To think a hard boundary should be drawn with teachers?

[ForCandidSheep]

I’ve seen a growing expectation for teachers to be constantly available, responding to emails outside of school hours, dealing with parents’ demands and even engaging with students on social media in some cases.

Surely they should be a clear boundary? Teachers are professionals, not 24/7 customer service reps. Parents shouldn’t expect instant responses and personal contact outside of school should be a firm no.

AIBU to think that more people need to respect teachers’ time and stop blurring the lines?

I agree. But who are these parents expecting everything that you mention? I’m sure most of us realise that they’re only human and can only manage to do so much

Yes they do. I saw one comment recently about GCSE results and the parent was complaining that the teacher wasn’t available to review their child’s script to decide on a marking review (well they said remark but that isn’t a thing anymore). It is the holidays! Teachers are not at work right now and shouldn’t be expected to be responding to stuff like this during their holiday time. There will be plenty of time for this come September and it can easily be done then. The parent just needs to be patient. Like you said, they are not 24/7 customer service reps.

I think any blanket rule would be both difficult and impractical. Where a teacher lives in a small community, for example, no personal contact out of school might restrict the teacher being able to go about their day or join community activities. I think parents need to recognise normal work boundaries - ie if I send an email at 5.00pm on a Friday I won’t hear back until the following week. I also think teachers need to maintain clear boundaries appropriate to their role and location eg a 3 day response time to emails with anything urgent going to the school office or whatever.

Many parents do understand and respect teachers’ limits. I think it’s more about a growing trend where some parents treat teachers like a on-demand service providers - instant replies, constant updates, even messaging on social media. It’s not the majority but the minority doing this can really skew expectations for everyone.

Teachers are not supposed to be in contact with any students or parents of students on social media.

Its a safeguarding issue

I agree with you but it's for SLT to draw that line. All communication via the admin office is the way to do it. Make it very clear to parents that teachers are not expected to respond to direct communication.

Yes, I think that’s true, but whose blurring the boundaries?

We have a 48 hrs response policy to support this, but plenty of teachers respond to emails after work. My guess is to try to get ahead for the day, but it just changes expectations from parents.

I’ve also emailed my own children teachers in the evening, wouldn’t expect a response for a day or so and they have replied late at night. My opinion is that it shows lack of leadership within the school, and lack of support for their staff if they are working such long hours.

YANBU.

I wonder if it starts from nursery with constant updates on Tapestry etc and then individual handovers. It sets up an expectation of direct contact with teachers as well as in-depth knowledge of their school day.

To balance this, my son is early years primary school in Ireland and I get one parent teacher meeting of 10 minutes max in November and his school report in June. That’s it.

Im conscious of not being overly demanding, but I think that isn’t enough feedback at all.

Teachers should not be engaging with pupils/ parents on social media
its not allowed unless you are friends out of school which is still on dodgy ground

If he's doing well I think that's fine. If he struggles all year and you're only told about it in the end of year report, not fine.

I've been surprised by a response from a teacher late night when I sent one fully expecting it to be dealt with the following day

I think unfortunately it’s schools expecting this, not always parents. I think the problem though is education is an after work thing for parents because it’s part of their home life. But it’s work life for teachers.

Time needs to be built in to working hours for things that have to happen after 5pm. I work in higher ed and it’s totally expected of me to work outside of 9-5 hours. I don’t get a hotel paid for if I have to travel for a work meeting and won’t be home til 10pm. I have meetings scheduled early in the day and to 6/6:30pm. But I also have flexibility to that time in lieu as necessary. I think at the moment teachers are expected, by leadership, to work beyond contracted hours. It’s easy to say no to parents or students, but I find it’s not so easy to say no to your line manager at 8pm who is emailing you from her holiday.

What concerns me is that I don’t have confidence that if he was struggling that I’d hear about it before June.

A bit more detail would be helpful, I’m not expecting nursery style daily updates but some kind of communication at least in the second term would be great. Even if it’s just - reading still on track, work on X. Socially getting on fine. It’s doesn’t have to be an essay.

Same expectation as other professionals.

