Messaging your child's teacher
How messages work, who reads them, when to expect a reply, and when to pick up the phone instead.
Sending a message
Open the Messages tab. Your family's conversation with the center is listed there: tap it, write in the box at the bottom, and tap Send. To include a picture, tap + beside the box, then Add photo.
Good for the ordinary things: a nap that went badly at home, a new food to try, a heads-up that today is a bit wobbly.
If you don't see Messages, your center may not use in-app messaging. Ask them how they'd like to hear from you.
When to expect a reply
Teachers read messages when they have a free hand, which in a busy room means naptime, after close, or the next morning. Please don't read a slow reply as being ignored — it usually means the room is full of children, which is where you want their attention.
For anything time-sensitive — a change to who's collecting today, your child being unwell, running late at pickup — phone the center. Messages may not be seen for hours.
When to phone instead
- Someone different is collecting today.
- You're going to be late for pickup.
- Your child is unwell or won't be in.
- Anything about custody or who may collect your child.
Who reads it
Your family's conversation can be read by staff across the center, not only your child's teachers, and staff are alerted when a new message arrives. Every parent or guardian in your family sees the same conversation. Treat it as a note to the center rather than a private message to one person.
Anything genuinely private — a family circumstance, a medical detail you'd rather not have in writing where the whole team can read it — is better raised with the director in person or by phone.
Group conversations
Staff sometimes start a conversation with several families at once — about a class trip, say. Everyone in it can see each other's names and replies. To step out of one, open it and tap Leave. Only a staff member can add you back.
Getting a useful answer
Specific questions get specific answers. "Did Amara eat much at lunch? She barely ate breakfast" tends to get a real reply; "How was today?" gets "good, thanks" from a teacher holding a toddler in one arm.
More: All family guides