Emailing Your Child’s Teacher

Every principal, teacher and staff person in PEI schools has their own email address (they all end in @edu.pe.ca). In many cases your child's homeroom teacher will have sent their email address home on a card on the first day of school; if they didn't, you can often find it on the school's website (we have a directory of them here). If all else fails, you can send a note to school with your child asking the teacher to send their email address home.

The English Language School Board encourages regular communication between home and school through its policy on parent-teacher conferences, carried forward from the former Eastern School District's policy:

The [board] promotes regular reporting of student progress as set out in the School Act and Regulations. The District supports the involvement of parents/ guardians as partners in the education of their children, and believes that regular communication is important to achieve this.

In practice, each teacher has their own attitude about emailing with parents: our son's grade 6 teacher told us "email me 24/7 – I keep my iPhone under my bed" whereas other teachers only check email once a day or less. Some teachers encourage regular communication with home by email; others don't. You'll have to feel out your child's teacher on this issue; if you run into problems that talking with the teacher cannot address, talk to the principal at the school.

Regular email communication between home and school can help parents help teachers and help teachers help parents: many times, for example, my son has brought up an issue on the walk to school and I've been able to email his teacher right away so that they've been aware before the school day starts; similarly, teachers have been able to email information home to us that sheds light on things that happened during the day.

Email offers the opportunity to set up an immediate "feedback loop" between home and school that can help eliminate misunderstandings, inform parents about what's happening at school, get questions answered, and provide teachers with feedback on the situation at home.

When approaching this issue, just remember that teachers live complicated, busy lives just like the rest of us, and set your expectations relative to that.

If you have success stories about home and school communication, please pass them on so we can share them!