To expect a response from school by now

[Soberbadger]

At my DC's school, the last day before half term was an inset day (Friday, 25th). On that day, the Headteacher emailed parents to tell us about changes to staffing in DC's class. The email was pretty vague.

I replied quite soon after receiving the email asking for clarification but got an out of office response. It's now the second day back after half term and still no response.

The school has a policy of acknowledging communications within 48 hours. Taking half term out of the equation, if I wrote at midday last Friday (25th), then shouldn't I have a response by midday today (5th)? Or are they going to say the Friday doesn't count because that was an inset day?

Why not wait till she's been back at school 2 days, then follow up tomorrow?

Going by your policy, yes, they should have replied, but schools are very busy at the start of term. They might have a backlog from the week off and likely dealing with the urgent stuff first.

A depends on what you have written and whether they have any answers for you. It may be they need to speak to someone before replying

Stuff like this is literally why school office staff are grumpy dragons.

Kids will have had all sorts of shit happen over half term, there will be eleventybillion cahms forms, important messages, births, deaths and funerals, new allergies, Christmas fayres, kids being taken into care, illnesses and all sorts of crazy bollocks that take precedence over little Tobias' teacher being off for an amount of time that the office either won't know or can't disclose, for reasons that would violate all range of gdpr and ethical boundaries if they told you about it.

And they get paid £20k/year to be shouted at, tinkly laughed at, or slagged off in the playground.

The email is vague because they don’t know the answers. It’s been half term. 48 hours or not, they still won’t know the answers.

I'm going to guess the change is something like a TA leaving. In which case the Head will have had only one month's notice and quite likely hasn't found a replacement yet so doesn't have an answer of the "Miss Z will be joining the class instead" variety.

Or if the teacher became unwell and wont be there for a while the Head may have spent a good part of last week trying to sort out internal cover/agency staff and possibly that cover is not stable at the moment. Would you rather have today's answer of " your child's class will have a random teacher each day for the foreseeable" or wait a couple of days till they've got an actual answer?

Oh dear, it's THAT parent. Email deleted.

I replied quite soon after receiving the email asking for clarification

Well, one would assume the reason it was vague in the first place was because they didn't want to/ couldn't give 'further clarification'. Why do you think you're so important that they would give that information to you and not the rest of the of the parents? If you're desperate for a response, it will no doubt be: "We cannot, at this time, supply any further details." If that makes your life more manageable then so be it.

Ditto what BambleoQueen said. They have told you what they can, numerous child protection issues will have to be dealt with before they get a chance to roll their eyes at yours!
I honestly wish school offices were like a solicitor’s office and you were billed £150 for every email they had to reply to.

I don't know why people are being rude to you OP. I would wait. I'm assuming it's not urgent you get a reply though. If urgent it's OK to phone.

It's also possible/likely the email was sent to parents and then the school closed down. Teachers/staff were only in on a half day. It does happen.

And if you've asked for information they simply don't have, they can't respond.

"Well there's 10 emails about students who have suddenly developed extra needs during Half Term, 2 from parents stuck in Hawaii because of a missed flight, Janey's mum letting us know her grandad just died, Joe's dad letting us know he's just been diagnosed with cancer, 20 parents checking they paid for a trip that needed paying last Friday and Badger is asking for more details we don't have" I wonder which emails would get priority...

You've not said what sort of clarification you wanted.

As others have mentioned, lack of clarity might be while they fill the gap - if they're interviewing someone tomorrow or trialling someone from an agency, they might as well wait until they can actually give a more substantive answer. They may also need to be vague to protect a teacher's private information - and please avoid speculating - I've known situations where totally false rumours have gone round. (Even if a teacher doesn't mind people knowing why they're off, it's better for a school to have a policy of never saying, so that people don't read anything into it when nothing is said.)
If it's a simple "will Mrs X still be doing PPA cover on Fridays", that might be easier to answer - but even that might be "for the timebeing", because if they are recruiting someone to fill a gap, particularly if it's a part-time gap, they may need to shuffle things further.

Please trust the head and let them have the time to get arrangements fully in place. I'm sure they will update you if things change.

I’d only expect a response within 48 hours if it was a time critical issue.

I've had two offers of long term supply today and I've said no to both of them. Perhaps the school is struggling to get anyone even day to day.

If that is their stated policy they should stick to it. In my opinion, it would be far better to not have such a policy, or make it more generous to allow for a slower response to less important messages, rather than have an unachievable policy that means you get even more emails following up on people's first ones.

They've only been back in the schools offices 1.5 days, I think unless it's extremely urgent give them more time.

They’ll let you know when they know. They won’t keep parents in the dark for no reason, as soon as they hve something concrete to say, they’ll let all parents know.

Was it literally as vague as saying “some staffing changes”? Was there no mention of if it’s the TA or teacher they’re referring to?
How old is your child? When you pick up, is there someone different/new/interim temporary there dismissing them?

Without knowing what changes to staffing were in the email, it’s difficult to say what response they should make. They’ve already told you there are changes. If a TA left, they may have to divert another from a different class for part of the time, whilst they try to recruit. If the teacher is unwell, they’ll be trying to cover with supply whilst sorting out what to do longer term.

As a parent, you need to know that your child will have a teacher and/or TA. The reasons for the change are for the school to work on.

I assume they have given you all the information they have at the moment. Will provide further clarification when they have it. School staffing can be a nightmare

Inset days don't count towards the 48 hours. The school effectively isn't in.

They'll probably acknowledge within 48 but you'll get a holding email.

They probably can't tell you (teacher off sick etc and can't give details) and or they may not have a plan for staffing yet.

Wow there are a lot of assumptions in many of these replies. Classic judgy Mumsnet people, I guess.

If advocating for my child, makes me THAT parent, then so be it.
In this case I am not the only one who has written in for clarification, so I guess they're having to deal with a lot of THOSE parents. I guess if they'd communicated more clearly at the time, then they would save themselves a lot of time.

What is it you are looking for clarification on, it's hard to advise with the limited info you've given.

Advocating for your child? Doesn’t whatever it is affect the whole class, not just your child?

Yes it does impact the whole class, hence why lots of parents are asking for clarification.

I fully undetstand that there are staffing issues beyond anyone's control. However, what is in the school's control is how they communicate with parents. If I don't like the way something is done, I'm going to bring it up. How else will things ever get better?

Or maybe we all just keep quiet and accept poor standards for fear of upsetting the poor, underpaid office staff!

I don’t think it’s poor standards from the office staff, I think they won’t know what’s going on. I’d be surprised if the office staff knew the full info, had been given an instruction to inform parents, and just weren’t doing so.