Straw poll: do you have your DC's teacher's email address?

[Escolar]

I have DC at two different primary schools (for complicated reasons).

At one, the class teacher gave parents her email address (obviously her school one, not her personal one) at the start of term and told us to use it if we needed to communicate with her. At the other, we were told not to email the staff directly.

I just wondered which is common practice? I'm not someone who is constantly in contact with the teacher (in fact I've never used the email address I was given), but I do like the idea of being able to if I need to, without having to make an appointment or communicate via the school office.

Yes we do, independent SEN school. It’s really, really usefu.

Primary - no, but we have something similar to dojo / whatsapp for communication.

However, a family member is a governor so i could get have the teachers' email addresses if i needed them!

I'm secondary so this may be unhelpful, but our general policy is not to give our email addresses, as it sets up the expectation that parents can easily access staff and this could increase workload/often means that queries are sent to the wrong person etc. That said, I have given mine to some parents who I trust won't hound me with things that aren't relevant to me, or if I have needed to email them something. I think there are pros and cons to both ways!

Yes, all teachers are firstname.surname@schoolname
Similar here. We have SENCO and head, assistant SENCO because they make appointments and send us stuff for DS.
I think one of his class teachers was once copied in to enable her to attend and as they are all easy to work out we could email them.
But we don't on everyday matters unless it was to send an important document. We speak at dropoff, write in the diary or leave a message by phone with the office.

We don't. It would be really useful for me because we use breakfast club / after school club most days. Dd is only five so can't be relied on to pass on the message herself. So if I want to get a message to the teacher I have had to tell the breakfast club staff and hope that they remember to pass it on, which seems like a big ask. Examples include when someone different is picking dd up from school, when her brother had a vomiting bug and I wanted them to send her home at the first sign of queasiness, etc.

However from the teacher's point of view I suppose it would be quite annoying to have thirty different parents emaling you every day, so I understand why they don't give them out.

Goodnight we'd use their diaries for that.

I had never thought to do that. Although I am not sure if her teacher checks them every day, he only ever writes in them on Mondays and Fridays when their reading book gets changed.

Being honest with the current nightmare teacher we have with DD2 - I'd settle for ANY consistent means of communicating with her at times. She's hardly ever in the flipping class this term - leaving her student or TA or whichever random staff member's on non-contact time covering it and getting a message to her (of the quick "is it OK if this happens on a different day this week" variety) is a pain in the behind. Funnily they're one who really guards their email address details (could work it out with minimal effort if I was so inclined but I go with how the teacher prefers to be contacted) as well - anyone would think they were just completely avoiding parents! Doesn't read notes in reading diaries, won't set up any form of home-school communication books for children with communication difficulties (so you can't always rely on verbal messages being relayed accurately or at all)... total fucking pain in the arse situation this year.

Like I said previously - the other teachers I have their email addresses from when I've emailed the school office and asked for stuff to be forwarded onto them and they've replied from their school address - but I don't tend to use their direct emails unless they've contacted me about the issue from them first.

I cant see how relying on email for "x is going home with y" type messages or even lost things would work. The teachers are teaching so wouldn't be checking their email and could easily fall through the net.

I think Im happier with our schools system - infants tell teacher on the door/ring the office. Juniors you just put a line in their homework diary or tell TA on the door/office.

None of which requires a teacher response and the parent knows its been "seen."

I think our juniors in particular would get emails avout every little thing and really increase teacher workload.

Goodnight at our DCs' school they initial messages they've read so it's easy to find out! Maybe try it for something non-crucial?

Not explicitly given but our son's teacher is fine with emailing us occasionally and responding if we email her. Not all the teachers in the school are though.