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.

@Poppinjay

Lol! Indeed.

Crazy thing is that I’ve never pandered to the parents or SMT. I’ve always done things MY way and I’ve consistently had the highest GCSE pass rate in my school for the last 17 years.

I care about the kids I teach, not in a sparkly, huggy, fuzzy way...but professionally.

The time I don’t spend pandering to pushy parents, is instead spent differentiating the work so that children of all abilities can access it.

My time is spent marking and giving feedback which allows a child to develop independently and a deeper understanding of a topic.

My time is used to support children in building resilience and preparing them for a workplace that isn’t going to put up with excuses.

Because I’m not wasting time responding to pointless emails, I have time to sit with the children, get to know them and speak directly to them. Then they can share their problems, worries or even happy stories with me and I get to know them better.

So, whilst you might think my attitude to responding to parental emails is poor, I can assure you that it is this attitude that has allowed me to excel in other areas of my profession and achieve the results I have. Because my time is directed to exactly where it needs to be spent. The pupils.

Well I’ve been rapped over the knuckles for emailing a reply to my principal at 11.30pm (when I thought of it.). I didn’t expect the idiot to be reading her emails at that hour of the night...

But she’s an admin principal and assumes we lowly class teachers have nothing better to do during the school day besides reading and replying to emails...except I’m rather busy teaching/preparing lessons for my class!

@DBML

To be fair you didn't just talk about pushy parents. You talked about parents who's child had just lost a close relative or who was being bullied at lunch time. That's completely different from parents who email in because little johnny only got 60% on a test he didn't study for. Totally reasonable for the former to expect a little bit of support from their child's teacher and I can't imagine there would be so many of these emails that they would prevent you supporting students.

How ridiculous - we all have to manage our own time, and choose when to read emails. I work with international partners - they often email in the middle of the night. I read their emails when I start work in the morning.

It's how most of the world works! You don't check your email if you're not working (unless you want to!). Perhaps the school need lessons in how email works.

@HandfulofDust

I never said that I’m unsupportive to those who have lost family, or that I don’t care.
I said that those emails should be whole school and that information shared with all staff.

What if little Johnny comes into school on Wednesday after losing his nanna, but I don’t read my emails until after school that day? Perhaps my inbox is so full up, it might take me a few days to get through them all. No teacher now knows about this issue.
It’s inappropriate to not go through the office or SMT so that everyone can be informed in good time and unfair for the teacher to have this additional responsibility.

That’s not heartless. That’s practical.

@Mooseflake

We are not in customer facing positions and responding to emails is not part of our job description. It is additional work often carried out during unpaid times. It is not the same as other jobs.

[quote DBML]@Mooseflake

We are not in customer facing positions and responding to emails is not part of our job description. It is additional work often carried out during unpaid times. It is not the same as other jobs.[/quote]
Ok so either:

1. Tell parents you are not willing to respond to emails as it is not part of your job description [really? communication with parents is not part of your job description...? are you sure?]

1. Tell parents that you are only able to respond to emails during specified hours of your working day. Like other professions do.

I wouldn't expect an email from my GP, Solicitor, Bank manager, or anyone else who works regular hours in the middle of the night. Neither would I expect a reply from my children's teacher. But I would expect to be able to send an email at a time that is convenient to me..!

Why don't they get their IT to set up emails only coming through at that time . I know it is too much for teachers to get emails all the time but most parents are at work in school time!

We are not in customer facing positions and responding to emails is not part of our job description. It is additional work often carried out during unpaid times. It is not the same as other jobs.

So then why do parents have your email address? If your school publishes them then your issue is with management.

So, whilst you might think my attitude to responding to parental emails is poor, I can assure you that it is this attitude that has allowed me to excel in other areas of my profession and achieve the results I have.

No. I think your attitude to co-production with parents stinks and I have little doubt that a significant number of students have been left with their needs unmet in your classes if your attitude to working with those who know them best is genuinely reflected in how you post.

I'm also quite sure that, in your mind, the blame for every failure, every student that has had to move to a different class and every student who has become too anxious to attend, rests squarely with the parents.

@DBML - We are not in customer facing positions and responding to emails is not part of our job description. It is additional work often carried out during unpaid times. It is not the same as other jobs.

And this is exactly the sort of attitude that gives teachers the reputation of being special snowflakes. It's a shame, given the vast majority of teachers are reasonable.

I’ve emailed DC’s homework to my DCs teacher just the other week.

The teacher had set work that needed to be done on a computer - create a PowerPoint presentation about topic x; and we couldn’t submit it online because we were having some technical problems with the online learning platform the school use.

So I emailed the teacher to say we were having technical problems and attached a copy of the PowerPoint.

I didn’t consider printing it off and sending it in. My assumption was that they wanted it to be submitted electronically given the nature of the task and the whole online learning platform thing.

