Communication with Teacher - what to expect?

[ConstantWorrywort]

Hello, Mums.

Can I please get some guidance on communication with the form teacher?

DD started at a new primary school in September 2014. The previous primary school she was at, her teachers in all years were very good about communicating via email. Any communications that the school chose to send to parents via flyers/slips of paper did actually reach me, and I was well-informed about the goings-on at her school.

Not so much the case with the new school. Form teacher not responsive to emails; school office is better. Majority of the parent communications made via paper slips don't reach me. When I write to the teacher and ask about these missed comms, her response always implies that DD did not ensure it reached me. If this was the case when DD was at the previous school as well, I'd have no problem accepting the explanation. The end result has been that I find myself getting very cross with DD (I know, not a desired reaction for anyone).

Any advice, please, on what I could do to fix the situation? Have had words with DD that this cannot keep happening, and that if the issue is indeed her, she needs to amend asap. But if there's something - anything at all - that I could say to the teacher as well, please suggest.

Many thanks in advance.

What year is she in? Form teacher makes me think of secondary school? I'm a primary teacher (usually called class teachers) and if parents want to see me-they catch me before/after school at the classroom door or send a letter. I don't have a work email address and parents don't contact us that way.

I used to catch DD's primary form teachers at pick up.

I now volunteer at the same school, and the children now all seem to have what they call contact books where communication between parent/teacher takes place.

I don't think they give out the teachers' email addresses, but at DD's secondary we are given a booklet which lists them all!

What is DD's school's website like? You might find more info on there about future events, if it is kept up to date.

In my school all written communications are placed in the child's book bag in KS1 and in their hand in Ks2-what happens then can be anyones guess, some children can be handed a letter as they go through the door and have lost it by the time they reach their parent! However parents have the option of having all written communications emailed instead, it does mean they have to be printed out at home but at least you get them ( they are also all put on the school website so can be downloaded from there) Teachers do not use their emails to communicate with parents, you could email the office but, as they receive over 200 emails a day, there are some days when they simply dont have time to read them all! A quick word before or after school is fine or a phone call to the ofice to make an appointment if a longer chat is needed!

Fairly unusual IME for class teachers to communicate via e-mail with parents.
Just from reading the threads on MN, you can see there'd be THOSE parents who wanted to be e-mailing all the time, about the most trivial of things, and, with 30 in their class, they'd just not have time to keep up.
Generally, notes home via dc.
However, depends what you are missing - if it's whole school things / dates / events, then I'd have thought they'd be on a newsletter, which may well be on the website? Or thee might be a facility to get that by e-mail ?
Talk to other parents if you can and see if you have missed something they are all using.
I've read on here that quite a lot of schools' parents have set up FB groups so they can just check with each other details of things they've missed, or misplaced letters about.

Thanks for the comments, everyone.

As DD takes the coach to school, I don't get to have a quick word with the teacher before or after school hours, which is why I have to find other ways of staying in touch with the school/teacher i.e., school email. The school bulletin that's emailed has school-level information; it's the things at class-level that I was referring to in my original post.

Point taken about talking to other mums; still getting used to the idea of being a "new mum".