Teacher emailing on first morning Dd ill

[Thisyearstreeisthebest]

Is this normal practice?

Dd was off school ill yesterday for the first time since September in a new class with a new teacher.
I had an email from the teacher yesterday lunchtime saying that dd wasn’t in school and asking if everything is ok.
She’s 6

Dh says it’s nice she was asking, never had this before, we would just come back whenever better and I’d give Dd a note to pass to the teacher or just do nothing-are we supposed to?

Ahh ok, see your point

I drop directly to the door and there are staff there, so there’s no way she couldn’t make it to class-many assistants and staff etc

Yup. It's Wechat where we are, not whatsapp. Near the same thing.

Using email is odd. It's almost as if it's a tick the box exercise. The manual says contact parent, teacher sends email and ticks that box, not really expecting a reply.

Unless of course the teacher is just anti social media. That's perfectly understandable.

Why is email surprising? I have my class emails open on my computer so I can see if a parent messages. Also I can quickly send an email in class using my school computer rather than using my own personal phone in the middle of the classroom.

I mean separately-just to me. With the previous teacher, we occasionally communicated that way, I was careful not to bombard her though as not sure how keen i’d be if I was a teacher and parents were WhatsApping me. It was useful though

Yes, that’s what I thought, felt a bit serious like i’d done something wrong, that’s probably just me though!

Email is very much still the way our school communicates with us. A phone call if urgent. I can’t imagine many teachers would want to give out their numbers for parents to contact them on WhatsApp

I don’t get why email is odd. Do you want your child’s teacher to get out their own personal phone and be messaging parents in the classroom rather than using the school supplied computer?

We'd be called by the school by 9.30am if either of them miss registration. Primary and secondary but for the latter they are very prompt in case children have gone missing en route to school deliberately or otherwise.

Standard practice here to leave a voicemail every day of the absence even if it's known that the child is likely to be missing a few days as staff rotate etc.

Isn't it just basic courtesy to let the school know if a child they are expecting in class will not be there?

Cool.

Do you get many replies from parents via email ? I am genuinely interested.

I guess I don't know the norm where you are, but I. The UK if a dc doesn't show up to school without an explanation then the school has a duty of care to check if they are safe.

I think it's a good thing!

Also outside the UK and they’d absolutely have contacted if my child didn’t go in. I have to explain any day mine are off. This is normal and I’m shocked you didn’t inform them OP.

I refuse to speak with parents unless in person or by email/school phone.

Many parents have no boundaries and would think nothing of sending multiple messages about jumpers/water bottles on a Saturday night if they could. I'd change school if I was required to be contactable by WhatsApp...

Things are clearly different where you are though, OP! You'd also get a phone call from a grumpy woman asking why you'd not already phoned by 10 at the latest on the first day of absence in my UK school.

Obviously none of us know. However, what I do know is, as a teacher, I have to use my time efficiently. If happened to have time out of class first thing I'd be able to send an email then. If not, it would have to wait until home time and if I had a meeting after school, I'd probably send it at about half eight at night! It was quite possibly the most convenient time for them to message you.

And going forward, just phone in. It'll take you two minutes and save the school staff a job. It may not be necessary in your school but it'll earn you brownie points if they dont have to chase you up!

Yes, lots. Why wouldn’t I? I literally don’t have any other method to directly communicate with parents other than on the playground.

Seemingly we are the odd ones here and should be using our own personal phones to message parents. What safeguarding?

This - you have to call them to let them know.

Mine’s not. If they’re not expected in for 48 hours (vomiting) for example, there’s no need to call again the following day. They know they won’t be in because you tell them when you expect they’ll be back.

I find the idea of using WhatsApp to communicate with parents very odd. I’m a secondary teacher and that is not done at all. We would use email for most communication. If a child had not arrived in school with no contact from a parent to explain their absence they get a call from the school office, pretty quickly!

'out of the UK' is a big place. Here in the UK it's totally normal for schools to use emails and for a school to contact you if your kid's not in with no explanation. That's for safety reasons. However I'm not sure why you're asking on a UK forum if this is the norm where you are... Wherever that is.

A teacher shouldnt be messaging you on WhatsApp about absense or anything school related to do with your child, that is what the school office is for! We had the situation where the class teacher was in the whatsapp group as her child was in the class, she was in the group as a parent though, not the teacher. No one ever asked her a school related question, it all went through her school email or the school app we can message on, she isn't on duty 24/7, we all respected this (without even being told) and I sort of forgot she was in the group.

If we haven't contacted school by 9.30am on each day of absence we receive a phone call to check on our child, I did once think my husband had rang in and he thought I had, so we got a call about 10am asking where they were.

Well I was due to, we have both been ill and slept late, it happens unfortunately

Yes if you don't phone in.
A child in my sister's son's class was home alone and his mum had passed away . Teacher had to go to the house and found them , it is terribly sad but incidents are happening all the time and school have to do everything they can to protect the children from harm and neglect which is on the increase.

Here's a novel suggestion: why don't you contact the school and ask them what you are meant to do?

Nobody in the UK knows what your DD's school's procedures are. but you should know