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

I'm the class rep. It's means I represent year 3 on the PFA and I use the WA group to pass on messages from the PFA to the other class parents about bake sales etc.

Being class rep doesn’t make me responsible for the WA group set up or any kind of official link between the school and the class. It's purely a PFA thing.

Both class groups I'm in are entirely drama free and not overly used.

i am a senior leader in a school and I know teachers in general aren’t keen on parent WhatsApp groups as, in some cases, they can lead to issues for the school. There have been cases of parents criticising the school or operational matters, on the WhatsApp, that can then snowball. Generally though, a parent will alert the school if things are getting out of hand.

We have PTA reps as opposed to parent reps. There’s an important distinction as they are purely there to help with PTA matters. They are not there to be the voice of the parents versus the school!

I have DC in year 6 and year 3. So far we’ve had a class Facebook page set up by a parent in reception, it was their 4th kid so they felt like they knew the ropes. Every kid has at least one parent on there, maybe 2.

Year 3 class - same situation, Facebook page. I literally have Facebook purely for these school ones 😄

Nothing to do with the school. We don’t have class reps - are they self-appointed or to do with the school??

Im in a WhatsApp group with about 4 parents from the opposite year 6 class. No idea why as I have only ever met 2 of them. In fact I’m going to leave it right now.

The nursery chat on the other hand……. Very busy, set up by a proactive mum who has now moved away, our nursery contracts say no WhatsApp groups so 🤷‍♀️

We only had whats app groups for special purposes: gift for teacher end of the year and one set up by teacher when they were going away for a week.

All other WhatsApp groups have been small btw mums who know each other (4-5) where you could ask for homework, if anyone could take their child, questions etc. Also if someone was being bullied so the other mums could talk to their children so that they could all look out for said kid.

Not so. I’ve found WhatsApp groups invaluable for reminders about non-uniform or inset days, lost homework page numbers etc, and no drama other than a brief interlude with a slightly loopy new parent god-bothering on it. No official remit from school, no official relationship with class rep, though the class rep woukd identify herself or himself on it annually.

And neither of DS’s primary schools, in two countries, had any other way of communicating the same information.

Our are encouraged by the school - the school originally set them up and emailed parents encouraging them to join- each has a class rep who acts as group admin. The rep helps manage queries, share comms, send reminders as well as arranges Christmas and end of year staff collections. Everything gets emailed as well but people always miss emails, misunderstand comms etc. Reps have their own WhatsApp group which they use to help iron out queries etc.

We’ve had a change head this year who clearly takes a slightly dim view of WhatsApp groups and has tried to step back from the school having any role in them but I don’t think she appreciates how much the class reps do to help resolve problems before they even reach the school.

@FuzzyWolf

Totally disagree with you. We dont have separate class rep updates - its all in the same group. Ours are extremely useful for reminders, last minute updates.

Urgent or time sensitive emails from school are screenshotted for ease of reference by the first to see them, especially if they come late in the day eg snow days etc; ie things that people might miss.

All questions asked are sensible and relevant.

Occasional jokes at end of term etc - nothing crazy.

Very efficient.

School set up the group and send the link but no staff are on it. The class rep is the admin and will pass on any updates, useful info and reminders. The rest is whole class party invites and lost jumpers. All very civilised and pretty helpful.

Sorry, I'm still of the personal opinion that WhatsApp class groups are not a good idea. Firstly they encourage too many parents to rely on other people to pass important information on, rather than actually read the correspondence for themselves. If you read your emails/check your kid's bags for letters/look at the school website etc you'll find all the information you need.

Parents discussing bullying on a class WhatsApp group is just asking for trouble!

Many teachers, myself includes, feel very awkward about whole class gifts. I'd hate for anyone to feel pressured to join in if they don't want to, or can't afford to.

Ours is just parents and opt in. It’s useful for reminders etc.

The schools I’ve been a governor at hated WhatsApp groups - nothing but trouble. No information was provided by the school to any WhatsApp group.
Information parents needed to know was provided directly from the school.

