Sending a note to the teacher

[davidla]

Our 6 year old DS burned his leg last week(cooking accident whilst helping his Mum) - so I sent a note to his teacher on Monday saying that he shouldn't do any exercise e.g. PE or go outside during breaks.
Last night I asked him what he did during the breaks - he replied "Oh, I go outside and play!"
Do you find that your teacher doesn't read any notes you sent them (I put it in an envelope in his school bag with the teacher's name on it)?
(I called the school this morning explaining what had happened and nicely asked them to tell his teacher.)

For a 6 yr old I'd put it in the teacher's hand myself, or hand it in at the school office.

Things can be in book bags forever, and I wouldn't trust a small child to remember.

Personally, I wouldn't rely on a teacher reading a note from a school bag. I would ask the school their preferred method of dealing wtih this sort of thing.

Did you check his book bag to make sure it's gone?

My son would never remember to give anyone anything - he carried all his Christmas cards home again, I found them in January when sending him back to school!!!

If I didn't see the teacher or the secretary personally - I would make sure DS had it in his hand when he went in and that he knew he had to give it to teacher or TA as soon as he went into school.

I would also probably ring the school to make sure the message had got through (or maybe just ring in the first place).

The school told us to put a note in his school bag and the teacher would read it, so that's what I did.
Funnily/stupidly enough I didn't check his bag to see whether the envelope was still in there - that might have helped!
Thanks for your replies.

throckenholt - yes, next time I will call the school to check they have the message.
No big deal - we live and learn!

well - yes if they tell you to communicate in that way - then you are right to be miffed.

But to be honest - I don't know any school where the teacher checks all book bags before lessons start every day - I would not have expected that to be a reliable way to get a message through.

I am a bit miffed, but no damage has been done so I'm not going to complain or anything like that!

When they say "put a note in his bag" what they actually mean is "put a note in his bag for him to give to the teacher". If you have the slightest suspicion that he will not remember to do so (ds still doesn't at 9), you need to make arrangements as suggested by above posters.

Every single morning when I'm teaching I ask, "does anybody have anything in their bookbags that's meant to go to the office/be given to me?". Even then I don't get all the forms/letters etc. given to me!

Message withdrawn

One of DS's teachers had a postbox in her classroom for notes. It worked really well - prevented her from getting mobbed by parents in the morning (or at least helped reduce the mobbing) and guaranteed that she'd get messages. Must ask why current teacher doesn't do this actually...

I doubt they look through the bags every day... so thats fine for stuff that you don't think is urgent, eg consent for school trip, note after absense, comments on reading, lunch money etc, so if it is urgent would be best to hand note directly to teacher.