Teachers should ignore emails from ‘pushy parents’ says minister

Teachers should ignore emails from ‘pushy parents’ demanding immediate replies about their children when they leave school for the day, minister says

  • Minister Damian Hinds said too many teachers were replying to emails at night
  • Unions complain that pushy parents contact teachers at all hours of the day 
  • In some cases, teachers have been bullied on social media by some parents 

Education secretary Damian Hinds, pictured, said he is concerned by the number of parents contacting teachers after hours on social media and by email

Schools should tell teachers to ignore their emails when they leave work to avoid being pestered by parents, the education secretary says.

Damian Hinds believes the internet has ‘revolutionised’ communication between parents and teachers, but warns that at many schools it has gone too far.

He is concerned too many teachers are replying to complaints or concerns late at night on top of marking and lesson preparation.

Teaching unions have highlighted how teachers’ lives are being made hell by pushy parents contacting them at all hours of the day.

In some cases, teachers are even being bullied on social media by parents.

In a speech today at the Bett Show in London, Mr Hinds will say schools must help ease the workload by allowing parental contact only during the working day.

He suggests parents should only use only official channels and that teachers should spend a set amount of time per day answering queries.

He will say: ‘Email has revolutionised parent-teacher communication. I’m sure none of us now could imagine a life without email, but do we ever stop to think how much of our day is actually spent reading or replying to them?


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‘MPs have seen a step change in contact through email. For many teachers the situation is even more intense, with a huge volume of emails from parents and their senior leadership team that they need to respond to outside of lesson time.’

Mr Hinds still wants parents to have easy access to teachers to discuss their child’s progress, but believes this line of communication needs to be better managed.

He also wants internal communications to be overhauled, so that teachers do not have to deal with constant daily updates from senior leaders.

Teacher unions have said that some parents are incredibly pushy and contact teachers at night and some have even been bullied over social media (picture posed by models)

Mr Hinds will add that the heavy workload of non-teaching tasks, such as planning and marking, is ‘one of the most common reasons for teachers leaving the profession’.

He will urge schools to ‘shift away from an email culture in, and into, school to free teachers up to spend more time in the classroom’.

It comes as the Government bids to reduce teacher workload to make the profession more attractive.

Schools are being given an extra £10million to help cut workload through technology.

 

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