

When I sent the email it didn’t even occur to me that I would get a reply before today. If I’ve got anything from this (my email and this thread) it is that in future I will be sure to say I don’t expect a reply over the werkend, and to learn how to set my emails to send at a particular time.

Like PP have said durring office hours they are teaching and in meetings. It does not matter when they reply to emails they problem is that they have to reply to emails and that they have such an insane workload.

But when do you want a reply if not evening/weekend? While the teacher is teaching? During their lunch break?

Send it during working hours then? Just save it to drafts if you're busy. I'd find it annoying and inconsiderate to send emails on a Friday night.

If I’ve got anything from this (my email and this thread) it is that in future I will be sure to say I don’t expect a reply over the werkend, and to learn how to set my emails to send at a particular time.
I'd send it at the time you write it because then they can reply when they want, but definitely make it very clear that you're not expecting a reply. And like OP did, do thank them! So many people can't be bothered to say thank you these days - if you can't be bothered to say thanks then they may not bother responding to your next request, or that of anyone else. If someone does something for you anywhere, say thank you.

Please do not send it when you write it unless it's an emergency. I cannot tell you how many evenings have been ruined with parent emails - even the more innocuous ones. I don't understand the need to send an email at night or the weekend if it isn't an emergency. Teachers do work hard at the weekends and evenings but we choose what to do and when so we still have control over our time. Once emails pile in we no longer get to choose how we spend our time. I would say the same for any professional or person in employment. Emailing out of hours just doesn't seem necessary. It feels as though people need to get stuff off their chest to make themselves feel well at the expense of my wellbeing. I've had the same conversation with colleagues who insist on emailing at whatever time they fancy.

I'm surprised parents are given teachers' email addresses at all, TBH.

Would it not be better for any inquiries to be directed to the main office for a bit of triage (i.e., is this important/relevant/something that should be dealt with by someone other than the teacher themselves/etc.)?

It's about managing expectations. If teachers start replying to emails in evenings/weekends, then it becomes the norm which then causes ill feeling when a reply isn't as quick in the future. Immediate or knee-jerk replies also mean you may write something you come to regret or may mean you didn't think it through properly.

Nothing to stop you drafting your reply and putting a delay/time on it so that the reply is sent at a future date/time, such as 8.30 Monday morning.

I run a small business and NEVER send an immediate reply to any client. I learned the hard way 20 years ago when I first started it. I may well draft the reply straight away, but it will stay on the server as a draft before it's actually sent a few hours later. That gives me time to ponder my reply and the opportunity to edit it once I've given it proper thought. It also stops the client expecting instant answers.

I cannot tell you how many evenings have been ruined with parent emails

Yes, and I've had countless nights ruined by client emails - it's not just teachers/parents. The answer is just not read them when you're not in the state of mind to deal with them, whether because you're already busy, doing something else, tired, stressed or whatever. I won't open my email system late at night for example as I found that even simple emails can affect my sleep. The answer is in your hands - you don't need to check for emails!

If I stuck replies to parents in my drafts folder to ponder and edit, that would just increase my workload further, as would having to schedule it to be sent at a date and time that wouldn’t make the parent feel guilty.

Reply, send, done, tick that one off the list.
Or decide whether replying at this particular point will cause issues, leave it in my inbox, forget about it, remember at the end of the week and think shit I never replied, then have to reply at the weekend anyway.

As you're discussing this, I thought I'd ask how long is acceptable to wait for a response before emailing a teacher again?

@Kazzyhoward I did actually say my comments applied to all people who work - not just teachers. I also said I don't have the luxury to ignore my emails or not access my inbox. I wish I did. Sorry if I misread your message as being focused on my post.

Why were you emailing a teacher at 8.30pm. Can't you keep with in office hours yourself?

We can't access email at home. It's simple. Emails get replied to within a day or so depending on how urgent/ busy It is.