Noone picked up my daughter and school didn't ring.

She’s 7 and your childcare plan failed, thank goodness for after school club. I absolutely would not be complaining to the school, I would be thanking them for taking care of my child. There is every likelihood that they were about to call you - school finished at 3:20, say your child was directed to after school club 10-15 minutes later when it was determined that no one was collecting her. Another 15 minutes for her to arrive at after school club, everyone else to be signed in, your DD to be added to the roll, and then someone starts locating a phone number for you/your DH. Not to mention any other child who wasn’t collected and followed the same path as your DD. Honestly, it’s not hard for the time to pass. But regardless, it was your responsibility to ensure your child was reliability collected, she wasn’t, school cared for her. You should be very grateful.

I have worked in ASC. We have ratios to adhere to and we can't always take random strays. We are a private company. In our school. We would take the child (only if in ratio) but it's the schools responsibility to check where the parent is. We would are follow up with the school.as to parents location. you would be charged as well.
It's a safeguarding concern that the school didn't ring. A parent should have been contacted within 10 minutes.
Mn is getting worse for inventing scenarios and hyperbole and people not understanding two things can be true,
Op can be angry at her sister and concerned about the policy in regards to late collection.

@Cantheowneroftheredcorsapleasemovetheircar exactly this. And to have the nerve to complain about being charged!!

I work in a school office and often have to make calls for late parents. If the child often goes to after school club, our default position, 10 mins or so after pick up time is to assume the parent has "forgotten" to book them in, so will take them over to ASC for a snack then call the parent to check what has happened and let them know they will be charged. I can see how a phone call to parents could be missed if this procedure isn't tight, as late bench and office staff have normally left by then.

I would just send a polite email to the school to let them know that she wasn't booked in, as someone was meant to pick her up but didn't, and they should have called you. Then leave it as that. Hopefully, you'll get an apology phone call. I would not moan about a charge when this is technically your fault for using your flaky sister.

Does she sometimes use the after-school club? If she does, it wouldn't be unreasonable for the school to assume there'd been a breakdown in communication somewhere and just put her in? Especially if your DD went off to club quite happily.

This isn't the schools fault though. This was your family's fuck-up. You need more reliable childcare. The only thing I'd be going to the school with would be apologies and paying the bill as quickly as possible.

I’d be grateful in the circumstances. It’s really you’re responsibility to make sure your child is collected. It makes sense they charge for after school club to avoid cf using it for free by being late. Suck it up, suggest your sister covers it perhaps?

What did your mum have to say about it all? I’d hope she has gone through your sister for doing this.

Your sister should have turned up today with flowers and a proper apology and a chat about her behaviour/promises to do better and then just not bothering. She needs to actually own what she has done and talk to you about it.

I dont think anyone's at fault except your sister.
If your dd goes to afterschools its perfectly reasonable for school to assume that you forgot to book and they sent her to afterschools.
Iv seen it happen in out primary esp if the child is a little unsure of they should be picked up or going to afteschools

Of course it wasn't the schools fault. They put her in the after school club which was a really sensible decision. Your sister is at fault here. Nobody else.

Had you let them know that your sister would be collecting her?

At our school you'd be charged for the full session regardless of whether it's 10 minutes or a hour!
This is on you - surely you know your sister is unreliable?

Oh and if a parent hasn't informed us within 30 minutes that they're running late we don't call the parents we call social services! Because honestly if you can't remember to collect your kid or arrange someone responsible to collect your kid social services need to know!

Can you post that particular school's "basic processes"?

I've worked in schools. Yes, I would expect that a member of the office staff would have rung or at least texted you before 4 pm. Depending on how busy they were, but definitely within about 30 minutes of finding she'd been left.

Last i checked when i worked in a school it was the admin/receptionists that did the phoning of parents when children weren't picked up, not the teachers.

Quite frankly, the reception team should have phoned OP to let her know her DD was in the AS club.

The hyperbole from some posters is bloody ridiculous.

They would have phoned if nobody collected her from after school club. Do you think they would have all switched the lights off and left your child in there overnight?

😂

Be grateful SS werent called!!!! You sound very entitled and your sister is having an early dementia or clearly has not your best interests at heart

At the school I work in we would always contact parents or emergency contacts first, they might just be running late, in which case a teacher or TA will wait in reception with them (depending how long they are going to be, sometimes they will be taken across to our ASC, subject to availability) but we have had times where staff have missed out on important meetings or training because of this. School doesn't just close when the children go home unfortunately, but ultimately we have a duty of care towards the children.
So whilst I understand them sending your child to ASC, it's unacceptable in my view that they didn't think to contact you. (Unless of course they tried, and for whatever reason, wrong number, unclear writing on forms etc).

I'm a primary school governor and - whilst the OP's sister is the one at fault here - it would not be unreasonable of the OP to check whether the school followed its policy for a late pick-up. This might be on the school's website. If the policy says that someone will attempt to ring a child's parent/s, then clearly staff need a reminder. If it simply says they will take the child to after school club, then they followed the policy and that's that.

OP, if you really want to raise this with the school I would urge you to do so as a "concern" which can be informally discussed or investigated, rather than a full-blown complaint. See your school's Complaints Policy (which will definitely be on the website) for more about this. This is not a safeguarding issue, as your child was safely cared for, and all you've lost is the after school club fee (a real expense, I know, but that's on your sister).

Same.

They call DH and then me if no one comes, but they also know that it is rare one of us isn’t there to collect since it is just DH and I with no family nearby. When family does, we do let them know since it only happens during one month out of the entire year.

The rare times we think we’ll be late due to traffic, we have called in advance to inform them.

Likely another teacher or TA would go into the club, or failing that SLT would have to. It might prompt them to phone quicker in that situation.

Bloody school, how dare they not leave your child abandoned on the street.

I think I’d be relieved the school scooped her up and put her in a care provision that your sister failed to remember. Yes of course I’d pay - probably would have taken a thank you gift too!

Not sure what their policy is to contact, but I imagine they would have done once all were in, accounted for and fed. I think this happens more than you realise and they just charge the family. imo buck stops with your side, I know not you per se, but as parent sadly in a way yes.

This happened to me recently- my mum got muddled and didn’t collect DD, so she got taken to after school club. They rang me at 5.30 when after school club was closing. Ran down there and apologised profusely- don’t really see an issue with how they handled it. Plus DD said she had a lovely time being the last one there 😂

What many parents fail to appreciate is that, even in a small school, there will be a couple of hundred other children to deal with. Your daughter was safely in after school club and it had only been 40 minutes. Staff may well be dealing with lots of other situations that afternoon which took priority in that short window. No doubt she would have become a priority as time passed bur in that moment she was safe. The child who was ill or had had an accident would have been dealt with first, the parent kicking off about something in reception would have been dealt with first, the vulnerable child whose parents showed up stinking of alcohol would have been dealt with first.
Our school policy is to call after 30 minutes but it could be longer if staff have to prioritise more vulnerable children or immediate issues.

I find the fact they didn't call concerning as that is what our school do. Years ago me and my husband had mixed up pick up, I was at work when they called me 15 minutes after pick up to check everything was ok as we hadn't collected which was very unusual for us. It meant I could arrange for someone to collect and that my children weren't worried about where their parents were. I obviously thanked the school for looking after them but I'm so pleased they called.