Secondary pupil not allowed to wait in reception

Just because its convenient for your DD and DH it doesnt make it right or acceptable.

I know at the school my children are at the reception area is extremely busy with parents just before and after school finishes.

Children waiting for late parents shouldnt be hanging around taking up space. Best and safest place would be the library.

This!!
Schools aren't a childcare service for when it suits parents to collect their kids.

@madroid School is there for pupils during school time, when the teaching staff are in loco parentis. The same applies if they go to a homework club, library or other after school activity.

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

Why are you so baffled? The reception doesn’t want the kids there and the library is open… complete different scenario to your one clearly 🙄

Check the schools after school enrichment calendar, there is usually. Club even if it's homework club she can drop in and out of freely

If she needs to be picked up then she doesn’t wait in reception. It’s simple really

Op hasn’t said this, just that her Dd hasn’t been spoken to by the other receptionist.
It’s abundantly clear that she’s not welcome to do this for a full 30 minutes on a daily basis.

Why are you baffled. No one is expecting her to wait outside they just want her waiting in the same place all the other children are? How is that hard to understand?

wouldn't you rather go to the library and wait

If that's what the school want kids to do, then that's what she needs to do.

I am absolutely baffled by these comments. When I was at high school, I always had to wait at least 20 minutes for the bus to take us home. It was a school bus too, not even public transport. Of course we were going to wait at reception, rather than out in the cold. I don’t think our library stayed open after school every day either so couldn’t go there.

There is a difference between "allowed" and "encouraged".

The reception area apparently fits 6 students. Unless this is an unusually small secondary school, it's therefore not somewhere that students routinely wait, and it's clear from the receptionist's comment that it's intended for waiting for a short time only.

If home is within walking distance I think you need to let her walk. That’s what most of the other children do. They can’t let her hang out in reception because if they allow it for one they need to allow it for others. Yes she needs to go to the library if the school are happy for her to do that,

The poor receptionist is not a teacher and will have a lot to do/deal with at the end of a school day which should not involve unpaid childcare! It sounds like she has been very patient and accommodating up to now but it's time to sort your logistics out. There is no way we would let a student wait in reception for this long on a regular basis. Often there are visitors or parents coming through reception and/or conversations, phone calls and interactions that a student shouldn't be overhearing due to privacy let alone safeguarding.

Is the library at school? Whats the problem with her waiting there instead?

The receptionist is not being a jobsworth. You'd have a point if it was a one off and there was no other places to wait but she's essentially being expected to supervise this child for 30 minutes minimum each day after school has ended.

Despite the child being nearly a teenager and there being numerous alternative arrangements that could be made the OP and her husband are essentially expecting their child to be supervised by this women.

Just replace/repair her phone, surely? It’s obviously a necessity for her, if she need to stay late in school as you won’t allowed her to walk home and are unable to collect her on time. It must be embarrassing for a 12 year old to have their Dad come into school each day to collect them.

I don't understand why everyone is being so precious about waiting in a school reception area. She's a schoolchild, the school is there for its pupils and no one else is there.

It's not like she's playing loud music or disruptive. Talk about a jobsworth!

I also imagine the receptionist 'quizzing' her was due to safeguarding concerns. A child waiting in reception rather than the library. Parent coming in 'late'. I imagine they logged it as a concern and may have been asked if they knew why the child is hanging around this area.

This - if DD goes to the library, which is staffed by those authorised/expected to be in loco parentis of students using it, then she being safely supervised and also not in the way of visitors/users of the reception area. I would ask that she goes to the library for 25mins and then meets DH outside at 345.

She could sit in the library and use the time to do homework. We used to have afternoon registration for half an hour after our lessons had finished. I used to do some homework better than sitting twiddling my thumbs.

Yabu. Pay for after school care if or let her walk home like most children her age. No way should she be in the reception area. Can't believe the school allowed it so far. You and your husband are a CF and the staff know that. Please sort this!

Even without a phone if he gets there at 15:45 she could wait in the library do homework then go to meet him at 15:45. Also a 12 year old without additional needs shouldn't be working on road safety. I and many others at my school got public buses and tubes to school at 11

Reception is not a waiting area, in fact I am surprised she has been allowed to use it and stay there without anyone raising concern sooner. In a few secondary schools I have visited the reception area is for visitors only, and students have their own entrance and 'reception' desk.
It sounds like the school have good options for parents who wish to pick their child up at a later time and you have been directed to use these. Imagine if every parent doing the same as you told their child to wait in reception!
As someone else has said, wait 25 mins in the library and then allow 5 mins to walk to the pick up area.

Secondary school children do not wait in Reception for 30 minutes every day. They wait in the rooms that are set aside for students to work in after school, or they hang around outside school/go to the local park to chat to their friends.

or, in your scenario they walk part way to their siblings' school to be met.
I doubt the traffic around your school is sigificantly worse than anywhere else, and the worst of it will be clear in 10 minutes, so she just needs to chat to a friend for a bit before starting to walk, if you're very worried about it being super busy. What does every other child in her circumstance (sibling in that primary school) do?

If she has SEN, which is why you are being particularly protective, then there might be a SEN room she can wait in.

In my DD’s secondary teachers are on library duty after school