Contacting teacher

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If you spoke to the school office and asked for your child's teacher to call you, as you had concerns how long would you expect to wait til they called you?

We are not allowed to speak to teacher before school and I'm
Unable to do pick up, there is no email facility and I've been waiting over 24 hours for a call.

Unless I said in the message it was urgent, then 48-72 hours I think.

Depends what it's about. If it's bullying or safeguarding I would expect a call back within the day. If it's general academic or friendship stuff then it's more likely to be a few days, and in that time the teacher would probably have kept a particular eye out to see how the child was getting on. If you didn't specify what it was about it probably depends more on the tone of the message the office passed on whether the teacher thinks it's urgent or not?

I tend to drop in a note, either via child or office, with a brief outline of my concern and a request to chat. Then the teacher knows how urgent it is and can come prepared. (That sounds like we're pestering teachers all the time - it's only been occasional - when it was a bullying concern it was all sorted by the time the teacher spoke to us at pickup.)

I wouldn't be concerned at 24hrs. Obviously they are teaching during the day then might have after school commitments - staff meeting / sports fixtur / club / music practice / dare I say something in their own life like a dentist appt or something they had to rush off to.
Obviously if it were something urgent then I would have asked to speak to someone else at the time I was in school - a non-teaching member of staff.

Most schools have a policy for this I think. We are meant to reply within 72 hours (secondary). I'm surprised there's no email.

Or you could put a note in the reading record book.

I don't always get messages from the office immediately. Sometimes I haven't seen a note in my pigeonhole until the next morning, then am teaching, then have a meeting or club after school etc as a pp mentioned. I aim for within 48hrs but don't always make that. And if the request is made on a Friday, sometimes it's longer.

I don't think 24 hours is a reasonable expectation. Generally if a parent contacts school to speak to me, the office email me. If I am teaching and busy straight after school, I might not check email until later or next day I have a free period. Then I need to try and phone back, parent may be out. I then will need to wait for next window of time to do it. I would give them three days unless it is v urgent. If it is v urgent then write a note and send it in.

I aim for two working days, depending on urgency. It can also depend on the parent's availability. If they say they can only be contacted after 6pm, or only during a certain window of time, then that will impact when I can get back to them.