Does your school have a habit of "dropping" things on you?

Abbafan1972

Ours does.

A lot of events going on at school we hardly get any notice and then if we have to get anything, I have to run round like a mad thing to sort it out.

Monday night, youngest DD brings a letter home which says the choir are performing a concert at school on Tuesday 4th July at 9.15am and they hope you are able to join us! DD had no idea what she was doing. Luckily I was able to go as I don't work Tuesdays.

My oldest DD is in year 5 and they are doing a production of Oliver on Friday at 9.30am. This afternoon, she comes out of school and says the dreaded words to me "Mommy, I need a costume for Friday". No letter or anything has been sent back from school, non of the teachers have said a dickie bird to us about it. My DD is a pick pocket apparently.

I can't get to the shops tomorrow, as I'm at work all day. Help!

PinkLipgloss

I'd take issue with the class teacher as its completely unrealistic to give parents such short notice, particularly when the school will have no doubt known about these arrangements weeks, if not months, in advance.

However, please note that it is most likely not his/her fault. The office staff should be organising newletters/letters or emails to be sent home. I'd ask for confirmation of the schools policy on keeping parents informed then work out where the problem lies from there.

As a class teacher I experience some shockingly disorganised parents!

My school prints home/school diaries for every pupil (nursery to Year 6) and EVERY major event is printed on it. Furthermore, they email all parents monthly newletters (with reminders e.g. Sports Day is blah blah date and time) AND I personally remind pupils of upcoming events (we look at our class calendar every morning to discuss date and how many days until X, Y, Z) ALSO I send reminders to parents as I know, for a fact, that several of them don't read the home school diaries or newsletters.

I still have parents that are oblivious of major school events! They forget to show up/arrange costumes etc. However, they don't dare complain as they know they don't have a leg to stand on! I typically get sheepish apologies after the event...

However MOST parents are great!

Slinky

My husband used to regularly get text messages saying XX wasn't in school today etc etc. Wonder who they were supposed to be going to as we don't have kids!

retireby50

I'm thinking of going part-time solely to enable me to manage my children's activities....actually that might solve it as I might not be able to afford them anymore.

Dear OP, sorry to hear your daughter is a pick-pocket, probably best to put a stop to it before it get's worse! More seriously that's just scruffy clothes and a flat cap (if it was my son 90% of his wardrobe would be fine).

Letters do have a habit of staying in the bag for days in our house which doesn't help.

Nan63

I'm looking after my 5 year old grandson for a few days while his mum and dad have a few days away together attending a family wedding. Looking through his school bag yesterday I found a note in there (dated yesterday) saying they were having a school fair today and could children bring in no more than £5 in change to spend on 'fair games'! It also noted that any parents who accompanied their children could take them home once they had attended the fair!

If I'd a bit more notice I could have got out of work earlier but as it is I wasn't able to pick him up any earlier than normal and my little munchkin was one of just 3 children left in his classroom.

Surely having a school fair is not something that was decided yesterday?! Why can't we have some more notice, do they think that every child has a stay at home parent or those in work can just drop everything?

pinkclouds

Abbafan1972 wrote: »

My oldest DD is in year 5 and they are doing a production of Oliver on Friday at 9.30am. This afternoon, she comes out of school and says the dreaded words to me "Mommy, I need a costume for Friday". No letter or anything has been sent back from school, non of the teachers have said a dickie bird to us about it. My DD is a pick pocket apparently.

Par for the course, I'm afraid. The amount of notice that I get for school events varies. Plays usually get a decent amount of notice but "days", where you have to go in with a particular costume/theme, are often short notice.

Work the street urchin look. Any old clothes you can use? Can you sew? Anything you can hack up? Grubby/formerly white shirt and one of your/hubby's old waistcoats? Google for Oliver photos as inspiration. Good luck!

room512

Our school sends text messages as well as letters to parents, so they're reminded! Some parents still deny all knowledge of events even though as they're telling me they're standing in front of a big sign on the door!

kiss_me_now9

I've not got kids but I remember being in year 1 and announcing to my mum one day that I needed to be dressed as a cat the next day for 'book day' or something.

Turns out I'd made it up and the teacher made me stay in my cat outfit all day whilst everyone else in the class laughed at me. I loved it

Used to regularly forget to give my mum letters as well and find them in my bag a week later, inevitably the day before the deadline...

angelil

^^ I'd agree with that...the "short notice" is far more likely to be the letter sitting in a bag for a week before it's given to you! I don't mean that maliciously but kids just aren't always organised (I know; I'm a teacher; I see plenty of it!).

Equally, I know that there can be some very disorganised schools which don't always give parents enough notice - but you shouldn't necessarily jump automatically to this conclusion unless the school has a proven track record of it

thorsoak

The schools that my grandchildren attend (in USA and Isle of Man) have websites, where they have all the notices placed - so parents can check school websites to find out exactly what is going on!

sweetcheekz

We had this in my childs school, regularly letters would come home with a day or twos notice for an event that need a specific fancy dress, considering we were on a base in Cyprus, it was almost impossible to find what we wanted on island, and took many days/weeks to get an internet order delivered.
I was chair of the PTA at the time, and having had several parents raise the issue, had a meeting with the Head to discuss it. An agreement was reach that all further events of this nature would have at least 2 weeks notice.
Might be an idea to speak to your PTA if you have one, they are supposed to be a voice for the parents not only a fundraising group.