As a parent that doesn’t do many drop off and pick ups in school time at a school that’s terrible with communication I do find it useful! It is however very civilised, just info sharing, present organising at the end of year and Christmas , with the odd list jumper. As a teacher I have heard some horror stories.

Ours is used as much for social things as directly school related. A couple of times in the holidays there were messages put out asking if anyone fancied going to the park or sharing flyers for local days out people thought looked interesting. It's nice!

Our school had nothing to do with them and there are no class reps. They are for all 5 classes in each year group. (Yes it is a BIG primary)

I think our new head is similarly anti WhatsApp groups. They said it shouldn’t be needed and they’d be ensuring communication from the school was clear to avoid the need for a class rep role. Within a week they’d sent out a ‘dates for diary’ with incorrect dates, a broken link to an online form and a letter containing a double negative that no-one was certain what it was asking them to do. All issues resolved via the class reps in WhatsApp groups.

Whole class gifts are arranged without any pressure on individuals to contribute - always clear it is optional and no-one knows who has contributed. I think this is better than individual gifts where it’s much more obvious who is going into the school empty handed at the end of term.

Bulkying though I agree with you, it’s not the place to deal with issues like that

They’re a modern pain - 5 percent useful, 95 percent lost items, the occasional spat, complaints about school stuff.

one class rep was recently admonished on the class WhatsApp for posting too many reminders of school emails, by a mum who was always posting endless hockey reminders…like any group that can be fine or poisonous depending on the parent group.

That's on the school if they can't get their communications right. WhatsApp shouldn't be a replacement for good communication in the first place.

I would never expect anyone to give me a gift for doing my job, but if an individual feels they'd like to then I prefer the personal touch rather than someone passing some money to the 'class rep' because they feel too awkward not to partake (even if they really can't afford to). It's all far too commercialised these days (as with most gift giving occasions, unfortunately) and something which makes me feel awkward, let alone the poor parents who are seeing "let me know if you'd like to partake in a gift for Mrs B and the TAs" in the class WhatsApp. There's definitely pressure involved, even if it's not intended. The best gift a parent/pupil could ever give me is a personal thank you message in a card if they genuinely think I've done a good job. They are the things which are kept and treasured.

Our school is inbred and therefore a lot of the teachers are on the class WhatsApp as they have kids on the class themselves.

This is surely a big conflict of interest and you must have lots of parents knowing personal information about children and I doubt they are all capable of keeping things confidential, especially if they are TAs who are pretty much minimally paid as it is.

Absolutely.

Why wouldn’t a TA be able to keep something confidential because they are low paid?

It’s more that some in low paid jobs change jobs more frequently or (with regards to term time jobs) do them for the hours and move on quickly once they don’t need those holidays off. Typically in jobs where confidentially is important there is a thorough vetting of the employee and sometimes of their family (my parents and DH are all vetted for my job).

I’ve seen many parents who do long term voluntary work, or are employed at the school their children go to, end up in the pub at the end of term class social telling other parents all about things they shouldn’t with regards to SEN or behavioural concerns with children.

A TA is no more likely to breach confidentiality than a teacher.

Discussing bullying on a parent WhatsApp is so wrong on so many levels. As a teacher, this is why we hate WhatsApp groups. If your child is being bullied, you need to talk directly to the school.

Honestly, I think the attitude to class WhatsApps on here is the same as the attitude to ‘cliques’ and ‘exclusion’ on the school run — both as viewed by people who struggle socially. DH attended three schools in two countries where I was on a class WhatsApp, and there was never any bother, too much traffic, discussions of things that shouldn’t have been discussed on it, coercion into whole-class presents etc. They were useful for an occasional lost jumper, illegible homework page or passing on a reminder about the bring and buy sale, and it meant you had everyone’s number so issuing party invitations or texting to organise play dates was easy, or seeing if a bunch of people all fancied go8ng to the park after school on a nice day.