Newsletters from school

[SW1A1AA]

Just wanted to ask some questions. How often do you get a newsletter from your school? How long is it and do you read it all? The one from my DC's school was 11 pages this week!

Weekly by email. Divided into sections such as sport, music, news so you can skip sections if you want. Length - depends in what happened that week.

Never. Well maybe once or twice a year - and they are not really news, more the headteacher telling us about new rules/changes. I'd love 11 pages of things that were actually happening at school!

Once a fortnight. Emailed and handed out. Between a sheet and 2 of A4.

Once a month and before the end of each term a larger one, whole school, not class.

The monthly one is between 4-6 pages, mainly achievements and some general news plus a calendar update.

The termly one is also more in details about events which happened, things which will happen the next term for the school, news regarding staff etc.

We get it via Parentmail app or email, it is also on the website for the term.

Once a week it's usually within sides of A4 with about a quarter of that taken up with dates of future stuff happening. There are also lots of photos so not loads to read. Every now and again we get a bumper issue like at Christmas or when the year 6s come back from their residential etc.

Once a month on a double sided a4 sheet, plus at least a letter every other day of the week.
That's in primary school.

Weekly, 2 sides of A4, only really includes a letter from the head (would be reflection on the week at school or topical issues), attendance stats, weekly update from each class (2 sentences written by the children), star of the week, calendar of events and PTA update.

Once a week, 1 or 2 sides of A4.

Ours is weekly,1-2 sides of A4. It is a mixture of stuff that has happened in the week,with photos and upcoming dates.
Everyone is given a copy and still parents say they didn't know about events...

Emailed once a week. Mix of school stuff and some external stuff e.g. Local tennis lessons. Two to six sides of A4.

My dd school is 1-2 sides of A4 on paper and emailed. I skim read it all. Mix of past and future events / list of all letters home. School also has active Twitter feed and all classes have active blogs for photos / class specific reminders / requests etc - updated at least weekly but often more regularly.

Emailed weekly on Friday after school closes, 2-3 pages of A4 brief highlights of the 3 year groups (YR-2) for that week. Key info for the up coming weeks plus a list of key dates for the remains half of the term at the end.
I read it on the train on the way home from work and plug all the key info into our online family calendar plus set reminders on my phone for one-off events.

Whole school email once a term with dates and special announcements. Once a term with the year group curriculum on it and a weekly email from the class teacher letting us know what they will be learning this week and anything that we need to bring in etc.

All are about 2 A4 pages.

Weekly. Never more than 3 pages. Shared on the school website with paper copies stuck up in every classroom window for those without computers/smartphones/who forget to look online.

My children are at three different schools (not by choice) and the quantity of communications can be overwhelming. In the last seven days I've had 14 different emails from the three schools (this does not include notes in book bags etc).
When my children started school, letters were always on paper, placed in the children's book bags. This must have come at significant cost to the school, in terms of money and time, and so letters were few and far between. Now, most communication is done electronically which involves almost no cost to school, but the quantity of information being sent home has increased enormously.
In theory I think it's good that schools are communicating more with parents now but I do struggle to stay on top of it all and sometimes wish they didn't send quite so much home. I suppose I'm more sensitive to it because it's coming from three different establishments. Perhaps I'd welcome it more if it was just one school's news to keep up with.

Once a month. Sixteen pages. And there's always something in there that's really important - change of date for something that's been on the annual calendar for 11 months already/Oh look we decided next tuesday everyone needs to wear a red bow tie/bring in a tin of beans etc that I'm sure they shove in to catch out whoever hasn't slogged through every single line of the entire 16 pages. Once they asked us if we liked it, and people asked for weekly updates, changes to dates to go out via email, at the very least to put bookmark links in the pdf but no. No.

Funny how the secondary school manages to send out 2 sides of A4 once a year Job done

Whole school newsletter comes out every Friday and is 2 sides of A4 - covers star of the week, house points, dates for the calendar, sports achievements, match reports etc, plus external news occasionally eg last week's had info about where to take bikes to get them security marked.

Year group newsletters are ad hoc and tend to be a single side of A4.

Both come by email and are not printed off.

Very envious of those with sensible letters. Ours are never less than 8 pages. Every. Bloody. Week. At least it is by email but we also get additional emails about various matches / changes / non uniform day as well. It is never ending.

It's not a massive school either. Less prob about 350 - 400 kids.

what is in your newsletter SW?

Ours is once a month and one of 2 sides of A4

DS2s school is tiny, less than 150 pupils, and we get about 8 pages every week, emailed. Most of it is photos and stuff you can skip - 'nursery have had a wonderful time playing in their new sandpit' type of thing- with the odd important bit thrown in. I particularly like the match reports which are written by the kids. They tend to be along the lines of 'on Wednesday we made the long journey to St Richgits to play rugby. We tried very hard but they beat us 215-6. Johnny and Kamal both scored tries. Match tea was doughnuts. Thank you to Mr Dogsbody for taking us'.

Get sod all from DS1s school, which is very restful.

Why don't you tell them that it seems too much? There will be some poor soul who is creating it all. There will also be school staff organising and or running the activities, beyond their designated hours. Schools are under great pressure to provide lots of activities and communicate with parents but there does need to be a balance.

Whole school once a week, 2 sides of A4. Very rarely 3 if there is a big event coming up e.g. Christmas Fete. This has been the same in 2 primary schools. I'd find less frequent odd, I think.

It's good - by email, each newsletter features bit of news about notable trips/events/achievements that have happened e.g. star of the week, sporting success, arts/music, a calendar (with new dates added in bold so you can quickly check), and always some nice thanks to volunteers or whatever and a reminder to check Twitter for photos.

8 pages per week sound terrible! Suggest they do a class newsletter for the nursery sandpit type offerings :-)

Whole school once a week, 1 side of A4, on the website.
EYFS ditto, and ditto.
The odd extra letter e.g. ordering tickets for nativity, same size, same location.

Photos go on the school website or Facebook.

We last had one in April. They used to be weekly, then monthly then at random. One side of A4, teeny tiny print, 50% repeated content about attendance, the same spelling mistake in the opening paragraph for at least three years.

The school website was last updated about the same time, there's nothing more recent than Mother's Day on there.