To be disappointed with the school re trip

[pisspants]

I understand schools and teachers are busy and that it is great they have tried to organise a trip. I am upset on behalf of my dc though. There's an upcoming trip, details of which went out in one email over a month ago, with no further mentions or reminders about it. This week a follow up email went out regarding more details about what to wear for the trip etc which was the first I knew of the trip. I checked the online payment system and was no sign of it on there so called the school and they say the deadline has passed as the bus needed to know numbers etc a while back so my dc will have to miss the trip. I appreciate I missed one email which was sent in the middle of the day whilst I was working so didnt see it. It then got buried amongst all the crappy emails I get every day from everywhere I've ever bought anything from. Because of that my DC now misses the educational trip that almost the whole year is going on? I know I dropped a ball by not seeing the email but I would have expected a follow up email as a reminder of a payment deadline or something at the least?

These things happen. I also dislike the school messaging they send 10 emails - 9 totally irrelevant and 1 has an attachment that is important.
I’d speak to office and/or teacher day before and ask if anyone dropped out. And ask if there’s a no show on day if child can go (can you sign consent/send kit and money just in case)
Make sure they know he’s not going due to your mess up not because you object to trip and if there is a spot you’d love him to go. If not you understand.

You have my sympathy. Yes, you dropped the ball a bit, but honestly schools are so inconsistent with they way they communicate with parents. Sometimes an email from school office, sometimes using some automated platform. Sometimes text messages, newsletters, something on the website, and now podcasts.

I wish they chose one or two methods, or even to send out a text message that says "school trip will be emailed/on the website/on the podcast/stuffed in the schoolbag' just to give you heads up!

I find that really sad, not to care about your wider school community sad

I know, I'm a dreadful mother. Shoot me.

@JaninaDuszejko

I find that really sad, not to care about your wider school community sad

I know, I'm a dreadful mother. Shoot me.

What a strange response. Do you regularly shoot people who make you feel something?

I sympathise op I have 2 kids in 2 different schools and it's often very difficult to keep up. It's spam central.

Covid

Covid

Parking email

More covid

Heres a newsletter

Sorry we it isn't working for some parents here's the news letter again

There's am issue with the app/ phonelines/Internet

Can we have some money please

Heres a reminder we need money

Does anyone have or know anyone who has XYZ

Don't forget to pay for your school dinners

Sorry the menu was wrong here's the right one book your meals

Covid

Over overcrowding at drop off/pick up

Parking

Someone's mother's sisters hamsters best friend is getting married

More covid

I've never known anything like it.

We are now so iver informed about schools we miss information because there's so many emails

@Apandemicyousay

You have my sympathy. Yes, you dropped the ball a bit, but honestly schools are so inconsistent with they way they communicate with parents. Sometimes an email from school office, sometimes using some automated platform. Sometimes text messages, newsletters, something on the website, and now podcasts. I wish they chose one or two methods, or even to send out a text message that says "school trip will be emailed/on the website/on the podcast/stuffed in the schoolbag' just to give you heads up!

Yes, this is something that has been identified at my school - the vast numbers of communication methods, and how they can be streamlined. Its so hard, though, when you have some parents complaining they don't use twitter, some parents complaining they can't install the app, some parents complaining about the environmental impact of sending home paper notes, some parents complaining about getting texts as it makes them worry when their phone beeps 🙄🙄

I would have expected a chaser from the school. The class whatsapp group is good for this as well, and means even though all the other nonsense on there is tedious, I stay on just in case I forget it's world bool day or whatever.

As a side note, I have one email that is exclusively for shopping and one that is just for people I actually know or something related to the children. I get a little bit of "junk" in there, from school camps mostly, but don't miss anything important which I absolutely would if it were all in the same inbox.

Do the school not issue weekly newsletters? Surely it would be shown on the dates coming up. I learned to read everything the school send after missing info about dress up day!

All you had to do was keep track of a few messages from your child’s school.

And of course do her job, which is probably just as complex and demanding as the teacher's job.

I'm a cub leader and even when we chase parents they don't respond

We went paperless a year ago and the system automatically sends out reminders - I still get 10% of parents who don't respond - all they have to do is click a button "yes" or "no" and they can't manage that - I am so tired of it all I've taken a hands-off approach now – I'm a volunteer so if they don't reply they're not going.

Now multiply the above by 50-100 (depending on the size of the school) and parents who don't reply have added that workload to the staff.

I do think that you should have had a reminder OP, but I do see the school's position too

If they really did just send one email I agree with you as emails sometimes go astray. It's all very well for people to say parents should check but it's the child that suffers not the parents when things are missed. It's not difficult to send another reminder. I think schools usually send more than one email though so perhaps you have been more slack than you think.