@Poppinjay

You clearly know best.

@OchonAgusOchonO

No, the vast majority of teachers are not reasonable.
They are overworked, unappreciated and taken advantage of.

@DBML - No, the vast majority of teachers are not reasonable.
They are overworked, unappreciated and taken advantage of.

More snowflakery.

Loads of jobs have crap elements. While teaching is a hard job, it is certainly no harder than a huge number of other professions. Most of the teachers I know work fewer hours than dh or I work. We both do a significant amount of unpaid overtime and neither of us get the amount of holidays a teacher gets.

Some people appreciate the job teachers do, some don't. Same applies to nurses, doctors, lawyers etc etc. Teachers are not unique in that.

Anyone who allows themselves to be taken advantage of professionally needs to look at their boundaries and work at setting them appropriatly.

It's the whinging that seems to be unique to a certain small, but vocal, subset of teachers. You don't really get that in other professions.

Become a teacher, Ochon. There's a critical shortage of them after all.

Which is weird, given how much holiday they get.

I received an email from dc class teacher last night past midnight.
something automated regarding a planned field trip.
should I tell school to only send during office hours?

@noblegiraffe - Become a teacher, Ochon. There's a critical shortage of them after all.

What an odd reply. I don't want to become a teacher. Never said I did. Equally, I don't want to become a doctor, a lawyer, a stockbroker or any of the othe myriad professions I chose not to follow. I like the job I have, warts and all.

@OchonAgusOchonO

But that’s the point isn’t it?
I say that I don’t believe parents should be able to email teachers directly. I say I choose not to engage for the most part. I’m not going to allow myself to be taken advantage of and I control what I will and won’t do.

And for choosing that, I get considered a lesser teacher. A pp is glad that I have decided to leave the profession.

So it’s a no win situation for teachers. Parents want teachers at their beck and call. They want to treat it like a customer service position. They want teachers answering emails and treating their child as if they are the only pupil in the school. They do expect a reply within a few hours. They do want your attention at the weekend.

And when you simply say ‘no’, you become a terrible teacher. Call it snow flakey, call it what you like. That’s how it is and younger less experienced teachers (as well as inexperienced SMT) are constantly doing more administrative work at the detriment of actual teaching and learning.

I don’t compare what I have to do with the shit other jobs have to put up with. It’s not a race to the bottom after all.

We have a system at our school that if a child has a positive case it goes to the head who then will text us on our phones. We have been specifically told not to look at emails at weekends and evenings.

Yes some of us do, and some respond. I read them but don't respond. I'm trying to get out of the habit of doing that though as I know that negative emails will impact my weekend ( although I'm lucky I haven't had any yet this year) but my parents know that I will normally respond by 8am the following week day.

I also don't want to respond to a parent at 11pm at night because 1) they might have their emails on their phone and wake them up - so it works both ways and 2) I don't want them to think I'm a bad teacher being up so late I can't their kids properly the next day 😂

I think the school definitely worded this wrong. Parents should be able to email at any time, and emails sent through work hours should be answered that day during work hours , and emails sent after that should expect replies the following work day. Urgent requests should always go through admin in my opinion.

puffinkoala

6pm on a Sunday evening isn't ok.

According to a lot of people on here it is OK.

It is what emails are for and you should suck it up.

Remember on MN it would be your fault for opening the email.

I think it's weird to be able to email teachers. What happened to the good old days when you had a parent teacher meeting twice a year and otherwise dealt with the school secretary? I dont feel parents should be able to contact teachers directly.

PS Not a teacher
PPS I do also agree that teachers seem disproportionately whiny. You dont hear nurses or police officers droning on about their working hours

Seems strange as email is meant to be a method of communicating between 2 or more parties at times that suit the individual rather than everyone.
Parents email me whenever, i check regularly because we have to now have access and check often due to changing situation of covid. Occasionally you will get an email or seesae message that stresses you and you will stress until you pass it on/speak to slt but that's life. I am lucky to have 1 class and a good relationship with all parents in it. Only time things went a bit wrong was in lockdown when a parent messaged at 11pm on a Sunday as urgent, I replied, stupidly, and got conned into preping and sending 2h of work tbere and then but did draw the line at the next request.
Personally being in touch with parents has always been a daily thing for me and i would be more stressed not knowing what is happening.
As to the teachera conplain more than others, i don't think they do it's just noticed more because if 1 complains everyone picks up on it. Seems it is human to moan.

What an odd reply. I don't want to become a teacher

Clearly not, Ochon. But you do want to tell teachers that they 'have it no harder than other professions' and certainly not as hard as you, and that teacher complaining about working conditions are merely being snowflakey.

And yet there's a critical shortage of teachers. Given your view of the working conditions of teachers (no worse than other jobs and with better holidays), you might be prompted to wonder exactly why that might be.