To have asked DS’s school to stop calling us?

[Syncrows]

I was very polite but they keep calling and to be honest it’s a little irritating.

I requested the other day and said I’d call if we needed anything but still the daily phone calls continue - AIBU?

Our school policies state that teachers should never communicate with pupils using their own personal mobile/phone or email address.

An additional policy has now been written to cover online teaching too.

As a governor parents only have access to my governor email. No way would I let them have my phone number, I don’t want random parents phoning me at 4am to rant at me, it’s enough getting their emails at that time.

We have a new addition to the safeguarding policy and depending on who is at work and has been given responsibility for this. School should be doing risk assessments on certain children, supporting parents with work and Ofsted are doing home calls on children with SS involvement.

FSMs provision over the holidays needs checking as this is falling to schools until the vouchers start after the holidays.

If people can't get their FSM at home you need to review how this is provided.

So lots of safeguarding has taken on a new slant depending on the school, the staff, the provision and the parents situation.

If school agree teachers are to phone that is up to them and their policy and the new situation.

There needs to be provision if the SLT go down and hence there is more sharing of tasks as others are asked to step up and share the work load.

We have many contingency plans on the go and now we have children from another school with us. That was not on the books last week but you have every changing plans ready just in case.

You have a DH problem. Not a school problem.

We’ve had no phone calls at all! Didn’t realise they were supposed to be. Thought it was normal.

Some schools may only be phoning vulnerable families or not got a formal system in place yet. But I would be surprised if this goes on until September that schools won’t be contacting at least some families.

I don’t think some parents realise how much work goes on in schools that is not directly linked to education. Schools can be instrumental in identifying children at risk. With schools closed until September it is a very scary thought that some of these children might not be seen for 5 - 6 months. Also more and more children will become vulnerable in that time period too, so schools need to be mindful of that.

On behalf of all teachers out there. Schools have a safeguarding legislation in place to insure all children are called and spoken to at least once a fortnight. Children that are vulnerable E.g EHCP are spoken to twice a week

I am a foster carer and look after children with very complex needs. I have yet to have a phone call from the school about any of them.

I'd guess the teacher is calling from home but withholding number. It's still a waste of their time and frankly bordering on harassment if parents have asked them not to. If school can interact with kids they can reasonably expect to do so every day if kids are supposed to be in school. Parents don't have any duty to interact with school every day. If it seemed likely to do any good I'd say make the most if it but it sounds like management make-work for teachers who can't teach.

YANBU, but the easiest way to deal with it is to let all calls from unknown callers go to voicemail. You are expending a lot of energy on trying to stop the school calling you. Isn't it easier to ignore them?

You've already explained to them that you need to work and can't be receiving daily phone calls from them, so it won't come as any surprise to them when you stop answering.

As parents, under the current circumstances you have no obligation to ensure your son has done the work the school sets anyway. No doubt if the two of you have decided that it's important and possible for your son to do it, your DH is tackling that, and if not then your son is doing whatever work is appropriate. Neither of you really needs the school's constant calls.

I’ve got 3 “children” the only phone call I’ve had was for my 17y/o his tutor rang to ask him directly if he was managing his course ok. They only rang me because he’d given them the wrong number. The tutor is going to ring once a week in his usual time slot with her. My younger 2 are 12 and 16. I got an email from the school when they closed saying work was being set over firefly portal and form tutors would email the students twice a week asking them how they are doing ( welfare check) my youngest got his emails and responded my 16 y/o has had no contact at all. We are however about to start our 2nd week of Easter hols so we’ve only done one week of online school. The secondary school has 7000+ pupils in so I’m not sure ringing them all everyday is possible but maybe after Easter once a fortnight would be good but I can see that now they’ve cancelled GCSEs they probably won’t be too bothered about my 16 y/o as he was due to start study leave after Easter anyway.

God we’ve been completely abandoned by the school. Had no work after the initial pack brought home (finished in 2 days) and no contact.

Daily seems excessive to me, especially if some stuff is being done online so they can see. Weekly contact seems a good idea.

YABU taking a minute phone call whilst working is no big deal! You seem to be able to MN during the day, so you're not that under pressure.

I think my sons HOY rang once towards the end of the first week the were off and that is fine.

Daily I’d be blocking the calls. I don’t answer my phone at the best of times and once my children are home as they are now, there is nothing else that I deem important or that people need to urgently get hold of me so I either switch off totally or have it on DND so straight to voicemail. I’m already drained etc from CV and mum passing from CV and I simply don’t want to speak with them or having them disturb me when I’m taking a much needed sleep.

What I don’t like about all this is as it we are just expected to know that the government has added xxx rules. Send a group call or something stating we will be doing safeguarding calls then at least parents have a heads up, but if I kept getting daily calls under the guise of I’m just checking to see your child is working, and I know all the work has been done and can be viewed online by the teachers and there isn’t any SEN issues then I Don’t blame any parent that asked them to stop.