School asking parents to only email teachers during working hours

[cautiouscovidity]

We've had a message from DCs' (primary) school respectfully asking parents to only email the head and class teachers between 8:30-5:30 on school days and not during the evenings / weekends / holidays, for staff well-being reasons (they deserve protected downtime etc.).
AIBU to think that this is ridiculous? I work in a job where I don't always have access to a phone / computer during the working day and so, on the rare occasion that I need to contact a teacher, I tend to email in the evening at home or first thing before I get ready to leave. Obviously I don't expect them to reply out of working hours, or even to read it there and then, but I had never considered that it would be intrusive. In my job I get loads of emails at all times of the day and night and they just sit in my inbox until I am working!
Surely if it's impacting on their downtime so much, then they should just not check their emails in the evening and turn off notifications etc.

From what I read on here and a couple of RL friends, the incivility towards teachers can be quite depressing.

@Daphnise

Why are people e- mailing teachers?

Helicopters....

Errr..

Politeness - eg Dear Mrs Smith, LittleNat is unwell and won’t be in today (so she knows and doesn’t have to phone the office)

Logistics - eg Dear Mrs Smith, LittleNat is going home with OtherChild this evening (so she doesn’t have to phone me for safeguarding reasons when Mrs OtherChild comes to collect her)

....and I’m sure a load of others....

@TheKeatingFive

parents don't need to email us at all. They can email the office. Emails from parents are not part of our core job. I get more than enough emails about work

So don’t respond 🤷‍♀️

If it’s not your job it’s not your job.

Easier said than done though, there will be repercussions and parents know full well that they can basically treat teachers like shit because the teachers livelihood depends on how they react to problem parents. I do agree with you that it sounds easy to not respond but I bet it isn't, the only thing worse than a shitty email is a follow up shittier email with your supervisor cc'd in accusing you of not giving a shit. People just aren't decent nowadays, they lack the social skills to look at the bigger picture and just send out demanding emails

This is ridiculous.

School need to advise parents that emails to teachers will be responded to within 48 hours. Anything urgent should therefore go via reception email or phone.

Honestly I cannot imagine sending out a diktat to my regular clients and journalists who I work with (in similar numbers to a teacher’s cohort of parents) saying ‘don’t email me outside these prescribed times’. Email doesn’t work like that. And it’s a horribly authoritarian outlook. Parents and teachers are partners, or should be.

@Daphnise - Why are people e- mailing teachers?

Last time I emailed a teacher was to get insurance details for a trip he took them on. A few of the kids, including ds, had their bags stolen. The teacher had done all the bookings so the office hadn't the information.

Time before that was to ask the appropriate teachers to complete a form so my ds could apply for DARE, which is the system that allows students to get into uni on lower points if they have a disability. Same for RACE, which is the system to get extra time, permission to type etc in state exams. He didn't get any extras in school so wasn't "in the system".

So no, not Helicopters....

Why are parents emailing in to let class teachers know that their child will be absent that day?

You should be emailing/ringing the office for that. No school I’ve ever worked in (quite a number) has had class teachers deal with absence. You’re just adding time on to their mornings, because they then have to let the office know for you. You’re making them into the middle man.

@MrsTerryPratchett

I am talking office hours. Not the email itself. Why do parents think teachers live in school? They have a home life too.

Teachers, I recommend creating a second email just for students/parents and do not read it until office hours. If the school will let you create one.

Sirzy and Natalia that is mostly school office stuff surely.

You email the form teacher because your child doesn't understand the homework? Rather than putting a note in their book to say X didn't understand the homework? Or asking another parent if it's which worksheet etc..

My last school had an email curfew. All messages went through reception, we were discouraged from direct communication, which is probably a good idea. I had a few parents who emailed the second there was a late mark (child held back to talk to another teacher) or the minute they got results, wanting in depth replies about every aspect of the marking (which they’d already been sent copies of via Show My Homework)

Current school says snooze your emails, there is no obligation to check them outside of school hours. I can’t currently, I refuse to download the app, don’t see why I should look at work emails whilst at home.

'Politeness - eg Dear Mrs Smith, LittleNat is unwell and won’t be in today (so she knows and doesn’t have to phone the office)

Logistics - eg Dear Mrs Smith, LittleNat is going home with OtherChild this evening (so she doesn’t have to phone me for safeguarding reasons when Mrs OtherChild comes to collect her)'

Seriously?

Phone the office! That's what they're there for fgs

To keep this sort of stuff away from the teachers!

Bloody hell.

Ok wow.

