if you are a headteacher, why is it apparently impossible......

[Ncncncagain]

to give parents a reasonable amount of notice for school events that you expect them to attend or any dumb theme day that requires a costume or magenta coloured clothes ? We have experience of 3 schools (private and state primary FWIW), and the administration in all of them is dreadful. Received emails on Monday from 2 schools asking us to attend daytime meetings this coming Monday and Tuesday. So 7 &8 days notice respectively. Nothing on previous newsletters or term calendars. DH and I both work, no where near the schools. We both have a reasonable amount of flexibility with sufficient notice, like a month, but can't do much with only 7 days. AIBU?

Maybe I should have aimed a bit higher than accountancy

You can take half a day off at month end ? Or in tax season? I know several accountants who would love that.

Our school sent a sheet home on Monday night with details of what the children would need to wear in the nativity play on Wednesday. We both work full time, in an area with no childrenswear shops. Ffs why couldn't they have sent the note home on Friday so we had the weekend? Most teachers are working parents themselves with minimal flexibility, so I don't understand how they don't get this!

Our school (state primary) is good at putting dates on the website online calendar and in the newsletter for the next two weeks. So the big things like class assemblies, trips, sports days etc are covered.

What it can’t seem to do is sort out the one teacher who always forgets about their events until a couple of days before, and then has a panic about how the children can’t go unless some parents sign up to help. It’s always the same one (they run a couple of extracurricular clubs my kids attend, so I get a double whammy).

A week notice your lucky,

My Dc are having a Fathers Day Secret shop were the children get to chose a present. I have 2 children in different years and 1 child has bought the letter home, the other hasn't. The money for the gift (£2 per gift) needs to be in on Friday 7th.

But yes school are crap about giving notice about things going on in school.

I have had a letter about a non uniform day later in the month but the 'theme' is so vague it almost useless.

were WHERE even

Ex HT and teacher here....no matter how long in advance I had warning of any event concerning my children I couldn't 'book' to take time off from my job to attend!

@maryann1975

Of course you are a working parent! Do people really make you feel otherwise?

My work calendar would normally be busy at a week's notice so it would be pure luck if I hadn't already commited to something. I think a few weeks to a month allows you to block out the time.

Ah well, I was a single parent for many years and my boys went to a primary school where the eldest was the only SP family in the class, Most of the rest were yummy mummies with no need to work as their DHs earned loadsa dosh.

Sick to death of getting 48 hours notice that they needed to go to school dressed as a Viking/bring a medieval feast/get their parents to attend a foul concert.

middle class professionals with far more autonomy?

This would be me as well, my diary is booked currently 3 months in advance, depending on my days schedule I may be able to get cover for a meeting/project for an hour or so, however I would then need to work over lunch and then into the evening.Most likely however I would not due to the nature of my position.

Would be impossible to attend a meeting with a weeks notice in my job (NHS) unless i was already on my days off. Same as our Emergency Services and Armed Forces, we would not be able too, but i am lucky in the fact my DC school are fantastic and go above and beyond to accommodate those who are not able to attend.

I’m one of these

So am I. However I don't post smug PA comments about people who can't just take days off at random stealth bragging, whilst dropping in a stealth brag of my own,

I am with you on this OP, so frustrating. We do have key dates but I am still unsure of exact date daughters go back to school in sept or special days there after as calendar hasn't been updated as yet..

We have a text message service at school where the school can message parents but we cannot message the school (which I completely agree with or they would be inundated)

We have letters also and a website that "should" be updated regularly.

Told about a football match tonight for my daughter on Friday... luckily my job is more flexible than my husbands so he really struggles with stuff like this!

During my time as school governor the lack of good quality organisational expertise in schools was noted as a problem, not just in the school I was a governor for but other schools in the area (including private).

I worked with local businesses and the the job centre to link up retired / retiring / career break administration professionals (think PAs, secretaries, company secretaries etc) to local schools. In some schools these were created as voluntary positions to allow people to gain experience; in others term time contracts only.

School admin processes and staff can be inefficient (not always). We often found one volunteer / temp hire from high stress industries such as law or finance, after training, could replace 2 or even 3 ‘experienced’ school admins.

Middle class what has that do with someone having a diary booked up three days in advance or have I got lost on the reading?

*months

I completely agree. There are so many little things like ‘DS needs £2 for Xxx tomorrow’ or DS needs a science coat decorated

I want to pay you £200 at the start of the year to forget me and sort these things

Yanbu. I sometimes wonder how FT working parents manage everything.

It’s also not a reminder if you never told us in the first place

Are all these apparent minor hassles and the big stuff along the way really worth it in the end?

@VladmirsPoutine - There’s a shared family calendar and everything goes in there. If the school gives us 1 week notice for things and we can’t arrange work from home or short notice holiday (or, in the case of performances, a grandparent or aunt/uncle to attend instead) then we can’t attend / donate / allow our child to get involved in events we potentially want to.

@Teddybear45 but to your credit that involves indeed a lot of organisation and having your mind focused, in other words - a mental load of sorts. Yes it's not the most arduous task to add little Jim's book week to the shared calendar but adding everything up, yes it actually is. Because his little book week isn't the only thing or indeed the most important thing going on that week, if at all..

Ours gives us all important dates at the beginning of the term that we as parents need to be at it.

Our school sends a list at the beginning of each term and will publish most dates on school website ahead of the term starting. It's a reasonably good system, but having worked in schools, it's far from straightforward setting dates, and sometimes things change.

Yabbers - that sounds like a case of the left hand not knowing what the right is doing. Of course the notice is too short. Probably the people organising the assembly forgot to tell the people who write the newsletter or send out texts and e-mails and nobody realised until the last minute. Alternatively, it is a common gripe of primary schools that parents do not bother to read communications properly and act surprised about events that were clearly advertised several times in every school newsletter for the last term and have also been on the school website for weeks, but apparently the only one the parents read was the final reminder. Or sometimes it's a technology glitch resulting in unwitting radio silence for a small group of parents for a while, or a parent changing their mobile phone number or e-mail address without updating the school and the relevant apps (or assuming the school can change things for them when it is their responsibility and then not twigging for weeks on end that they are no longer receiving a constant barrage of school messages). Given the ridiculous number of little events going on in primary schools all the time, it's not really surprising that communications sometimes go astray, get sent out ridiculously late, or get missed by busy people.