Can’t contact teacher directly, is this normal?

[ggmom87]

We’ve just moved, and our children are starting at a new primary school. I just learned that there is no way to contact class teachers directly, we’re not given their email address. All communications to teachers must go through the office and be forwarded onward. The office has a fairly bad reputation for not responding to emails / taking weeks to respond etc. I’ve already experienced this firsthand. So this whole arrangement makes me feel quite cut off from their teachers. Is this normal? At their old school we could email teachers with questions and concerns.

This is normal because lots of parents abuse this system. Does the school have another means of communication, eg Class Dojo, Seesaw etc?

Absolutely normal.

Normal

I found a thread on this topic from 2 years ago which answered my question. Wish I could delete this thread now.

It’s normal. Primary teachers don’t have any time built into their working day for dealing with parental emails.

Totally normal. The office will filter your email to the correct person.

The only communication system for class-specific info is via notes written on a whiteboard outside the classroom that we can look at when we collect our child.

Absolutely normal. I would never give my email address out to parents. Seesaw is bad enough!

*We’ve just moved, and our children are starting at a new primary school.

The office has a fairly bad reputation for not responding to emails / taking weeks to respond etc. I’ve already experienced this firsthand.

Before they have even started.....when the teachers are on holiday ?

Totally normal. If you have a pressing need to talk to a teacher they will ring you or arrange a meeting at the start or end of the school day or you wait until Parents evening.

Why have you moved your children to a school you are unhappy with?

Ffs teachers aren't even back yet and the abuse is starting..,

Do you pick up or drop off your child?? That's contact! If not leant a message for the office asking teacher to contact you!

Normal. We removed class email addresses as the sheer outragrousness of some parents was unbelievable, from abuse for dealing with incidents when their child was at fault, for not dealing with incidents that a child hadn't reported, absolute stupid "He said she said" emails, abuse because a child said they had been shouted at, demands for immediate phone calls at 8 or 9 at night, can we find a missi g jumper and no it doesn't have a name in, being told they better find their child's £70 coat because they don't know where it is, why haven't they got homework, they've got too much homework, can you help with this homework, can they please be set harder homework as they are far too advanced for this homework, why was my child kept in at lunch?, why didn't they get toast at break, is it true someone has got covid? What's my child's dinner money balance, when is it PE? Where is their swimming cap? I want to watch cctv of a full lunch to see who hit my child, a lunch time staff ignored my child I want to complain, I don't feel like you line my child, why was my child's mobile phone removed they didn't do anything wrong, why aren't you going with them on the school trip are you pregnant, can I request my child is / isn't placed with this massive list of pupils x 30 emails.

That's why.

So you either speak face to face at drop off or pick up or contact the office.

School have been back for two weeks where i am. Not everyone has the same holidays.

Private schools give out all the teacher emails and it's so much nicer than having battle past the office dragon to get a message through!

Charming.

They're not office dragons, they just have dickhead filters on. If that's been observed maybe it's telling you some thing 😁

I have the email address of my youngest's teacher in primary school and eldest's in secondary. Thought that was normal as I also had the email addresses of their teachers in their previous school before we moved.

Some schools definitely have office dragons!

Here here

I'm in the US. Public school here but have the teacher's email, phone extension, and for the kindergartener (so elementary age) an app that we can message whenever but obviously she only responds during working hours.

Normal - a lot of parents abuse the system with their demands so by going through the office, the teachers have some protection.

I’m in the US and it’s a mixed bag. They often use apps now which the classroom assistant will have access too. I have the teachers email addresses but I don’t email them unless it’s something really important. Our elder two have ASD/ADD so if they are having a horrific morning or have had a meltdown over homework I will write a quick note so they are aware. Im also clear with their teachers that I don’t expect a note back. I also never expect a response to a note unless I ask for a response which is phrased ‘please can you suggest some times that work for a quick zoom call if an email doesn’t suffice’ because quite frankly, at 3pm I have another 3 hours of work and so does the teacher.

Moving the children to private school, I like that the teachers don’t tolerate parent’s poor behavior. There is a shortage of private schools where I am so everyone is on their best behavior. I’m having a better time as a parent because all parents are aligned with a similar standard of behavior. Play date cancelled today because the other child had homework not finished. The mother called me back at 2pm and said, she’s done her homework so I can now schedule. Damn straight I made sure my daughter had finished her homework too and they went swimming together for fun this afternoon. That sort of alignment with other parents never happened at the local public school.

I love this - couldn't be more accurate!! We have a policy that you contact the office and you will receive a reply within 72 hours.

Within 72 hours, so 3 days??

Honestly, each time I read threads on here about schooling in England I'm so glad to be out of it. The parents poor behaviour, the teachers who are so burnt out they're like bloody zombies teaching, and yes the office dragons.

It's a terrible system that is just not fit for purpose.

I'm not in the UK anymore. I emailed my DC teacher last week because they are having a hard time at school. I got a call back that day after school and an apology for not replying sooner. We worked out a plan on a 10 min phone call to help dc2.

I do school drop off and collect but that's not really a good time to catch the teacher, or have these types of conversation 🙄

If I had to wait 3 days for a reply to my email about my upset and almost school refusing grade 1 I'd think that was pretty shit.

Badly behaved parents have ruined a perfectly good system of communication between parents and teachers.

Dc1 had 8 teachers in year 1 when she was in school in London. It was an absolute shambles, just a revolving door of teachers.

If you’ve only just moved, so have no direct experience of trying the system yourself yabu to be moaning based on hearsay.

You're setting yourself up for a lot of unnecessary stress if you’re going to start worrying/complaining about things at school that haven’t even happened yet, and maybe won’t even happen.