to think school should be better at communication?

[purplesequins]

have 3dc at the same school. 3 different years. got an email this afternoon that 'my child has been chosen for an activity together with a limited selected number of students' tomorrow.
it says child needs to be smartly dressed with a white shirt and dark trousers (no uniform school, so we don't have that).
it doesn't say which child and dc are all about doing sports and will only be back way past shop opening times.

aibu to think that school should do better?
and I really would like to know who was chosen

It’s because of the system used to send the email (which won’t have been email). They’d have selected the students from a list, ticked ‘email parents’ and then composed the message.

Easy mistake to make, as it doesn’t tell the recipient which student was selected. Group emails can’t have the student name in either. I try to remember to put the year group in the email title!

thanks giraffe year or class name are already helpful (unless you have multiples).

Yes, they should do better.

Sometimes that doesn't work because (a) they are awfully busy, (b) your child might be replacing someone else who can't go, or (c) they've taken up a last minute opportunity to do something. Better (c) than the HT who says "no, you can't go because parents need two weeks' notice" (very very common).

If this is the norm (ie the day before), it seems a bit disorganised. As a one-off, things like this happen.

@noblegiraffe

It’s because of the system used to send the email (which won’t have been email). They’d have selected the students from a list, ticked ‘email parents’ and then composed the message.

Easy mistake to make, as it doesn’t tell the recipient which student was selected. Group emails can’t have the student name in either. I try to remember to put the year group in the email title!

Depends on the system. If it's Teachers2Parents, you have to type #name to bring it up in the body of the cover email. IIRC, it's something similar for Schoolcomms.

I always put it as a Re: #name in the message body and left the email header line as intended. Ideally, staff writing the emails would give a title such as 'Year 9 Netball Tournament Friday 10th May 2 - 6pm' as a further clue as to what child they were referring to.

Not sure about edulink, I think you need to go into each child's area to know which one they're referring to.

But staff have to know this is the first place...and nobody ever gets actual training, do they?

School communications are awful, always!

Mine are the same 3 children in different years. Mine won an award last week and I had to go into reception to ask which child as it was to be a surprise!

Dd's primary school used to be like this. I reckon they got call after call asking which child that they realised what they'd done and class names started to appear in messages.

very interesting about the school communication systems. sounds awfully complicated.

panic half over, I now know who of my dc it is and we found a whilte polo shirt that will do.
dc smart(ish) trousers are in the wash and will hopefully be dry by tomorrow.

I found this frustrating last year when I got an 'emergency' text telling me someone in my child's class had tested positive and I wasn't to bring them into school (this was at 8am). Didn't specify which class or year group it was.

oh yes, the headlice mails in primary were not much better.

'a child in your child's class...treat child before returning to school'

I always start these messages with "your child in year 7" etc etc. it isn't difficult and the school should do better.

It is due to the software system. In the To: box you choose ‘parents of….’ And choose all the parents the email is going to. You obviously then can’t list names as it’s going to multiple families. I do always refer to the year group in the subject of the email and again in the body.

This is impossible to do when multiple year groups are attending, we have to hope that the Ks2 child in that house who has been told they have been selected for a football match, remembers this for long enough to tell their parent it is them when they ask which of their 3 it is.

I had 4DC at the same primary at one point, the Friday assembly certificate went to parents across the school so it was always as much a surprise for me as it was for the DC!

@tiredanddangerous

I always start these messages with "your child in year 7" etc etc. it isn't difficult and the school should do better.

I work in a school office and do this too. Doesn't work for twins though! If it's a one off then mistakes happen, no biggie. If communication is generally poor it's worth mentioning it, though it sounds like they're aware of their mistake already.

I had an email last year telling me my child in year 10 needed to isolate. I have two of those so still not very helpful. Luckily, our school seem to monitor their emails 24/7 so it didn’t take long to find out!

I'd mention it to the school

I will mention it to school.

I'm sure other parents in my dc year were also confused.

I manage a school system which is used for communicating to parents. It's very easy to add specific names as a merge field. I train other support staff on how to do this all the time. They still send out generic emails though! Drives me mad. Most school staff in my experience are very computer-illiterate.

I had this once. I emailed back asking which child it was. Thankfully it was the one who wanted to do it, not the child who didn't! Otherwise I would have had two cross children that morning.