Can parents email teachers at your school?

[OvernightOats]

A recent Ofsted inspection at my DCs primary school highlighted that parents would like improved communications. A parent-survey followed, which indicated parents would like to be able to communicate with teachers using email. However, the school responded that teachers don't have the time to do that during class.

How common is it for teachers to use email communications, and how does it fit into their working day?

"....when I got a reply to an email at 9pm on a Sunday night"

This is what concerns me about direct email.

My work email comes to my phone - its useful because of internal email to have that. It means if another member of staff, the HT or the office have information I get it before school restarts.

If I got an email from a parent in the evening I would still feel I needed to read it and response. It would feel wrong not too. And once clicked on it would no longer be highlighted so the risk then is that it would be missed if I left it til a later date. So, this is often why a parent ends up with a quick response on a Sunday night - the teacher feels they have to respond, there is a pressure to do so, even if it is just from themselves, its not because they necessarily want to do it there and then.

I think emails have their place, but they do give (despite explanations to the contrary) an expectation that it is pretty instant communication. It is useful for general messages both ways and I use it to answer homework questions, respond to parents about non-specific concerns, asking about missing glasses and requests for a meeting or phone call, but parents still seem to send messages that are time-sensitive and/or expect an immediate reply.

I arrive at school at 7.30am and, if time, check my emails. I then set up for the day, teach all morning, do a lunchtime club, set up the afternoon session, deal with missing lunchboxes, playground fall outs, accidents, etc. So I may eat some of my lunch and get to the loo. I teach all afternoon. After school I may meet a parent, have a whole school staff meeting, run a club, have a year group meeting, etc. Then it's probably at least 5.30pm, so I'll tidy my classroom, prep anything I can for the next day and head off to family commitments. I usually check my emails again at about 10.30pm. Some of these emails need information that is in school or from a colleague to answer the query. Some arrived mid afternoon and are "please can you remind John to bring his PE kit home tonight so I can wash it", "Jenny is going home with Jane's Mum today", "James was sick in the night, but I'm out all day so please call grandma on this number if he's ill again" . (Not all in one day, luckily)

Well, as I haven't had time to check my emails (and people have been told not to send this type of message directly to the teacher) I didn't send the PE kit home, I spent twenty minutes trying to find out if Jane's mum was allowed to take Jenny home, and yes, James was sick and we spent ages clearing it up and trying to find someone to collect him.

We can't have our emails open at all times, the one laptop is routed through the IWB. If the children or I are using the IWB and emails are either deliberately opened by me or accidentally opened by a child during IWB activities would be visible to all, and I get SEN and Child Protection emails on my school address which are totally confidential.

Our policy for parents is to use the school office email or a phone call for matters that need the teacher to see within 24 hours, but they get really wound up that problems happen because I haven't seen an email, and it worries me that it could have safety implications.

Finally I am trying to improve my stress levels, so refuse to read or respond to emails from 10.30pm on Friday to 8am Monday. So that has a few raised eyebrows from some parents.

hula - you just turn the work email off

easy

Oh yes - at our school we frequently get parental emails. Takes hours to deal with. The Heads PA gets all emails for the Head.

I email my pupils too- details of homework, revision links and feedback

I don't necessarily want to get no work emails though. My job share partner might email me, or a colleague telling me tomorrow's after school meeting is cancelled. If I saw ones from parents I'd feel I had to click on them in case something bad had happened - and if it is to tell me they have a dentist appointment or whatever, by the time I'm at my desk and could actually do something with the info, it's probably been buried under a pile of other stuff.
I don't think it's a bad idea if staff want it: but I also think there are valid arguments for sticking to the old systems.

We (primary) can receive emails through the office. I find this is more appropriate - they saw that a parent last year was sending daily emails which were not required (basically how was child today - everyday with no reasons) and put a stop to it (and backed me up for not replying after the first few days of - everything fine I will email if there are any problems). Messages get passed across - and if they are more serious (grandparents died for example) the office staff will come and find us incase we miss the email.

Primary - I have several teachers' email address in my capacity as a governor, but none as a parent. It's a small school, so bring able to email the office or catch the teacher at drop off or pick up generally works for us. It's not so easy for parents of children who come on the bus or use the after school clubs though - I think direct email contact with their child's teacher could be useful for them.

Suggestion for those who worry emails will get buried if they read them and don't respond immediately - I have my work email set up to show unread emails first. If I read something but can't / don't want to reply immediately, I mark it as unread so it doesn't disappear.

Not sure how that helps AmberTheCat. We still have to read them, before we decide our actions on them or mark them as unread. It's the finding time during a school day to actually read them that is my problem.

Troy - but I don't want to. I want to be able to access emails from my fellow teaching staff, HT and the school admin team. I just wouldn't want to also be getting them from parents later in the evening or on a lazy weekend.

lol some but not that kind

Right!

all sorts of professionals have email at work, they all manage not to be so stressy about it as teachers or to look at it or answer at the weekend

this whole debate makes us look so out of date.

if you want email from your mates then have a different email address.

