Can you contact your DC's teacher directly?

[eleusis]

Either by phone or on e-mail?

I can't and I hate it. I have to leave a message at the main office, then they call me back and if I miss the call, I have to call the main office again. It seems so prehistoric.

Quite normal IME.

When I had my own office I didn't have my own phone line, and messages were left at the school office.

We have some mobile numbers for texts (eg late requests for someone to go to afterschool club). And we have the daily contact book which I guess serves as email - the teachers check it each morning. And if there are any other issues during the day then we use the office. So if ds has had a crap night's sleep or was tearful at drop-off I can phone the office - they will then check with the teacher and either the teacher of office will phone me back. Tbh this probably works better than voicemail/email because I can be pretty certain that the teacher will have read and signed the contact book by 9am, and if urgent the office will happily interrupt a lesson (whereas voicemail can't).

Sorry Xpost. If she was already running late then wouldn't she have gone onto the next parent. Or if you were last then she may not have stayed glued to her desk - many teachers do their prep at home.

No. You leave a message with the school secretary. But before school there is usually a chance to speak to the teacher informally.

Sorry Eleusis, but if you are talking about primary, then I think what you're asking for is extremely unusual and a little unreasistic. Speaking from personal experience, phoning you 25 minutes late is really not that bad. I know you're cross about it, but if the teacher has had to go to the office to phone you, if you weren't there, she was extremely unlikely to sit by the phone and wait for you to call back. She probably went back to her classroom to carry on with preparation work, or speaking to the next parent.

It's a shame she didn't apologise in her answerphone messge, but she might just be one of these people who hates leaving messages.

Nope. My mum is a teacher, and if I need to contact her, even in an emergency I have to go through the office.
OK - I know her mobile number, but she can't turn it on until break time.

I think you are assuming that as you would be reasonable of your expectations if the teacher had a phone in her room, but there are hundreds of very unreasonable parents who would beleive what they have to say is far more important that the teacher teaching. I have had parents follow me round school, calling me by my first name in front of children and when I explained I could give them time before school some (not all I would like to add) think it was fine to go way over the 20 mins I could alot them and the HT had to come and ask them to make another app if they felt they needed extra time.

I was always available before and after school for parents to discuss anything they feel they needed to regarding their dc's.

I agree with the poster who talked of how it works in doctors surgery. You would never dream of phoning them directly.

Well, you are going to laugh. But, I do call the GP and ask her personally to call me back.

Oh well, the intent of this thread was really to find out if this is usual. And it appears it is.

ThinkI will send ane-mail to the school e-mail box. And hopefully will get a response tomorrow about a suitable time to reschedule.

Can't you just send a note with your child? This will get directly to the teacher without having to go through the school office.

It's not unreasonable to phone the office and ask for the teacher to call you back, as I suspect you do with your doctor. Just unrealistic to expect a teacher to have a direct phone line. WHich would be pretty redundant most of the time anyway.

It's reasonable to make teachers a little inaccessible because so many stupid time wasting parents who think their God like child is the master of the universe constantly bother teachers and many parents are complete idiots anyway who need to be curbed and kept off school premises otherwise the whole thing gets out of hand.

Most people can send a note in.

Dd's teacher gave his email address out to us but ds's teacher didn't and she frequently forgets messages or notes from the office. You have to try and catch her in person.

most phones in classrooms don't allow outside access s- they are internal only

e-mail access to teachers doesn't sound unreasonable to me.....she can always ignore/delete the irritating parents,( not you am sure Eleusis but know what Xenia means...there they are every morning fussing the hind legs off a donkey about their dlicate little genius...)....personally have never had occasion to contact teachers...

i agree with every word Xenia just said - eloquently put as usual!

It wasn't a big difference in time Eleusis. Teachers' days are very different to office workers. I said that on the other thread too. There is a way round the system I'm sure but they do make themselves a bit inaccessible. Every parent thinks he or she has a good reason to speak to the teacher urgently. If you multiplied that by the number of kids they teach, it would be impossible for them to do the really important part of their job.

If you ring and leave a message it will get to your child's teacher, just as the message gets to you on your voicemail, it's no different. Yur teacher was rude not to apologise for not phoning, but you have no idea what she had been dealing with and she couldn't have told you as it's confidential. Also remember it's not your child's teacher that decides when parents evening is going to be, that's the decision of the school and she has to fit in with them. I think by agreeing to phone you she has done the best she can.

Many workplaces have telephones that aren't contactable from outside- they can dial out but need incoming via a switchboard. Trust memon this, was redceptionist for many years for some alrge companies. Nobody wants to be constanbtly receiving calls when they have aclient with them after all.

I could see the benefit of a computereised voicemail system of the kind where you just key in your personalised access code, of course, but have to sady I agree with the Omnopotent Secretary theory