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?

Oh and the secondary school tweets late at night, & during school,holidays - they are very good & very in favour of using electronic communication. I don't expect then to respond quickly - that's their choice. My youngest son's primary school takes about 2 days to respond to anything, which is fine. The secondary school has a different way of working. I'm impressed by it, I don't expect it.

I have the emails of both of my DCs teachers. They email all parents once a week with a readout of the week in school and also let us know about school trips etc. I use email to let them know e.g. of any planned absences or sick leave and to give permission for trips.

I can't imagine not being able to do this and those who don't want it strike me as being resistant to inevitable change. I get that teachers can't read email during the school day but those at the DCs school seem to find time before or after class.

We are at an international school, both dds in primary.

Teachers and parents email each other, it's how we communicate (most children go to school by bus). We get emails about assemblies, school trips and open afternoons, special items like shoe boxes to take in for school projects etc. we also get sent pictures of school trips or in-class presentations that the kids give. I email my dds teachers if they are absent or have to leave early for an appointment, to let them know about pick up arrangements if they change, or double check homework arrangements. If there is an issue, I will email a teacher to request a convenient meeting or a phone call.

Teachers are good at responding to queries (most emails are a line or two) and normally in the same day but most emails are information only and don't require a response other than "ok, fine"

I can see I am in the minority but I still don't get why teachers need absence info emailed to them direct from parents. Authorising absences etc is an office job, doesn't require me to do it and in fact all I could do with such info is email it on to the office anyway. More personal info about how a dc is getting on - the guidance staff need to know this to build up a full picture, so again I'd be passing this on to them anyway.
(Please note I am online at 6.44 in order to check my work email; I am not against it entirely - just with teacher workload at a crisis point I see no reason to add anything else to my list of duties!)

We have an email address just for absences. However i have directly informed dds formed teacher directly when more detailed explanation is needed.
Dcs school has won an award for its communications with parents and they are very efficient at replying

At my DCs (primary) school, not only can you not email the teachers, you can't even email the school!

I could definitely manage without emailing the class teacher but not being able to email the school at all is ridiculous.

I found out about a medical appt for my DC over half term, that was for the first day back in school. It would have been so easy to email over half term for them to pick up when school started but instead I had to spend half an hour trying to get through on the phone at 9am.

We can email the office and they forward replies to us (without the teacher's email address on it) or summarise the teacher's reply.

Absence notes, assembly reminders, important dates, trips, newsletters etc - all admin here so office/admin email is where it would be needed, not individual teachers.

We also have a text system for reminders to parents too.

We also have individual year web pages to show photos from school and school trips etc and regular updates about what we are doing. Also includes links to key diary events. Every class has it's own page.

Yes, DC and I have email for all teachers.

There is regular comunication through them.

Igggi, I don't need absence info emailed to me but it's useful to know if X is being collected early and therefore needs to get changed out of PE kit early, has a music exam and so can be wished good luck before leaving, is arriving late but will be in class in time for the independent part of the lesson etc. so I can plan accordingly or change groupings in advance. Not desperate but definitely useful.

Still not convinced! The office would tell me most of that, or it appears on our online registration system. Maybe it's more useful in primary when you (mostly) see the same students all day.

I teach primary, there are 6 flights of stairs between my classroom and the school office, no telephones on our floor and no electronic/online registration system.

Email was very useful yesterday. DS1 is in Y9. His LSA emailed me to find out when his CAMHS appointment is. She had tried to ask him but he didn't have a clue. She copied in the H of Y. I replied with the date of the appointment, copying in DH. Having noticed that the H of Y was included in the conversation, I also asked if there was any update on the plan to amend DS1's (much too high) targets. The H of Y replied, copying in the assistant head, and explaining the plan regarding DS1's pastoral care for the rest of this term.

If teacher-to-parent email hadn't existed, we would have needed to get all five of us together in a room at the same time (difficult when DH is seeing patients all day and H of Y and assistant head are teaching most of the day) or at least three phone calls would have been needed, each of which would have been preceded by a couple of failed attempts and answering machine messages.

Another example, again from yesterday: DS1's English teacher asked everyone in the class to email him the notes they had made on racism in America so that he can compile a booklet from everyone's notes to use as context for OMaM.

Yes in our primary.

I often drop an email to advise on any changes to pick up arrangements, or to inform teacher of any illness over the weekend to look out for.

Equally teacher emails me re: missing library books, behaviour, forms to be signed etc.

Maybe this is because children are sent to another area of the school for collection? We do not pick up from the classroom therefore do not see teachers.

No, at my daughter's school we can email the office or head about things, or we can pop in and see the teacher. I think that's fine for most people, although I can see that it would be of benefit to parents who work. However, I would want to see the texting service at my DDs school, as we had that at the old school and it was fab.

At Secondary, I think emailing becomes more important as there is less access to the form / subject teachers. I teach 6th form (college) and I'm often in regular email correspondence with some parents. As a teacher, it is my preferred method of communication with parents.

We have every teacher's email address and it's the preferred method of teacher/parent communication, although they do phone us sometimes too. It works really well. I've only used it a handful of times, but teachers have emailed me about all sorts of things - work, exam, pastoral matters..
All general communication is via email. Where needed, we print off reply slips and send them back in with DDs
Before DDs started the school we had emails letting them know which classes they'd be in, how to get in contact with individual teachers over the holidays if they needed to, books they might find useful to read before starting etc.

