School refused to release my child until after parents’ meeting – is this allowed?

Not normal.

Op you have been incredibly gracious in the face of some quite rude replies on here, especially ones that have persisted after you've explained the language barrier and maybe using wrong terms.

I wouldn't be happy about that. Many parents collect from multiple schools/nurseries etc

Having been a teacher and having kids and grandkids in the system,I can categorically say that never has any school send out an email arranging a meeting the same day!!Unheard of. Are you sure you hadn't overlooked e mail. It can happen.
In the circumstances you had every right to remove your child as you were given no reasonable warning of meeting

Keep us posted please.

Firstly, welcome to the U.K :)

What happened is not a normal situation in my experience.

Notice is normally given for a meeting (more than what you were given) and then you have a choice if you wish to attend that meeting.

If it happens again, you can say that you cannot attend the meeting due to prior commitments. You do not need to explain yourself any further.

Hope that helps x

I am not saying teachers don't have a job and a half to do. That does not mean they can point blank refuse a parents wishes and instructions to collect their children from school. They are not a law unto themselves!

I dont believe it's the parents why teachers are leaving the profession. The bureaucracy. The amount of paperwork and tick boxes.

If you read the post again the school day is usually longer in the small print, admittedly this is more common in secondary schools but still.

Honestly the parents on here show me precisely why teachers are leaving the profession

It does not matter if the parents listen or not. Teachers do not have the right to refuse a parent or a person with parental responsibilities to remove their child from school outside of school hours. It matters not how teachers want or feel or if they find parents annoying and it is inconvenient for them. Who do they think they are?

Well no probably not but that doesn’t change the rules.

For the people saying it was only 20 minutes , that is a very long time if u are feeding unwell , however the school are not mind readers so if u didn’t explain that then they haven’t been unreasonable . They should have given u more notice tho so I would let ur kids teacher know in future being notified on the same day is not enough notice unless its an emergency .

Given the number of parents who have posted their completely sensible reasons for not being able to attend a meeting at their child's primary school in the middle of the afternoon, ranging from "I have another child to collect fifteen minutes later at a school ten minutes away" to "I am at work from nine to five and am not going to take unpaid leave for this" and pointing out work commitments, possible medical issues or appointments, after-school activities and a myriad other things, I am amazed that any school would think this a good time to require parents to attend a meeting at the school, no matter how much notice they gave.

And for those saying "oh it's no biggie, what's twenty minutes?" and that the OP should just suck it up, I seriously suggest that if they had read the whole thread before posting they would realise how silly that looks given all the posts I've pointed out.

OP, it's a mistake to worry about your rights and the legal ramifications, and certainly a mistake to mention them even here, but you (and anyone else who was caused difficulty by this high-handed behaviour by the school) definitely have grounds for complaint. Be polite, but make sure they know you were very unhappy about what happened and you will not be attending meetings called by them in future without your consent. They can, reasonably, ask for your time; they cannot reasonably demand it.

thats weird one on school behalf
in my child's school half the parents wouldn't be even present as children would be in after school clubs, and collected way later than that

This never happened with any of the schools my children went to.

Isn't this what the OP was querying? If you are from abroad, it's difficult to know what is allowed and what is not. It's not unheard of that schools overstep the mark.

And unfortunately it is going to be like that for 14 years. I always envied the parents that could let this sort of thing wash over them. I never could. My relationship with schools was generally poor as a result.

Without knowing the ins and outs, on the face of it, I find this very short notice and don't have that flexibility in my day.

I’d have just taken my child and left if I couldn’t/didn’t want to stay. The school isn’t in charge of you, you don’t have to do everything they say. Don’t be so passive. Other children must have been leaving because many children get collected by after school clubs and childminders who obviously couldn’t stay and weren’t the intended recipients or the meeting. You don’t need to be rude or aggressive, but I’d have just said “I’m sorry I have to get home now”, opened the door assertively and called my child and left without engaging further.

Are you sure this happened? How did it work with children who were being collected by childcare providers? Many children/parents would also have had clubs or appointments or prior engagements to get to. It just seems completely impractical.

If it did happen I would be putting in a strongly worded complaint to the school as this is completely unacceptable.

I'm sorry but I disagree, schools cannot do this. They have no right keeping children in school for meetings. No parent/school meetings are compulsory. I've 3 children, 1 still in primary and whenever they do meetings it is always 15 minutes after school is finished so parents/child minders are able to collect children 1st. If we state we are attending the meeting they will then say we can leave children in class till meeting is over but this is our own choice and not forced on us

The irony!

This is over the top. However you could have just said no I can’t make the meeting today so we’ll just head off. Of course they can’t hold onto your child if you’re there to collect them and it’s the end of the school day

I'm usually all for supporting the school but this is really ridiculous. Notice given or not, no school has the right to stop a parent collecting their child unless there is a safeguarding concern. Definitely complain to the governors, OP. There are a dozen perfectly good reasons why a parent can't stay.

It's not a question of not being arsed, though, is it? Parents may have other children to collect, may have appointments etc - and indeed they may not be there and have arrangements for childminders to collect. There is zero point making childminders go to the meeting.

If parent turned up 25 minutes late to collect their children from this school because they'd been attending a meeting at another school, I suspect the staff would be less than amused.

But what if you had someone else waiting on you/ somewhere you needed to be

Not normal if you were from mainland Europe, actions like this are against the law,even having a fence or gates or locked doors at school are against the law- childre must enter and be able to leave school at their free will,they are not in jail. Crazy what british parents accept (add to that the school dictating lunches,hair cuts,shoes,clothes,holidays,time off for sick and so on).