@Mistressiggi

Many posters have said don't look at your emails if you don't want a parent's email bothering you. I reply that we actually need to open our emails to do other work. So I'm then told well don't open the emails from parents. The point surely being you know it's there and it hangs over you (seldom do parents email about something good, I wouldn't expect them to, it will be a problem). That's our problem, someone will be along in a minute to say. I guess teachers are as a group exempt from concern about their mental well-being. It's not that hard for the majority of parents to not email in the evenings/weekends. Those with no choice could choose to email via the office FAO the teacher. But why do something to make their life easier? As with everything in life, it will only be a small number of emails from a small number of parents which have led to this request from the HT.

It's not that no one cares about teacher's wellbeing.

No one else in any other type of job expects people to only email them during certain hours. Why should teachers be different? Many people work late and have to catch up at weekends etc, you don't see anyone in any other job requesting that people only email them when it suits them.

I think the problem is the parents who are not like you and who expect instant responses and get cranky when they don’t get them

It will be because of this.

I would assume they're responding to those kind of parents who have been sending messages and expecting a response.

Unfortunately not all parents will respect the policy of staff only answering messages within working hours. Some parents really do complain when their messages go unanswered until the next working day.

School is back to front. Parents email whenever, teachers need to turn off their emails at 5. If they are checking emails all through the evening they need to switch off.

Easier said than done though, there will be repercussions

So you have an OOO that says you will answer in office hours. Where would the repercussions come from?

There will always be unreasonable clients/parents whatever. As a professional, it is your job to manage them. Quite why anyone thinks these types of parents will respond to a request to email only during office hours is anyone’s guess.

Unfortunately not all parents will respect the policy of staff only answering messages within working hours.

And they won’t respect the policy of only sending emails during working hours either.

Some people need a firm hand and a policy put in place to deal with them.

@blueberrypie0112

When I was in school, we didn’t have emails or internet and none of the parents had their kid’s teachers’ phone number, they had to call during their office hours, even if the parents had to work.

When did all this change?

I am guessing you didn't have a pandemic either and parents could have a chat with teachers?

Even back in the older days no one could call teachers during office hours... teachers didn't use to answer the phone whilst in class teaching.

@NiceGerbil

Sirzy and Natalia that is mostly school office stuff surely.

You email the form teacher because your child doesn't understand the homework? Rather than putting a note in their book to say X didn't understand the homework? Or asking another parent if it's which worksheet etc..

No I might send an email saying “Ds really struggled with x part of his homework” just like his teacher may email me to say “we had an issue with this today” so I am aware.

100%, this will only be in response to the parents who are being dicks about getting an immediate response (as though we don’t have enough to do all day), or are abusive via email.

Our school is preparing to send out something similar, though not about emails, but about the online learning platform, just in case we have to go into lockdown again.

They want to inform parents that their children should not be messaging teachers at ridiculous hours of the night to ask questions about their class work, and then be upset that they don’t get a response straight away (happened loads during the first lockdown) because their teachers are asleep/having dinner/with their own families.

My response to anybody moaning about receiving that message would be, it’s not for you to whinge about teachers being too precious about being messaged at midnight about school work, but it is definitely for you to look at your parenting and examine why your child is sending messages at midnight when they should be asleep in bed.

Sirzy that sounds nice- i don't think most schools have the capacity for that type of individual attention though.

Which is maybe not great but how it is.

@Aragog

I think the problem is the parents who are not like you and who expect instant responses and get cranky when they don’t get them

It will be because of this.

I would assume they're responding to those kind of parents who have been sending messages and expecting a response.

Unfortunately not all parents will respect the policy of staff only answering messages within working hours. Some parents really do complain when their messages go unanswered until the next working day.

Why would you care if they complain?

Parent sends email at 11pm.
Teacher, quite rightly, does not read/respond.
Parent goes to principal to complain at 9am.

Principal either:

(a) asks when email was sent and politely tells parent to cop on or

(b) asks teacher about it who tells them email came out of hours the day before and they havn't dealt with it yet. Teacher and principal have a little moan and eye roll about idiot parents.

No big deal.

but it is definitely for you to look at your parenting and examine why your child is sending messages at midnight when they should be asleep in bed.

Talking about precious unless they are 5 years old, why do you care if the kids are up at midnight. In the middle of a lockdown 🤦‍♀️

Send a message stating replies will be sent between x and y hours if you are that precious.

Phone the office! That's what they're there for fgs

No “office” at our school. We are asked to let the teacher know. So no “wow” about it. If your school has different norms, so be it....

Seriously? We had 11-year-olds messaging teachers and trying to use the call feature to get through to them in the middle of the night.

You’re telling me that’s not some shitty parenting right there?

I'm in primary, and my kids' teachers email regularly. Just sending through a piece of work they and my child were proud of, or a resource they might be interested in etc.

Likewise as a parent I've emailed anything of note to them, a resource I've seen, a worry or query etc.

I think the email from the school must have just been worded badly, surely?
I don't see the harm in sending an email at any time of day and the teacher simply picks it up when they log on.