Or is this terrible etiquette!!!

[lizrta]

I feel terrible.

I drafted an email for DS' reception teacher at 20:40 this evening - but accidentally pressed send! I was hoping she'd pick it up in the morning, but she has just replied.

This is really bad form isn't it. Should I say something at drop off tomorrow?

No need to feel bad. She's replied, so she obviously wasn't bothered by it.

Don’t worry. Evening is when I reply to emails too because I don’t have time in the day. It’s more stressful when a parent emails in the morning then expects me to have seen it by the time they drop their dc off or even by pick up.

I’m sure she’d appreciate you saying thank you for the prompt response though.

There was no obligation for her to read or respond until it was convenient for her. It's not like you phoned her.

No, it was an email. She could have ignored it if she wanted to, but actually evenings are easier than in the day.

It's fine. Stop fussing. Email is there to be checked when you want to check it. She was online and responded.

No, my view is teachers who don’t want to be bothered by parent emails in the evening (which is a perfectly reasonable position) just shouldn’t check emails in the evening. It’s not like a ringing phone, emails just sit there waiting quietly. If she’s checking at that time maybe that’s when suits her to deal with it.

That said, at my children’s school you wouldn’t be allowed to directly email teachers - all emails must go via the office. In part because some parents are prolific, inappropriate or plain abusive emailers and the HT wanted to filter those out, but presumably also because it avoided out of hours messages like these. I think it’s a sensible system.

Did you not know that teacher work in the evening?

I wouldn’t worry, as others have said, she has chosen to read and reply and probably doesn’t think you had the expectation that she would. Most parents I imagine will sit and write emails in the evening after work and kids are in bed etc. as that’s the only time available to do so. It doesn’t mean an instant reply is anticipated. If it’s going to bother you tho, maybe a small reply “thank you for your prompt reply in your own time”

Seconding this 🤣

There have been numerous threads saying it is rude to email people out of their hours.

My opinion is that an email can be sent at whatever time suits the sender, the onus is on the receiver to only check at a time suitable to them.

Don’t worry OP.

This is fine.

Totally fine!

No idea why someone would get their knickers in a twist about someone else sending them an email out of hours! Just don't reply if it's a problem!

I email at night but always start with

Good morning,

I hope that they realise that I'm not expecting them to read it until the morning.

It’s fine, I often send emails in the evening that I don’t expect a response to until the next day. It was her choice

Email is an asynchronous form of communication. You send it it when suits you, the recipient reads/replies when it suits them. Anyone who claims differently doesn't understand how it works 🤷‍♀️

I never responded to emails in the evening when I was teaching nor Class Dojo messages but some colleagues did. Don’t worry about it OP, you’ve had a response and whether that response came tonight or tomorrow is the teachers personal choice.

I wouldn’t be too worried about it, she had a choice to leave it until the morning. Sometimes if I don’t send something in the moment it doesn’t ever get sent 😂 but I’d never expect any to reply after 5 some do some don’t. Don’t overthink it!

It’s fine, as a parent it’s sometimes necessary to do school admin out of work hours.

There's no reason to assume she thought you were expecting an immediate answer and every reason to believe she'd know you're just sending an email at a time convenient to you. I don't think twice about the time I send emails to teacher, they will pick it up when convenient.

It’s fine-she chose to check her emails and respond.

The only unreasonable scenario would be something like sending the teacher an email in the evening and then complaining at 8am the next day when you drop the child off that you haven’t got a response yet! You haven’t done anything like this, so you’re quite safe!

One of my eldest senco messages me at 11 at night sending an email doesn't mean you have to instantly respond I'm pretty sure that's the point of them ! Don't stress =)

Really sorry, but that sounds slightly bonkers. They're just going to think you're confused. Why not just start with "Dear Ms ....."?

As someone in a similar profession, I don’t mind when you reply it’s my choice when I check them.

It’s not bad etiquette, I send work e-mails in the evening to get them out of the way but I don’t expect anyone to reply until the next morning / when it’s convenient to them, she didn’t have to reply to it this evening.

I like it, sensible.