Tes Reviews 76

Many teachers and people associated with education, have, over the years used the Community section of TES to ask advice, seek support and exchange views. In the midst of global chaos, with many people being isolated and alone, a decision was taken to arbitrarily remove that source of support, with no warning or care for those vulnerable contributors. It was done at a time that could not have been worse. It’s shameful and cowardly to behave in this callous manner, with so little regard for people.

I have been using TES for 30 years, initially as a paper for a wide range of articles and jobs adverts and then the forums and online job adverts. It became more right wing and often failed to really challenge the wrongs and political interference. Lazy journalism frequently trawled the community forum for cheap quotes often using them out of context and giving them a different slant or meaning. I know as this happened to me. As a result I stopped reading the articles, but continued to use the forums.
The forums were an extremely useful source of advice and information. Over the years many online friendships were formed and many people supported through problems in their jobs, health and family tragedy. During COVID and especially Christmas, when this support was much needed, TES closed the forums without warning. This was utterly callous and heartless. There are several extremely vulnerable posters who have now been left without any support. Shame on you.

TES have (or should I say 'had') a community board for use by educators or in fact by anybody with an interest in education. This was a very popular and useful feature utilised, literally, by hundreds of people over many years.
This had many sections including subject specific, international teaching, retirement, SEN plus a 'personal' board for general threads.
During the current difficult times of Covid, many people on the TES community forum for day to day contact and support through what have been very difficult times.
Without warning, the site was closed 'for maintenance' just before Christmas. Many users approached TES directly and were given the same story that the site was under ongoing upgrade and maintenance and, as time went on, were told that the job was bigger than expected.
Then, out of the blue, a sign went up on the site stating:

'Community is now closed
You may have noticed that Community has been under maintenance for the past few weeks. This was due to some essential work to ensure that this separate platform was in line with the compliance standards of the rest of Tes.
This work raised several other issues and as a result, we wanted to let you know that Community will not be returning.
Today, there is a need, greater than ever before, to ensure security, safety, data integrity and reliability. The nature of the Community platform, its set-up, and how it has evolved, has made this a bigger and bigger challenge. Of course, engagement and interaction is still available through our many other channels.
Community has been part of the Tes website for several years. However, we have also seen that as people engage with information differently, fewer and fewer people are using Community. At the same time, we have seen more and more subscribe to other information sources, such as newsletters and websites, or simply engage with us and others through our social media channels'
Forum platforms like Community also come with justifiable legal and ethical responsibilities. This means that every comment and every subject on Community rightly comes with an expectation for Tes to ensure compliance. Over recent years, this has become increasingly difficult for us to support and so it risks some conversations moving from healthy debate into potentially offensive territory.
The combination of these factors means it simply isn’t viable to maintain Community going forward.
We know that there were still a number of people that used this forum on a regular basis, and we hope that through our other channels we can still offer you the opportunity to engage and support each other in the same way.
Of course, although this facility may be closing, it doesn’t mean that we aren’t looking at how we can host this kind of engagement again in the future, using new technology and a fresh approach.

Thank you for the many conversations.'

This is totally shameful and shows a total lack of understandng for what teachers and educators are currently going through.

SHAME ON YOU TES!!

Took down the TES forums prior to Christmas saying 'Maintenance' was going on, Forums down for 4 weeks or so and then, announce they are no more.
A despicable act on the part of TES considering how many people rely on it in difficult times.

At a time when TES itself was promoting the importance of mental health and loneliness during the pandemic, it was extremely cruel of them to close down their community pages without warning. Many people relied on the TES Community for advice and companionship and friendships have been forged in real life. Even a brief warning would have enabled posters to gather contact details or to save information. TES has paid little regard for the human beings behind the usernames. I can only assume we generated little income for them. Badly done TES, badly done.

Taking down the Community forum with no notice just before a Christmas where many of your members were likely to be alone was a disgraceful way to treat people who had been loyal supporters. Luckily our community was indeed that and we will commune elsewhere. I won’t be buying a copy of the TES again or endorsing the site in any way.

How appalling to close down the Community forum after more than 20 years without notice at a time when many posters were vulnerable and struggling with isolation and illness, leaving them unable to get contact details. Equally poor to claim this was for essential maintenance and be obstructive in communication when asked about it. Moderation inconsistent for past few years. No understanding that a community of humans were behind the screens. Now the decision to close has been taken and they seem unaccountable. No responses on the Facebook page. You should be ashamed. Very ashamed.

Extremely angry and disappointed with TES.com. Beware of free trial subscriptions, can't even remember if I took it out. A total amount of £150 taken from my bank account without my knowledge over a period of 5 years. Found only one email in my deleted folder to say subscription had started in 2016. No reminders given to renew. Checked spam, and deleted emails back to 2016. I haven't even used the iboard materials, which was the subscription, then it
changed to TES Elements with no notification. Awaiting this year's refund. TES refusing to refund any of the previous years.

Unfair treatment of both authors and users.

Is a shame...I maked an order and they did not send me nothing. After 3 month, they did not give my money back.

They don’t properly describe resources and then refuse to offer refunds when you ask for them. Customer service is rude and they’ll just keep repeating the same line. Unacceptable conduct towards paying customers

Tes has millions of free downloads for teachers and great news articles too. It's also good for job-hunting.

I am particularly impressed with the customer service received at TES. Despite not having a live chat function, I received a response to my email and my issue was resolved within the hour.

Thanks TES team!