But it's not my mates, It is my colleagues - work related and hence via work email.

Yes, dh has direct email with his clients. But he does charge clients for responding, on a 6 minute basis on the whole, same as with a letter or phone call. He also tends to treat email as generally no more important and time dependent as a letter. Despite his clients paying for this direct contact, almost all, are fine with this and definitely do not always expect immediate or even same day responses. He also has far more opportunities in his working day to check and respond to emails, as he is often at in front of his computer.

My concern is whether parents would be happy with this, or would they expect much more immediate response.

I suppose also for me - I have never felt the need to have direct email to any of DD's teachers all the way through primary and now into secondary. I have managed to deal with any contact face to face, my phone or indirect email. Anything urgent I would phone and have a message passed on. Anything non urgent I would arrange a face to face chat with the teacher.

I guess I just dont really see the need, esp as I work at a school with an open door policy and staff are available either end of the day and at other times by appointment.

i dont pick up my kid
i cant pop in

Phone
Indirect e-mail
Note to teacher

Or, if e-mail, no expectation for it to be dealt with same day or over a weekend.

hula
Certainly wouldn't do it again...I felt as guilty as!

It didn't occur to me that they would answer a work related email outside of work. It certainly didn't require an immediate reply or even one in the next few days

It just got late on Sunday and I thought I should do it before I forgot (again)

Never mind, you live and learn

Primary ... most goes through the office, I tend to mark them 'FAO DD's teacher' and off they go. They don't require acknowledgement or reply, if the school manages to miss the fact I'm taking DD out for some reason it doesn't matter (the exception being an occasion when they had to not take her swimming, I spoke to the teacher face to face for that one).

I've had email conversations with two teachers in the past - one with my governor hat on, and the other DD's class teacher last year. In the latter case I emailed the office to say I needed to arrange to speak to him, he emailed me back - I didn't use the address again, and I wouldn't use another teacher's email address (I know full well what they all are) without them initiating it.

Expected response time if I was to email a teacher - let's say if I sent something now I would be disappointed if I didn't have a reply by about 6pm on Tuesday. I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised not to get a reply at all tomorrow, and definitely not in school hours.

"It just got late on Sunday and I thought I should do it before I forgot (again)"

Rufus, some email clients allow you to schedule mail to be delivered at a time of your choosing, so you can write an email at 9pm on a Sunday evening, and "send" it, but it doesn't actually get delivered until (for example) 9am the next morning.

It can be done in MS Outlook and, with a bit of fiddling, there are ways of doing it in Gmail too. If you use something else, then it might be worth looking in the Help documentation for "delay email" or "schedule email".

Some of my work colleagues (in Higher Education) don't like getting emails late at night, so it's a feature I've started using recently. Having moved jobs from the private sector, where 'Smart Working' was the norm, into the public sector, its something I'm having to adapt to.

I don't email my doctor.

I can email my daughters reception class teacher and she emails us about once every half term.

Big primary and yes every teacher has public email that is on web site. I would assume parents only use if really needed

I teach in FE

we get emails from parents and students. Usually it's useful - often just a 1 sentence reply needed.

Sometimes it's a massive hassle. I had one parent email every day about her son (who I teach for 1 hour, twice a week). Her emails became increasingly long, rambling, pointless and often threatening. I had to get my senior manager to tell her to stop.

I think how well/not email works for teachers depends on how the school sets up expectations. One school I used to teach at had all staff email addresses on the website but with a sentence explaining that teachers would reply to any emails within a few days but that for any immediate/urgent messages, the office email should be used instead.

That arrangement worked for me, particularly when it came to contacting parents whose children attended breakfast and after school clubs - it made it easy for me to drop them a quick email to let them know that X had been a bit out of sorts, that Y had produced an amazing piece of work etc. It also meant that parents could let me know about music exams, changes to collection arrangements etc. that weren't always communicated by the school office and about worries/concerns that their child had and that I could then keep an eye on. The parents liked being able to contact me using email and I found it helpful.

I occasionally email my DC's teachers if I'm collecting them early for an appointment but they'll be cc'd into the office email - I know from experience that school offices don't always pass on information like that which is annoying when a parent has made the effort to let the school know but the teacher has no idea!

Igggi - in the case of the secondary school they tell you who you have to email for whatever reason. So I did. In the first case they needed to know early the next day, in the second they needed to know that ds1 would not be in school on the first day back after a school holiday. Emailing them in holidays meant it could be an authorised absence - which works better for them. And Aldo they were able to deal with the problem at registration. Again - easier for them. They didn't have to reply, I didn't expect one, they did. I often respond to my clients at the weekend/in evenings etc so I don't see the issue really. If I don't want to I don't.

In the case of the special school a teacher might email be to comment on a blog post or to tell me something about ds1. Sometimes it's serious, often it's chatty. Initiated by them just as much as me. It's a different sort of relationship.