The HoY for yr 9 phoned me several times over the holidays to tell me about plans for the first few weeks of term and to organise a social get together for DD3 before she started. DD1s teacher (6th form) even gave her her phone number so she could get in touch if she needed to when she was on holiday!
Coming from a school (overseas) where you couldn't meet with a teacher without a 'chaperone' (and even then it was almost impossible) it's been a revelation!

"No telephones on our floor" sounds like a massive red flag for health and safety reasons. A union matter, in fact. If for some reason can't put phones in then staff should be given a mobile for those rooms.

One other issue is who to communicate with: a parent could work out the teacher's email in many cases. But are they the parent we are allowed to communicate with, or perhaps a no-contact or abusive ex? Is the child in some kind of care, then might not be parents we speak to at all? Before contacting any parent I'd need to establish this from someone higher up.

We mostly use emails to communicate with our dc's secondary school, although they also require written notes for absences which is a bit annoying but I guess they don't have any way of confirming that the email is from the parents (although they also wouldn't know if a note was genuine or not).

We don't ring in because the office never answers and we don't have numbers for the teachers. We get fairly regular emails from the teachers with links to their grades and key information if needed. ds hands all his work in via email (he is dyslexic so types everything). dh did have to go in to school to talk to dd's PE teacher as he wasn't wanting to accept the letter we sent in asking her to be excused from PE for a few days after a run of illness, so dh wanted to express his feelings about that (dd got stressed and had a migraine so dh was hopping). So it doesn't always work! Still for most things it is easier.

At primary we had a couple of teachers that liked to use email as their primary communication method and it was great, a quick email to everyone once a week to tell us know what was coming up/due. Plus we had a mail home every time ds was difficult in class (or good :)) so we could follow it up at home and ds knew he couldn't get away with 'forgetting' notes.

I still don't get why teachers (mainly primary) have such a problem managing e-mails. It is only a means to facilitate communication. Parents who are a pain on e-mail are probably a pain in many other ways. Surely you learn to deal with the difficult cases, instead of establishing a policy of not communicating with any parent.

I work at University and deal with 200+ students. My e-mail is public and I receive work-related e-mails from all kind of people. The ones from students are usually the easiest to deal with. Of course writing an e-mail creates the expectation of an answer, the same way that writing a note and handing it out to a teacher creates the expectation of an answer.

I honestly don't understand how it can be so difficult to deal with occasional e-mails from a group or 30.

2primary. 1 yes and 1 no. I have a much* better all round relationship with the 'yes' school.

I am realistic about what I email about - they are always short, factual exchanges. It has mainly been useful for arranging ad-hoc meetings (Dear Kifettes teacher, I understand you wanted to speak to me. I am working tomorrow but anytime Thursday or Friday is good) , and for when school asked for some 'specialist' volunteers (Dear Kifette's teacher, I'd be glad to volunteer for craft day. I have a jewelery business, and I can lead groups of up to 6 children at a time making necklaces).

The other school: (Dear Office, My son is upset that three bigger boys sat on him and wouldn't get off. Unfortunately I will not be collecting him this week - could you kindly ask the class teacher to keep an eye on things) *no response. At parents evening teacher says message never reached him). Or fill in a slip offering to help with xyz, be a little put out to be ignored. Find the slip folded inside a homework diary 6 months later.

At the other school - I feel it is very difficult to get heard. Unless it is serious enough to warrant an appointment - I cannot quietly raise anything. Going through the office feels like megaphone diplomacy - because I know that everything but the simplest message will be lost or mangled.

At the first school - it is a stroke of a keyboard to quietly and discretely mention that (for example) the family cat is very sick, and the DC is potentially fragile about it. Not major - but so much easier if everyone can communicate.

Two schools - can email office at one school, and teachers at the other. Both systems work well as the office at School 1 is fab. Both schools also send texts a few times a week about various things which is handy.

Oh I remember one! Holiday homework. DD in a puddle of tears because she'd forgotten some crucial specification from the teacher about how the work was to be completed - and was refusing to do anything that might be wrong.

"Dear Teacher, could I please clarify the holiday homework. Kif"
" Dear Kif, Homework is XXX. I spoke with Kifette on the last day of term to focus on XXX because this aspect has been letting down the quality of her work. Have a great holiday! Teacher"

and I immediately understand what is required, and why DD is so sensitive over it, and how I can best support her to make a good start the following term.

the alternative would have been tears, wasted effort, fearful DD and aggravated teacher if her steer hadn't been taken on board. It was something like asking DD to not use bullet points instead of proper sentences - so really not worth a meeting or a phonecall to discuss - but not something I would have naturally focussed on with DD being a bullet outs abuser myself

& one from the sports teacher to me

" Dear Mrs Kif, Kifette has no shorts in her PE kit last three weeks. SHe has been making great progress with netball. "

"Dear PE Teacher, very sorry about that. I'll buy new shorts on my way home from work. She's been really enjoying pE this year, thanks for building up here confidence."

I find it makes communications so much more natural.