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.

As a result of this I can’t sleep if I’ve not replied because I worry what will happen as a result.

I assume OFSTED told the parent to get to fuck. And nothing else happened? Brush it off and continue as you were.

Hmmm... sounds like a very controlling headteacher who probably has a high staff turnover. Especially in these times, all children deserve a happy school. And trading parents like naughty children to be scolded is not all helpful for anyone.

You aren't by chance at a C of E school in West London?

That is ridiculous, it’s a bit like saying you can not call a company out of hours and leave a message on the answer machine!
The point with email is you can send it whenever convenient and they can read it and reply when ever convenient for them. They of course have no obligation and should not be expected to reply out of work hours.

It would be better if urgent emails went to SLT (on one email address they could all access) and they share the responsibility. At my daughter's old primary school there were 5 members of SLT so could easily divide the task but that might not work in a smaller school.
Would it take that long to skim the emails though and see if any are urgent? That's a genuine question by the way as I don't know how many emails teachers receive out of hours.
I do think parents should be able to email when they want but shouldn't expect a response until the teachers are back at work (so no evenings or weekends).
Depends on the teacher though. Last year I emailed my daughter's tutor and he emailed me back at 8pm. I was really impressed but also hoped he hadn't done that just because he thought I expected it.

I think tbe problem can arise when different teachers have different reactions. I o ly ever read or respond to work emails in school hours. I had one colleague who read and responded to every email as it arrived. Including Sunday evenings which must have confused parents. So Ms SoandSo is great she answers straightaway but that Ms Read doesn't.
And some parents really really do expect an answer immediately. They think we have secretaries.

I have worked in a school where rude parents would have 1 too many glasses of wine in the evening and fire off a rude email.

Perhaps they are trying to protect their staff and break that pattern.

A lot of schools also have a IT policy that prohibits work stuff on personal devices. It's not just limited to education. It also includes not using work devices for personal stuff, letting other members of the household use them and more.

Unless you have it in writing it's always advisable to follow work policies and contracts to the letter to cover your own ass. Obviously there are times that "rules" need bending.

The HT who gave the parents Ofsted details had to as part of their job, but they should have been more supportive to you. Chances are the parents were just spouting crap and Ofsted wouldn't have been contacted. And if they were so what? They aren't going to come in and fire you. If the HT didn't tell you to basically ignore them and gave you a bollocking that is an issue that needs to be dealt with.

I can imagine that some teachers may leave school at 4pm, then have 4 hours family time, then do work 8-9:30.
Others may just stay at school until 5:30 (or 6, or 7).

Who are we as parents to guess the working pattern of a teacher?
Which is why teachers as professionals need to take ownership over when they read/respond to parental emails. And HTs need to take the lead in ensuring teachers are guided to not feel a need to read and respond at all hours.

We home Ed so I’ll preface this that I really don’t know the current classroom situation but surely the answer to this is one emergency contact for the whole school (eg safeguarding, covid, etc) with teachers on a rota for being in charge of checking- perhaps a burner phone with email so those without data can send a text also? And teachers check their emails at their convenience and safeguard their own personal time 🤷‍♀️

Hi, I’m a college lecturer and I think it’s ridiculous. What I tell my students is that they can message me whatever time they like, but don’t expect a reply if it’s not during 8:30-5:30. So they can send an email to me at like midnight. I don’t care because I’m not going to be checking it until the following day! Also I turn notification off on my Microsoft Teams between unsociable hours so I don’t even get notifications for it. So it’s manageable and asking for them to do that is ridiculous because you may have a job where you don’t have access to a phone/laptop etc.

On the very few occasions I've emailed a teacher, I have only ever emailed them between 8-5pm. Even to the point that I've drafted an email at 8pm and made a note to send it first thing in the morning. It's shit when you can't switch off from work, much better to deal with things first thing the next day.

I have never heard of e mailing teachers!
Mind you I’m old guess that’s why.

Ignore it the easiest option would be for the school to tell staff to only logon during work hours .

that is crazy. The school should be reminding people not to expect a response out of working hours but shouldn't forbid emails to be sent. if the teacher doesnt want to see emails after work.hours then they dont have to open their inbox.

The thing is, some people will send an email, regardless if the time, and when they don't receive a reply within a few hours, will be extremely unreasonable about it. I think the school are simply trying to remind parents that teachers aren't 24/7 at their beck and call. At the same time though, the school needs to be supporting teachers in not feeling as though they have to read and reply to emails immediately, at whatever time that may be. Perhaps they are doing a double pronged approach, advising teachers to only read and reply within those hours and trying to encourage parents to only email within those hours. Sadly it's always the badly behaved few ie the unreasonable parents, who negatively impact things for everyone.

