Secondary pupil not allowed to wait in reception

I suggest you start getting the younger ones better at road safety. Either walk them to school or Park a good 15 minutes away from school and do the walk so they start to be more independent. It's a bit embarrassing that at 12 she can't do this. My 12 year old navigate her way across a major city, can plan routes to different places and routes and get buses, walks and uses the train. She's even got herself to other cities on the train. This didn't happen in a vacuum we did lots of steps from when she was young.

Totally different then. If it was a school bus, but came 20 mins late for whatever reason, then presumably there was an agreement with the school that the children for this bus would stay late on school premises.

This. She needs to be in the library. Tell her to go to reception at 3.45.

Just get a cheap Nokia replacement phone and she can go back in the library.

You can get a cheap phone and solve this problem.

my dd couldn’t handle navigating home at 12 either. She has some SN and navigation is one of her weaknesses. She got it eventually, but the number of practice sessions was insane and took years to complete.

Receptionist is not free childcare.

She needs to go to the library where there will be a member of staff working until 4ish I'd imagine in a secondary school.

Schools are there to care for the next generation. That receptionist is being a busybody
Mind boggling…
When does this compulsory care end, in your opinion, if not at the end of the school day?

Get her a cheap basic phone to receive texts

If she sits there, then others will think they can too. It can't be one rule for her and different rules for the others.

They should be in the library or whatever the receptionist told her to go. That is her work area and she's responsible for it. She does not want to be responsible for a bunch of children using it as a common room. Her job is not to supervise children, she just does admin. And the school day for the kids has finished quite a while ago.

It's true that your DH should try and come sooner or you should try and do some trial runs where you walk with her, then get her used to walking the journey alone. At 12 she should be able to safely walk on the pavement and cross roads without an adult present.

I work in schools. A 12 year old hanging around Reception for 30 minutes after school every day is definitely unusual, so I am pleased to hear that the Receptionist is asking questions. For all she knows it could be that your DD is avoiding going home. It's important that children are given the opportunity to make disclosures.

Having established that there are no safeguarding concerns, it's entirely reasonable for the Receptionist to ask that your DD is either picked up on time or waits in the library. In some schools the Reception staff go home at the end of the school day, they shouldn't have to stay late to be unpaid babysitters. In schools where the office remains open they will be taking calls, which are often of a confidential nature and dealing with parents and external professionals such as social workers who have come in for meetings, which are also confidential and can be very sensitive.

If your DD cannot walk home safely for whatever reason then she needs to be collected from school on time, even if this means putting the other children in ASC or she needs to wait in the library. If she doesn't have her phone then that shouldn't matter as there will be a clock in the library and she can simply make her way out at the time she knows she is being collected.

They offered the library she should go there and wait for text to come out
And she is old enough to learn how to walk safely on busy roads

It's a problem because
a) unless she's in a really tiny secondary school, there could easily be 10 or more pupils waiting for lifts and that would crowd out reception.
b) after school time, school is not geared to be responsible for her. As much as you can say she is old enough to wait by herself, practically if she did take ill or something on the school site, school would be responsible for her.

She either needs to go to an area which is still set up for children to use if there is one, or she needs to attend a club, or she needs to leave the site, at the end of school, not when it's convenient for her dad.

Wtf?? Of course it is!!! Stupid comment

So why can't she sit in the library like everyone else?

The school aren't saying she has to wait outside in the cold they just don't want her in the reception area it's blowing my mind that down posters think the school and the poor receptionist are in any way unreasonable.

They have been offered somewhere warm - the library.
Reception is not the appropriate place for students to wait, especially for this length of time and the receptionist has kindly pointed out that the library is available.
Not sure why this is such an issue.

I know it's a bit late now but you should have been working on it for years with increasing chances for her to do things independently so that by the time she started secondary school she would be able to get herself across roads safely and to walk home. I'd say you need to let her do this asap.

Whats baffling? It's a different situation here isnt it. No one is telling her to go out in the cold. She isnt welcome in the reception area. Shes waiting for her dad not the school assigned school bus. The open library is an option here.

@Bluevelvetsofa

School reception staff are not responsible for pupils after the end of the school day.

I don't think the receptionist is being asked to be responsible. The child just wants somewhere warm to wait. Surely that's not a lot to ask.... in a school!

Schools are there to care for the next generation. That receptionist is being a busybody.

If there are no special needs then you have failed her as a parent to let her get to this point without being able to cross a road. Out of my entire school the only students that wait in reception after the first week of year 7 are those with additional needs that are collected by taxi. Is it definitely that she can’t manage this task or is it that you want to baby her?

Walk to another public space, shop, cafe etc and wait there (or by the time she go there hopefully DH will have pitched up)

Ignore her. It’s not her job to tell you that your daughter can’t wait there

So clearly your school reception area was designed for people waiting for school buses (I'm assuming there were more than 6 of you?)

OP's DC's school is not. In her case the library is open for children who want to stay at school beyond the normal finish time. So OP's DD should wait there as she's been asked to.

It's pretty unusual for parents to come into secondary schools to collect their children these days. I would imagine any waiting area at reception is for children with SEN who need to be handed over, or for students who have been taken ill and can't be expected to make their own way home. Not for any secondary school student that fancies it.

Reception is not a child sitting service.

Most schools reception areas will close shortly after school ends. The receptionist probably wants to close up and go home. She might not be paid to wait around at that time.

When school finishes your child needs to go home, if that's not possible you need to make alternative arrangements.

If she is allowed in the library, then she should go in there.

Although she needs to check that this option is available, for health and safety reasons she can't just go and sit in there without prior arrangement.

Expecting them to accommodate her for 30 minutes after school ends is very unreasonable.

There is also a difference between a child waiting there for 5 minutes occasionally when a parent has been delayed and a family using it as free child care for half an hour every day!

either use what is offered - the library - or find an alternative

She's been asked by an adult to wait in the library.