School won't send certificates

AKA

I don't like the responses!

May well be followed by:-

The post has been removed as it's causing the OP some anxiety.

It is not a pile on. You may not like the responses you are getting but that’s what happens on here. If you don’t engage then people will continue to ask questions

I was quite early in the postie's run thankfully. We had a lovely postie then, not like it is now when it seems to be a different one every week, but little did I know at the time that many years later he would be my FIL. He unfortunately died just before I met DH though.

I'd put your ds on the train to go and get them (or drive?).

How long did you live in that area that you or your ds have no friends willing to collect them?

What about ds's friends now, could you pay one of them to drive down and collect them?

Couldn’t one of his schoolmates collect them - the school won’t need to ID one of their own surely? If you send a stamped addressed A4 “do not bend” envelope ahead of time it would be so easy for the friend to just stick it in a post box. There must be one responsible fellow student your DS would trust to do this for him.

He’s 18. He’s perfectly capable of making his own arrangements to get them. Just bung him on a coach.

This is standard to collect them from school, they are important documents, and cost a lot to replace, so possibly why schools policy is not to post them.

All my kids certificates were posted to them.

It's perfectly possible to do.
Especially to a courier.

Exam certificates are legal documents - they are not being jobsworths - they are obliged to ensure they are collected by/with authorisation from, the owner of the certificates.

If the schhol posts your son's then they are opening themselves up to posting everyone's.

Say 200 GSCE students each year.
150 A level students.

And who does it? The exams officer? Just one recorded delivery admin is several minutes..at least. X 350

Who clarifies the addresses are correct? X350

Who is liable if it goes wrong? The school would have to chase Royal Mail for compensation....not you...

Who pays? You cannot just bung on a second class stamp...these are valuable documents.

And to be honest, asking an exams office for this in the middle of the exams season (rolls eyes) when there is a perfectly suitable (apart from to your lazy son), safe, low workload, cost effective process in place?

Go pick them up.

I was one of the first on our postie's round so I always got my results first thing. My mum would wait until I got them before she went to work so she wouldn't be worrying all day. My friend had to wait until after midday as she must have been very late on her postie's round.

A better solution for who? This solution works for the school and they have enough to do. Either the adult son goes and picks them up (which it seems he's not bothered about) or asks a friend or someone local to do it to pick them up and post them. That's also a reasonable solution but the OP doesn't want to do that. Or to pay for a courier.

The school is not being unreasonable.

Honestly, I'd just drive it. Or he hops on a train, 2 hours isn't Timbuktu.

Could you email the head to ask for a better solution?

Where is the school? Can anyone help here? I wouldn't mind collecting and posting if local and I'm sure others wouldn't either.

Mine was posted back in 1991, via school.
Some schools you got them direct from school.
It was a choice - school direct, at a 'prize day' or posted to you. Where I was anyway.

It does seem odd they won't make any arrangements with you beyond collecting in person and it being a known person with ID.

Many schools manage to post out certificates just fine.

DD's came by post from school due to Covid.
Her friend's school sends them out routinely by post.

Recorded post or courier should be fine. My school uses recorded post for documents quite fine. The office admin staff deal with those things here, albeit not exam certificates.

And there are ways to send important documents more security through the post. This happens fairly regularly in many other businesses, let's face it.

As school is being more difficult - and yes, it is difficult as it is a 4 hour trip, in a work day, in term time, between 8am and 4pm usually for schools - then I don't see much you can do, however, bar one of you taking time off work and getting them after they arrive.

The school I work in won't post certificates either. They have to be collected by someone known to the child.

He's an adult. The process is that if he wants them he has to go and get them or get a friend to do it. Let him deal with it. If he doesn't want to pick them up that's up to him.

Is there any reason why your adult child can't sort this out on his own?

I had this back in 1989 - I moved from England to Scotland immediately after GCSEs. My friend collected them for me, and I picked them up when I was next visiting (still had an older brother, nan and friends in the area so went back to visit at least every six months).

In Scotland (1990/1991) the exam board posted the results (and I think certificates) directly to people. That's how I got my results - opening the post in bed.

It's only two hours away - just go and get them. Annoying, but really not worth legal action. I think it is standard practice (same at my son's school). Definitely make sure they know when you are coming though, so it doesn't turn out to be a wasted trip for some reason.