You should be more on the ball with emails. It’s not like it’s even something that they’ve chased last minute for they’ve given you plenty of notice and if you knew about the trip and hadn’t got an email you could’ve rung or contacted the school yourself sooner.

Nice supportive MN.
You snooze you lose. Yabu. Other parents manage.. lovely.
I've been both sides of this - former teacher, disorganised mum (the two are not unconnected)
From teaching POV for a whole class educational trip, all children would be going unless parents actively said no - parents would be reminded by email, by letter, in person if we hadn't heard from them, until we had a definitive yes or no for every child. Because we understood how easy it is to miss something important if it's buried halfway down a letter, we also made sure stuff like this was sent separately.
OP the school were under no obligation but they could have done better with their communication - maybe you could have a word and suggest that for important stuff like this they always send out a reminder.
As a mum, I needed those extra reminders, I needed my kids to remember flipping world book Day, or bring a blue llama to school day, or whatever it might be, because I have ADHD. Well done all those parents who never forget anything, aren't you all marvellous.
(As a teacher with ADHD, it was exhausting. Lots of lists.)

@kittensinthekitchen “so shoot me” is a fairly well established phrase. I’ve not heard it for ages but used to hear it all the time and in the context used so not really a strange response. Your reply was the odd one (it stood out so much I felt the need to respond directly).

There's a tool called 'unroll.me' that helps you unsubscribe from everything - really simple you just enter your email, it finds all the places that emails you and you can tick/untick the ones you still want. I don't work there but its saved me hours of my life.

Another useful tip, something my husband and I did was to set up a new gmail just for school communication. It has a calendar linked to it and we are both signed into it on our phones. That way we both see everything that comes in and we have a shared calendar for school stuff.

Two email addresses - one for online shopping, and one for personal/important/officialdom. It makes life a lot easier.

Every other parent managed to sort it out without needing reminding, so I don't think you can blame the school. Our school may have chased, but only because the entire trip would be cancelled if a few parents didn't pay. It's happened more than once and the kids' disappointment is heartbreaking.

Agreeing with everyone that it wasn’t just one email. If it were, more people would have missed it. Also, if only one child was missing from the trip at primary school, and nothing had been heard from the parent, wouldn’t most reach out individually?

Learn to organise your email inbox with folders. Basic adulting.

I did this, to deal with the 5 emails a day about stuff that’s not really very important. It meant I missed a few quite important emails. I’ve gone back to not organising the inbox.

If it was just the one email, I'd be annoyed too, as when you have multiple DC at multiple schools sometimes things can get missed. Thats just life, we are not all admin guru's and there have been things in the past I have missed, but luckily the 4 schools my 5 dc attend now all send out reminders for everything, so stuff gets picked up then if its been missed.

For a whole year trip, for a whole day I am surprised this wasn't communicated more than once tbh. I bet they managed to communicate the buying of easter raffle tickets or the £1 you need to bring in for non uniform day multiple times though. Those things are hammered home.

For mine there are multiple places these things appear too, sometimes in letter form sent home, sometimes email, sometimes in the weekly newsletter, sometimes in the app thingy, sometimes its been on a board just outside the classroom for the youngest and no where else, and as I don't drop and collect dc those ones are always missed.

Unfortunately, its too late to do anything about it but I would just mention to the school you are disappointed you missed the (one) email they sent about it, and maybe another time they will ensure they send a couple. Emails do get lost, get put in junk sometimes, you won't be the only parent who missed it i'm sure.

We do also have a group facebook page where its just parents for the youngest dc school, and we have a fantastic mum on there who is a sahm and totally on top of all the school admin! And she always posts a summary of the important stuff we all need to know. Us working mums think she is god. She's definitely getting a bottle of gin again for christmas!

@Whatwouldscullydo Seems to be dealing with the same school as me!

You missed the “here’s a survey for you to fill in about whether we communicate enough”

For mine there are multiple places these things appear too, sometimes in letter form sent home, sometimes email, sometimes in the weekly newsletter, sometimes in the app thingy, sometimes its been on a board just outside the classroom for the youngest and no where else, and as I don't drop and collect dc those ones are always missed.

Sometimes? For mine everything appears in all those places. One email from the school and every related app pings.

@Belladonna12

If they really did just send one email I agree with you as emails sometimes go astray. It's all very well for people to say parents should check but it's the child that suffers not the parents when things are missed. It's not difficult to send another reminder. I think schools usually send more than one email though so perhaps you have been more slack than you think.

Exactly it's the child that suffers. Which is why the parent should check school emails daily.

If your child's father is involved in their life they should also be on the school email list. Ask for school to ensure that they are included on every communication. Both parents should take responsibility for this sort of thing, it is not wife work.

@BoredZelda

Yep, its very inconsistent. I wish it was just one place/communication method for everything. Would make life so much easier.