Anyone else fed up with constant school app messages and money requests?

[Dollywasbrunette]

This is going to sound crazy but does anyone else get fed up of ClassDojo, or any other app the school uses?

Since my son started back to school, I’ve noticed just how much I missed the peace of not having the school sending notifications constantly. On the second day back, I checked my phone on my break to realise I had 5 notifications. My son had one been in school an hour and 20 minutes.

Since then every day seems to get more and more. Today by 1.25pm there’d been 11 messages, 9 from various staff members and two from his class teacher complaining my son had a 193 page book last week that he hasn’t returned yet. My son is actually a really proficient reader, and doesn’t particularly enjoy many of the books at school. We go to the library every other Saturday and spend time reading for leisure. The other message was to say my son’s water bottle squeaks when he drinks, so he’s been sent out of the classroom to drink.

I’m not allowed to use my phone when at my desk, so find I’m behind in messages when I get home from work. Do you find that these apps just make us too accessible? I used to work in education and I honestly couldn’t imagine messaging a parent about a bottle, unless of course it was dangerous for whatever reason.

The other thing is, and I understand budgets are tight for schools, but my son’s school is constantly asking for money! The Christmas term is always the absolute worst as every day they want money for something.

Since he’s been back in school I’ve paid for a non uniform day, had to replace new uniform because he was allowed to dig holes in the ground with his bare hands, paid for 3 trips, a term of snack money (didn’t realise I was paying for half an apple a day), took food in for harvest festival and already bought raffle tickets for the school bingo night next month. He brought home a letter tonight for a trip next May, asking for £40 deposit by Monday next week. He hasn’t been back in school 2 weeks.

Sorry for the rant, I just feel between working full time to be able to afford school stuff, I need to have half a day to reply to ClassDojo!

So much faff. Yes. I have more or less given up.

When my DD was at school we had ParentPay. One charge was for a £45 voluntary contribution to the school which we refused to pay in all the time she was there Y7-13. They chased us for that debt when she left & we said it was voluntary so we weren't paying. Also, lots of demands for money for things DD didn't participate in or didn't take for GCSE for example, geography textbooks (she took History) or a ski trip (DD didn't want to go). We would also get demands for school meals money despite her preference for packed lunches. We would email the school, explaining that these charges needed to be taken off.

The messages about school life, personal conduct and safeguarding were constant but the good thing was we could turn the notifications off! I would check in every three days or so and most of it wasn't relevant to my child.

It's frustrating and can be expensive but you can always just say no. I said no so many times!

£40 by Monday next week???? That’s appalling. Most people need at least a month’s notice for budgeting reasons! I’d be having words about that. I 100% agree that school nonsense is OTT these days but your DC’s school sounds extra unreasonable, wow.

Do the scholl/teacher read your replies?

Yes it's exhausting. School expect prompt action from parents but you can't get replies from school for serious academic or social questions.

Teachers are busy but the system is broken and the home-school partnership has evaporated. Not possible for parents to fix it but I miss the old days where teachers set reasonable timelines.

I’m glad I’m not the only one. I missed a message a couple of days ago, as I was in work for 10 hours and then came home to chores, so hadn’t seen the message. I got a snooty message from one of the teachers because I’d missed the PE notification they’d sent it out at 2pm, informing parents it was PE day tomorrow. I am one person, doing my very best to provide and survive alone. It’s really starting to make me feel like a terrible person.

Why are schools asking for money?

The truthful answer is that they are chronically underfunded.
Departmental budgets are a fraction of what they used to be. The schools are just trying to improve things for your children by asking for contributions.

I can see why you’d be fed up with this. I don’t really have a comment to make on the asking for money but a lot of messages about inconsequential things will get you down. I wonder if they have been told to “communicate more” with parents but aren’t particularly good at it.

Yes. I got a notification today from ClassDojo at 6.35am. On a Saturday. It’s too much.

Is there a way to communicate this to the school? It depends on how your school is run but a polite message to the class rep to say that, while you are glad to hear from the school, getting so many messages means that you sometimes miss the ones that are important (like which days are PE days).

My daughter’s school sends one email on Friday afternoon which is filtered so I only get the stuff relevant to her. It isn’t perfect (sometimes stuff that isn’t relevant gets through) but it is so much more efficient than a drip drip drip of messages.