How contactable are your DCs Teachers?

[eyesoncctv]

Not a bashing, just out of interest.

3x DCs, Reception and YR2.

At drop off all Children go through the main gate manned by Headteacher, then go to their classrooms independently.
At School pick up they come out the same way.
Only ever spoken to their Teachers at Parents evening, you can email them via then School reception email which can take 3-5 days to reach them (according to automated reply).

You can request a phonecall from your DCs Teacher by leaving a message on an answer machine. Again, estimated 3-5 days for a response.

Are your Schools the same?

We’re in West Sussex, UK.

Work in a primary school. Some parents email the teacher in the school day and then ring the school office 60 minutes later to complain they haven't had a response!!!
Or ring and ask for the teacher to be brought to the phone. I genuinely wonder what they think the teacher is doing.
So the "expect a response in 48 hours" messages are to try and give a reasonable expectation of response times.

Sounds perfect, allowing the teacher to do their job and not be at the beck and call of every whining parent. No teacher should deal with parental emails out of school hours, just like my dentist doesn't do my check-up at 10pm on a Friday evening.

I'm a teacher in a SEN school. I have only 14 children in my tutor group so I know it's not loads but that is standard in our school.
If my parents call I will return their call same day. I email frequently and will ask a TA to email responses if I am not able to and they can help.
I try hard to make sure parent communication is a priority.

At our school we can message the teachers directly on dojo, they tend to reply within 24 hours. Also we can have a quick word at pick up as we pick them up from the classroom door.

Most of the teachers I know struggle to get a cuppa or a loo break during the day. And one of the top reasons for them leaving the profession in droves is increasing parental demands and pressure. Why are you all wanting to contact them so much? Leave a note with whoever is on reception if it’s desperate or better still, teach your children to verbally advocate for themselves. Teaches them independence, resilience and oracy skills. Just cut the teachers some slack please!

Parents have my work email address so can email directly and can also message via class dojo.

I don't mind either tbh. But it does amuse me that the informal feel of the dojo messaging (like fb messenger) means that the emails I receive are quite formal and yet dojos are very chatty and sometimes littered with heart emoijis and kisses 😁

I'm always available after school for a playgound chat and will arrange a meeting if parents want to meet privately/for longer.

I like the fact parents can contact me/us directly but I generally only reply in work hours unless I feel it warrants an immediate response or I want to reply there and then. I responded to a lovely message thanking me for my help with something last Saturday morning but there are a couple of parents in my class who behave like they own me/my time so I'm very strict about when I reply to them.

A moan only ever gets responded to in work hours.

I think a positive relationship between school and home is vital and I think it's important the parents know the person their child spends 6 hours a day with! It also makes it easier to address issues if you have a relationship with the parents.

My daughter goes to a very small school, they all go in through the main entrance where the secretary stands and will pass on any messages to teachers. At pick up the teacher and TA bring them out and you can catch them if you need to. She's in reception but it's the same for the whole school.

My older ones are at secondary and I've not had to speak to teachers other than at parents evening. I have once emailed a head of year and they got back to me very quickly.

We could always speak to them at drop off and pick up. However, friends who are teachers said managed badly this can be a nightmare as the same parents hog the space.

Primary was quite limited yet secondary is so different. I can email the form tutor and always get a comprehensive response fairly quickly. I really can’t fault the commitment and kindness from secondary teachers across 2 schools. Dd1’s 6th form science teacher even returned a call within an hour of me calling. Primary responses were much slower and vague whereas secondary speak to me like an equal. (Not including DDs year 6 teacher who was amazing).

I don’t contact school very often at all but when I do there’s a marked difference between how primary spoke at me after delays and barriers compared to secondary’s keenness to include parents.

Agree about start of the day. Not acceptable to chat to a teacher for 15mins at the end of the day. They might need to leave (eh) to pick.up children. I always leave 5-10mins after the bell.

We actually have an app where you can DM the teacher. It's amazing. So efficient.