It's a massive staff wellbeing issue. Unlike many other professions, teachers often get frankly nasty emails from parents. I think people get more emotional because it's stuff that affects their kids and don't realise how they're coming across. We've have teachers up all night worrying about abusive emails received late at night (the person sending it probably wouldn't have considered it abusive but the recipient did). I was also on a zoom call late one evening with our headteacher (I'm a governor and that's when she requested the call) when she received an email from a parent; she was visibly upset but didn't want to discuss it until she'd had a moment to reflect. And this is a very matter of fact, sensible experienced headteacher. Teachers are often online late preparing work or dealing with admin so it's hard to ignore new emails pinging in. Teachers are all under so much pressure at the moment, I'd respect their wishes.

Its up to the school how they manage their incoming emails. They can manage their recipients expectations by putting on an out of office message and work offline.

@Rosebel

It would be better if urgent emails went to SLT (on one email address they could all access) and they share the responsibility. At my daughter's old primary school there were 5 members of SLT so could easily divide the task but that might not work in a smaller school. Would it take that long to skim the emails though and see if any are urgent? That's a genuine question by the way as I don't know how many emails teachers receive out of hours. I do think parents should be able to email when they want but shouldn't expect a response until the teachers are back at work (so no evenings or weekends). Depends on the teacher though. Last year I emailed my daughter's tutor and he emailed me back at 8pm. I was really impressed but also hoped he hadn't done that just because he thought I expected it.

The problem is the difference between what's "urgent" and what parents think is "urgent". Things that are urgent: a child is missing, a child is hurt, a child has been arrested etc. Things parents think are urgent: my car has broken down and my children might be late tomorrow, my son doesn't remember if he needs his inside or outside PE kit tomorrow, is chess club running this week?, my son has been entered for foundation GCSE maths and I want him to do higher, my son got a detention for tomorrow and I don't think he deserves it, my daughter is on her period and so needs to be treated extra nicely...

Why are people so quick to charge in with “...if teachers can’t manage their time...” there is so much aggression towards teachers and I just find it ridiculous. If the head teacher at this school has made a decision then just get on with it or raise a complaint directly to the school. Asking people on here about it is slightly pointless. Even if everyone agrees with you, what difference will that make?

I would say the issue is that parents are sending abusive emails. The time of day they send them really isn't the problem. I do think you could probably expect teachers to have the ability to just turn off notifications and not check their emails outside of working hours. It's what everyone else does. Parents should also be expected to behave in a reasonable manner and only send professional emails to teachers and to realise that they aren't entitled to an immediate response (even during working hours).

Completely stupid and badly organised

Manage expectation, don't expect an answer from the school: out of office hours
from teachers: any other time that the 1 hour window they can use (teachers are busy... teaching, not faffing around with emails, give them a break!)

If it's urgent CALL, don't email

It's utterly bizarre and a bit worrying if the school can't manage emails and the point of them - for a place suppose to teach children, how behind are they with basic knowledge!

I work freelance as do many of the people I know in my sector. I noticed an email signature this week that said something like: I often send emails outside of office hours due to my working pattern, this suits me but is not something I expect of others. I think I'll steal it! But also surely teachers could have a similar thing but the opposite? Such as emails will be read and replied to during xxx hours.

I feel like the whole point of email and text communication is so you can send when it's convenient for you and somone can reply when it's convenient for them.

the whole point of email and text communication is so you can send when it's convenient for you and somone can reply when it's convenient for them.

100% that!

@Smileandtheworldsmileswithyou

Why are people so quick to charge in with “...if teachers can’t manage their time...” there is so much aggression towards teachers and I just find it ridiculous. If the head teacher at this school has made a decision then just get on with it or raise a complaint directly to the school. Asking people on here about it is slightly pointless. Even if everyone agrees with you, what difference will that make?

Its not about teachers. If a person in any profession tried to manage their comms like this would get the same reaction.

*The problem is the difference between what's "urgent" and what parents think is "urgent".
*Things that are urgent: a child is missing, a child is hurt, a child has been arrested etc

Ludicrous. Utterly fucking ludicrous.

My child is missing... I'll email the teacher thought no parent ever.

You're taking the piss.