Class WhatsApp groups

[MrsWobble4]

Hi, just seeking views. What’s normal here - are all parents included and if so how do you manage this. Is anyone from the school included eg teacher or TA. Who is admin and does class rep have a role? Thanks

All parents that want to, including class rep who is usually admin. No teachers.

Ours are parents only, but school are aware and sometimes teachers ask the class rep (who is usually admin) to send out comms - typically reminders of things that have been communicated more formally. All parents are made aware of the group and offered to join, but parents have to opt in (school doesn’t pass along personal emails).

Any parents who want to join, everyone is an admin unless the orginal admin is a controlling gate keeper. No one from
school is in the what’sapp group.

No class rep here. I have no idea what they do.

For mine, a Facebook group was set up for new starters of that class and shared on community pages to spread the word, and then WhatsApp groups formed from there. Admin is just whoever was organised enough to create the group / was willing to be the person to add people.

No class reps here and for the groups I'm on, teachers and TAs are only involved if they happen to be a parent of a child from that class themselves.

Any parent who wants to be can join the WhatsApp group. It’s generally self-policing. Ours is set up so everyone is an admin. There are no teachers or TAs involved but the teachers know it exists and ask class reps to pass on messages via the WhatsApp group. The class rep also uses it to arrange volunteers for school trips, collections for the end of term, donations for things. Participation isn’t mandatory but you’d miss out on a lot if you don’t join it. Separate to our class group, we have a year group chat as well but that’s mainly for birthday party invites and other social things like that. It’s a relatively small school and the classes have changed each year so all the parents in the year know each other.

They are parent led and parent run groups for those who want to be in them and can put up with people not bothering to read the class rep updates and those who endlessly ask if someone has seen their son’s or daughter’s water bottle.

Most schools provide all the information in emails or on their websites and the groups are completely unnecessary.

Ours was set up by a parent, no teachers, there is a member of the PTA but she's not the admin, no school notices posted there, more has anyone seen Arthur's left shoe, I'm stuck on the tube can anyone grab Sophie for me please, is it indoor or outdoor PE on Thursday etc. Every now and then it turns into the wild west and is very entertaining, most notably the anti vaxxer from reception year, she's gone now to take darling bella-mae to a school that doesn't 'poison our children on behalf of the government '. It was also the place we all found out the teachers had lost one of the SEN children on a trip when he's meant to have 121 supervision....

Our school provides info via a newsletter, app, random text messages and Google classroom. Verbally they will also change plans at the last second and tell different parents different things on the gate.

The parents WhatsApp (no staff) is where it all gets shared because it's all so confusing. Then occasionally we get a good spat going on in the WhatsApp group which is fascinating to observe.

We’re going into our third year and we’ve never had a spat in any of our class WhatsApp groups. It’s most disappointing.

Our school also doesn’t communicate much other than a biweekly newsletter so the WhatsApp group is really the main form of communication

Our school and PTA encourage all classes to have a WhatsApp group (which is optional to join) and a nominated rep. Currently all do and then all reps are in a second WhatsApp group with the PTA comms volunteers. We ask them to forward on any messages that we share into the reps group and we use the reps group for things like notifications of bake sales, asking for raffle prize donations, and our passive income streams (commission on name tags etc). We don't share anything with the reps about PE days/ trips / teacher collections. Some classes do some literally just use their WhatsApp group for the PTA notifications, others are a bit more active.
Where staff have children at school generally the other parent is a member of the WhatsApp group and we usually get at least one official letter from school per year reminding everyone to be polite about the school in the WhatsApp groups.

We don’t have spats in the WhatsApp group

I don’t rely on it for administration/ organisation purposes as I’m capable of following the information that comes from school.

I’m more in it for social purposes as people post party invitations & arrange socials on it

I’ve never heard of a class rep - sounds very official.

Ours is just birthday party invites and do they wear jeans or school trousers with their Christmas jumper?

Our school likes to send contradicting info so it isn’t so simple.

'Class reps' are an alien concept to me. I've worked in many schools and none of them have ever had class reps.

As teachers we've never been aware of class WhatsApp groups at my schools. Obviously some parents will have them, as part of a friendship group, but I can't imagine they include everyone in the class and they're certainly not official. We sometimes have parents ask if we have a class WhatsApp group when their child first join the school (Reception) but I just say no that's not something we as a school organise. The main reason no school I've ever worked in has approved of them is because any problems reflect on the school (parents expect school to get involved with issues on WhatsApp groups which have been set up by the school. They're generally far more hassle than they're worth!).

As a member of staff, I would never join a class WhatsApp group. No way are parents having access to my private details, nor would I want to be contactable out of school hours. Absolutely no way.

Yeah, you've just confirmed why I think class WhatsApp groups are an absolutely terrible idea. Anything that can descend into a bitch fest against another parent, child, member of staff or the school in general is a big no no for me.

I have a year 7 and a year 4 and our school has never done any kind of group. There was a parent group set up for sharing pics of the year 6 leaving party but luckily comments were turned off pretty quickly afterwards.

Yup - set up by the class rep (a parent volunteer who acts as liaison between all the class parents and the year/division head for parent-related issues). No teachers. Used to remind parents of dates/deadlines, ask if packed lunch required, birthday invites, organize teacher gifts, organize class gifts for Eg a child in hospital etc. It’s a thankless task.

This

I would avoid if there is no official link to the school e.g. class rep.

Thanks everyone

I find them helpful. Parents only, but with a “comms rep” who circulates PTA info about school discos and the like. No they aren’t strictly necessary but surely in the real world schools do say x and do y, or plans change because of weather, or some communications need clarification because they are ambiguous.

Our school has class groups and its brilliant. Its primarily pta but just useful info sharing and compensates for the school provided info which isn't always clear and saves 27 people all emailing the office to clarify the same thing.

Eg one parent will post "ive spoken to mr nelson at the gate, theyve said only y5 &6 can leave bikes in the covered shed this term as its cycling proficiency".

• Tara's missing her trainers, grey adidas size 2, anyone got them?
• pta uniform sale is on the 14th at 3.15, donations to Laura (y1) or Sarah (y3).
• the English homework is only the first page and hand it in on tuesday instead of monday.

Here we have all parents - no teachers. It is official
and teachers are aware of it. It’s set up and administered by that year’s form reps.

Ours are parents only. Class reps don't exist here!

Loads of our teachers are also parents and sometimes people dont realise this.
Both of my kids WhatsApp groups had teachers in group due to kids at the school