Is this school newsletter too rude?

[RudeHead]

NC as obviously outing to other parents. This week's primary school newsletter had the following from the head^^ about parents' evening...

Thank you for all the positive comments that teachers received yesterday. They all work so hard for each child in their class. Though I have noticed that there are too many parents not attending the parents meeting and making individual appointments with teachers before and after school This will not be allowed. We start at 1.30pm and finish at 7pm so whatever job you have, you can still make the consultation. I have to keep the workload down for our teachers. If there is a reason why you cannot meet on the designated parent consultation, which is dated in September, then please write to me.

AIBU that this is unacceptably rude? I feel like I should write in or something. I get her point but surely there's a better way to make it?

I don't know why PPs are continuing to give YellowFish attention when it's clear that they're more full of shit than someone who's had constipation for six months.

12 months, surely?

No issue with the letter. Her staff obviously fed up with every second one trying to reschedule. 6 months notice for crying out loud. Sure one parent can organise to be there r a lone parent organise childcare. And if not it sounds like they would accommodate a genuine need.

I love that letter. Teachers have enough to do and often stay till way after 6pm most nights

YellowFish123 do none of the teachers at your DHs school have families of their own?

It must be near impossible for a teacher to combine childcare responsibilities (for their own children) with the levels of out of hours commitments you’re describing, particularly if they’re not getting any overtime paid.

“do none of the teachers at your DHs school have families of their own? ”

Presumably not on 17.5K

IMHO it is completely fine and clear

If the dates and times are given months in advance then plenty of chance to arrange shifts for one parent to go to visit the school

If they can't go then write to the Head and make other arrangements

DH is a police officer. If one of his cases goes to court, his evidence is key, the judge won't be re-scheduling around parents' evening, no. A week long court case just drove a coach and four through our finely balanced childcare arrangements. Thank goodness my parents were available and live close enough to do four school runs that week and look after DS until one of us can collect him.

In jobs like this, block leave is protected but ad hoc leave is not. So if you've booked a week's holiday, court will take that into account, but a random day off mid week, no.

If I got a newsletter like that I'd deeply resent the tone of it.

You are talking about exceptions and an if scenario.. In general most parents can plan. Schools cant plan around exceptional parental circumstances.

Given this thread I think schools should ban parents evening then just call parents in if their child is failing. But then those that are complaining would then complain that they weren't kept in the loop.
At primary teachers have the families of 30 children to manage, plus their own home lives. You have one teacher to manage.

At secondary teachers have countless years and groups.

On top of this is the more constant stuff of working with families in crisis.

Yellow I really think my son would thrive at your husbands school. Which s hook is it??

Loads of parents just claim they can't make it in my children's school as they want longer appointments at their convenience rather than a tight 10 minute slot. I see the teacher seeing parents at 8am for 30 minutes.

Not rtft but I don’t think it’s a rude message either. It’s clear and to the point so there can be no misunderstandings. Genuine inability to meet between 130-7 will be accommodated on an individual basis. Anything else won’t. Perfectly fair. People are obviously taking the piss. These teachers have homes to go to too.

My husband can rarely make parents eveningsd due to work. I feed back anything he need to know. It doesn’t take two parents if one can’t make it. Bearing in mind most wraparound childcare ends around 6pm, there will usually be at least one parent around to meet between 6-7pm. Our school lets kids wait in a communal area as long as they are well behaved. We take books, colouring etc to keep them busy. Single parents with tricky working patterns can write to the head and get special dispensation. Sorted.

Schools are a public service. Teachers are badly paid and often taken for granted by parents. Their pay is not great considering all the extra hours they do and contrary to popular opinion it is not a 9-3 job. If you want to be able to call the shots, send your kids to private school.

And I’m not a teacher btw, I just recognise that if 30 sets of parents per class tried to schedule appointments outside of parents eve, teachers would be working 24 hours year round. And that’s around all the other queries they have to field about billy s wet pants, or johnnys handwriting or barnabys grandads funeral or Chloe’s food allergy (all of these have at some point applied to my kids), marking, ticking the government boxes, planning, preparation, staff meetings, trips and camps, individualised time consuming issues with children with additional needs, etc. I could go on. I shouldn’t need to.

I like how blunt it is. People can be massive time wasters and if I was a teacher it would really piss me off.

I had to leave parents Eve on more than on occasion as the teachers didn’t stick to appointment time, kept me waiting for over 45 minutes. I can’t afford to be late for work. On each occasion they were surprised I left...it didn’t occur to them that people work at various times through the day.

Op I wouldn’t go, if there is something wrong they will soon contact you and the report gives you a written idea of what’s happening

ourkidmolly That is not fair on the teachers, but I can understand it. Because unless the teacher is just saying everything is fine, or mentioning very minor issues, 10-minute slots are not enough really.

What I do dislike is schools and teachers who think parents can make sports day, open days, etc. Let's be honest, who think mums can make it. And if you can't ever, that you don't really care about your child.

DH finds that he attracts a lot of teachers who are stuck in a rut and fed up of sitting in the same classroom all day every day teaching the same lessons.

They have an opportunity to get involved in a much wider range of tasks at DH's school such as home visits. There is also a very limited office staff, so teachers can also carry out marketing, admin and events events management tasks that they wouldn't have the chance to elsewhere, so they can really develop their skills.

So basically the ones who are not up to the job then.

Or teachers who want to move out of teaching.

I’d have no problem if our head wrote to us like that. I think it is extremely rare that both parents are both working and not home until gone 7. I think families where that happens are extremely rare and like the letter said, if it is a genuine problem, send a letter to the head and they will sort it out. Dh and I have both attended parents evening without the other one and are completely capable of relaying the information to the other one, so it does only need one parent there. For the majority, they will be able to work around the timings and request an early finish/work through their lunch/go in half an hour early so they can make parents evening on time.

Do people think teachers have no life outside school. School set parents evenings so far in advance so staff can sort out their own commitments (like childcare) why should they be having to do this at short notice for all the parents who can’t be bothered to rearrange their jobs to attend parents evening on the correct day?

YellowFish123 and how about teachers who have children of their own? Children who are school age or younger? Has your DH employed any of those teachers?

@Yellowfish123 so is the starting salary of £17500 for qualified teachers?

I think YellowFish123 may have slightly jumped the shark, at this point.

I'm looking forward to the next instalment which has the teaching staff cooking & serving lunch, or possibly swabbing out the bogs, because Mr YellowFish123 doesn't hold with ancillary staff either

“teachers can also carry out marketing, admin and events events management tasks that they wouldn't have the chance to elsewhere, so they can really develop their skills“

@daisypetal321

The starting salary of £17,500 is for all teaching staff, regardless of experience or qualification status. DH doesn't believe that pay should be based on age- instead all teachers have the opportunity to earn performance-based bonuses which can take their pay to over £50,000.

These add-ons are based on staff's output, such as exam results, teaching quality, learning walk evaluations and commitment to the overall ethos of the school, including how much a member of staff has contributed to activities such as marketing/business development, and yes, how many home visits they've performed.