Teachers across the UK are being bombarded with 'aggressive and accusatory' emails from parents at all hours, blurring the lines between work and personal life and taking a devastating toll on their mental health. This is according to the NASUWT teachers' union, which warns that educators feel increasingly entitled to be constantly contactable.
Sharon Bishop, a teacher from Wolverhampton, spoke out about the severe impact this is having, saying some colleagues have considered leaving or in extreme cases, contemplate suicide due to the intense pressure. The union heard accounts of parents using social media and direct phone calls to bypass traditional communication channels at its annual conference.
Dr Patrick Roach, General Secretary of the NASUWT, believes that teachers have a fundamental right to disconnect from work at the end of the working day and is calling for the reintroduction of home-school agreements. These were scrapped in 2016 but now need to be reinstated to set clear expectations for parents and safeguard staff from unreasonable demands.
The shift towards constant communication, partly driven by lockdown learning apps like ClassDojo, has created an expectation of instant availability. Scottish delegate Kat Lord Watson spoke about the 'watching and rating' culture on WhatsApp groups during online teaching in the first lockdown, which added to the pressure.
Research showed that parental complaints have become more pervasive and personal through these new channels. A small-scale study found teachers dealing with unrealistic requests, including help with homework outside of school hours, were reporting an increase in complaints that felt overly critical and intrusive.