Teacher here, if parents want to pass on a message at the door in the morning that can be a real issue as you’re so busy making sure everyone comes in safe and sound, same at pick up!
We have a messaging service and it’s expected that we will message parents back very promptly, during the same day whenever possible. Saying that, always phoning and meeting up with parents most evenings after school for various reasons x

KS2 age, I can speak them in person on the playground any afternoon. Headteacher/SENCO/Deputy also come on the playground once a week each too.
There is also an app and generally teachers reply the same day or next day.
But it’s a very community minded school and parents have never in the 5 years I’ve been on WhatsApp groups ever discussed any ‘complaints’ on WhatsApp or between each other. It’s just not done. So I think it probably enables teachers to be more accessible because parents are very supportive of the school and the staff.

We have an app where we can message the teachers and I often get a response within an hour and always within 24 hours.

I have 2 DC in Yrs5 & 2.

Both teachers & usually the Head are outside school in the morning, & can be approached then. Same at pick up - both come out & are free to talk etc as well as the TAs.

We use Class DoJo, so we can message every teacher, Head & support staff through that.
we have emails for all staff & can call the school too.

Primary here. We have a 10 minute drop off window where the class teachers are all on the yard. It's brilliant, it's time the teachers are given to speak to parents/children about anything at all. We also collect children from the teacher at pickup. The head is on the gate mornings and afternoons.

Secondary (older DD and DS), frustratingly difficult to speak to anyone ever. There's a main email that nobody replies to. There's a phone line where they take a message and promise someone will contact you about your issue. They generally don't contact you back though.

via email, usually a response the same day

his form teacher, by phone if an emergency. Again, usually a call back within the day. DS is in the lower 6th

My daughter is autistic and has selective mutism. She’s in therapy and it’s a long process but no, she cannot advocate for herself and never could. I am hopeful we will get there eventually. I am grateful to have a way to support her quietly.

I have no need to contact my son’s teachers as he doesn’t need additional support.

Ds’s are easily contactable in secondary, very difficult to contact teachers in dds primary. You usually hear a week or 2 later but sometimes not at all.

My children's primary school is very much like yours. No contact at all, apart from parents' evenings. It's how I grew up (not in the UK) and what seems normal to me - if there ever is an issue, I get a call, and if I don't hear anything, then things are fine.

I work in a secondary school which prides itself on good communication with parents, and it is a nightmare from a workload perspective. I have children in my tutor group whose parents email almost daily. Sometimes, it's simple and straight-forward (i.e. forward this to the relevant people), more often than not it required a thought-out response, and occasionally it's a rant I have to respond to and try very hard not to say "and what exactly is it you want from me right now".

And that is just my tutor group - I get emails from parents about my subject, about homework, and it's a nightmare around report time, when parents use it to complain about grades, about attitude to learning (they get daily emails on positive/ negative behaviour points and yet wonder why Johnny has a bad report after daily emails about behviour issues) or ask inane questions like whether they should buy a revision guide 3 weeks before their child's GCSE exams.

On top of that we have parents' evenings where some parents take 20min during their 5min slot (where is Schoolcloud when you need it), parents demanding meetings in my own time (often after school) and regular emails from reception going "can you just call so and so" as well as a behaviour system that requires us to call every time a child is removed from class for disruption (news flash, there are 1-3 a day). I teach 10 classes of 30 students. That 2min phone call (it's never 2min), that 2min email - multiply that by all the people who think they're the only one demanding contact. It adds an hour to my school day almost every day just to contact parents.

I've never known anything like it.

Primary teacher here. We are able to contact parents via an app (and vice versa). Parents get a response on the same day, unless they send the message in the evening or at the weekend. It does make us more ‘accessible’ as teachers, but I think it is great, and has made communicating so much easier. My DD’s school doesn’t have it, but I can email her teacher and get a response the same day or the next day.

I think it's because every parent seems to think that their child is the only one in the world, a perception passed on to their off-spring.