Either fine for all or unreasonable for all. Not sure teachers are special

This is true. Some parents struggle to adjust to not knowing exactly how much their child ate or if they had a wee. We have parents ask questions that seemed very strange to me,
until my Child started nursery and I get a ping every time she goes anywhere or does anything. I get told if she ate her snack, if she’s gone to the garden or to another room etc…

Absolutely agree. I have no idea how it would be policed.

what if a teacher prefers to respond at night, what if it is a serious CP matter.

what about a local doctor, or a solicitor, a minister.

I think in general society, as a result of technology has grown to expect everything now.

gone are the days where a letter was sent out then an appointment was made to discuss. The second the email goes it hits the recipients phone and they are on the other line.

I have email contact with some staff at the school but not individual teachers. They often email me in the evenings and in the holidays about specific things to do with my daughter, but I only email them during school working hours. I’ve even had phone calls during holidays from them. The suggestion that parents are forcing teachers to work 24/7 is laughable.

If a parent has a teacher’s email address, it’s because it has been given to them. If the school is allowing or enabling that, it’s a management issue. If teachers are responding to emails outwith their working hours, that’s their choice. Nobody forces them to.

If I discovered any staff member engaging with my daughter on social media, there would be trouble.

I think the best way for teachers to manage this is to not respond out of school hours.

If teachers want to respond to emails after hours they should schedule the emails to be sent the following morning. This is what I do in my line of work as I don't want to advertise to people that I am available at any time (and it's a bit embarrassing for people to see that I'm reading work emails at 10pm)

I know and hear that too much is expected of teachers but I don't think they do themselves favours if they make themselves available at all times - boundaries come from the individual!

ETA - social media is not an appropriate way to communicate with teachers and they should ignore this. Again - boundaries!

As a tutor, I am available 24/7. It's part of my service (unless I'm out of the country and then no, I'm not going to respond - I have a right to a holiday too!).

When I was a teacher, no way was I responding out of school hours. I was in school from 8am until 6pm or later. If anyone had wanted responses outside those hours they could damn well pay me. And believe me, some parents did try it on and were told. They might well be indignant that they didn't get instant responses - tough!

I think it's up to teachers to hold that line. They are the professional in the situation. I'm a social worker, I've had many people moan about not being able to get hold of me when I've not been in work. I politely let them know I have a personal life and will not be doing work in my personal time. They have the number for the emergency duty team if something is needed when I'm not available.

I don’t think anyone is saying teachers are special but parents are likely to email after their own working hours, which is also outside teachers working hours except teachers engaged with classes don’t have the capacity to reply in their usual working hours.

If there’s an expectation of a timed response, teachers need to be able to do that without working til midnight. A secondary teacher could have 150 kids whose parents email at any point - they need working time to do that.

I think most parents do respect hours of communication and don't expect immediate responses.

In over a decade of teaching I've only ever had one parent be rude when I didn't reply immediately.

We did coaching/wellbeing sessions after school for 10 mins every day with 1 or 2 of our tutor group on a rota. They were compulsory (lessons ended at 3pm and school day ended 3.15pm so in school time). This boy insisted on his own slot and wanted a particular slot. He then didn't turn up which meant a lunch time detention allocated. His mum then sent me a long ranting email saying he didnt know (he did - he chose it) and all this other nonsense. This was sent 6pm.

I didn't reply as I had a staff meeting then picking up DS, dinner, bedtime, lesson planning etc... I came into school the next morning and at 8.40am in tutor time the boy handed me a hand written letter with 5 sides of A4 going off on a rant about the school, the system, what an awful uncaring tutor I was for not replying to her email.

Some people are just deranged!!

As soon as I leave school I put my out of hours on with a message which includes my working hours, a reminder of my school’s communication process (e.g. I have 48 hours to respond) and contact details of relevant authorities in case of immediate safeguarding concerns. I’m lucky that my SLT are supportive in this area and we are encouraged to do this (and also end abusive calls immediately and pass on abusive emails).

It's completely fine to say hi in a friendly way to a teacher if you see them out and about.

However a colleague of mine got approached by a parent about a school issue on her day off whilst having her nails done. Completely unacceptable!

I've also had parents email me at 6pm and then expect it dealt with the next day and these things can be very hard when you are teaching all day.