Large school parents group

[OwlBabiesAreCute]

Friend and I are setting up school parents group for new starters (secondary) for the usual questions, chat etc. Approx 250 children in the year..

Not sure if Facebook or WhatsApp is better as it's such a big group. What does your school do / which would you prefer?

YABU - Facebook
YANBU - WhatsApp

Or please comment with experience / other options!

I think Dd's is what's app, but is a small school. I suspect FB may be easier or with so many people, phones will be going constantly and you can ignore FB more easily.

Gotta be WhatsApp. I can easily ignore it, Facebook not so much.

I probably wouldn’t bother, why does anyone need to be in a 250 person group chat? Surely the only thing relevant is people in the same class at a push.

Whats app with 250 people on it would be a nightmare, even if you mute it.

FB is declining in popularity so how many people would use it I don't know, but it would less invasive/easier to ignore for people and then only look at it when they need to.

Either way it sounds like a nightmare. Do it by class!

I dread to think what a What's App group with 250 people on it would be like. My family WA with 30 people in it is bad enough. You just get lost in a tide of other people's photos of their breakfast or new kitchens.

This, I can’t imagine anything more horrific

250 person WhatsApp is unmanageable, you'll miss important stuff, Facebook is better as the comments are on the post so you don't miss the main point with people commenting "me too" etc

I’d go WhatsApp as a lot of people shying away from social media and least with WhatsApp you can mute if you want too.

Ours did a whole year fb page with a WhatsApp group just for the tutor group.

Although the WhatsApp group wasn’t used much after year 7.

For secondary? Neither.

I'll either contact the school directly if I have a question or check on their website/Facebook page.

I definitely wouldn't set this up. We've never needed a whatsapp group for secondary.

The army cadets group is bad enough and there's only 30 odd in that.

Just do one between your friends if you must. It'll just be full of people who ask questions about emails they haven't bothered to read.

I wouldn’t bother. There’s not nearly so many different things as primary and they’re supposed to start taking responsibility for themselves. If DD isn’t sure she messages her friends or her teachers via Google classroom. Homework will be different for different classes - it will be a nightmare to manage.

dont bother trying to get all on it - it will be a nightmare. It’s quite different to primary school WhatsApp groups. Just keep your circle of friends or those moving up from the same primary if you really want to.

I wouldnt join a secondary parents group. Also don’t have Facebook any longer

A private Facebook page would be sensible, rather than a message facility. WhatsApp or FB messenger would be too annoying and you would have to filter through a lot of rubbish to get to information you need.

200 year group intake here from a 15 mile radius. We just have a small group (tiny just 10 parents) WhatsApp group and post reminders about school photos, staff training days and maybe a bit of a moan. There's nothing else really to chat about. No school fairs, no parent viewing sports day, no end of term picnic. There is also a newsletter which sets out schedule of important dates. We dont need much else. And we are all first time secondary parents. It's just so much different to primary/juniors. That was the shock. Our babies all grown up and independent. There's a Facebook group which isn't used much (at all) . We have parent pay/its learning that school use to send out messages etc.

Someone set up a y7 WhatsApp class group for my DDs intake but honestly it's not needed at all. The students get everything communicated by Google classroom and we have a parent app we can check as well as the school emails/ text messages and their actual website. It's very different from primary in my experience. WhatsApp and Facebook n large numbers generally just encourage moaning .....

Def neither! For year 7, who would join? The school would actively discourage in secondary, mild disapproval at primary tempered by the usefulness for pta etc.

A group of us set up a year 7 group, as well as had just a handful from the same primary going to the same senior school. The kids are going into year 10 and we’ve barely used it since those very early days. It’s pointless IMO.

The whole joy of them going to secondary school is you don’t have to partake of this kind of nonsense any more, just wave them off to school and leave them to it.

I wouldn’t join a whole year chat, it isn’t practical, and the unimportant stuff (people repeating what others have said, sharing random shite etc) would make it difficult to find important info. Doing it by class/friendship group feels a bit easier to manage, and I’d do that on WhatsApp, I rarely open FB these days.

Sent too soon.

In all honesty, I agree with PPs, group chats become less needed once they’re settled in high school. I was in one with DS’s friends’ parents, used mainly for organising lifts to the cinema/swimming. Rarely for actual school stuff.

Both sound like hard work tbh. I would probably say Facebook as in WhatsApp if you’re not constantly monitoring chat you can open it and have hundreds of messages.

i think Facebook can be easier to post topics with discussion underneath and easier to scroll through the posts

It will probably end up toxic or not used