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

It’s not the school’s Responsibility to check if OP had had a car crash! Lots of parents get caught up in traffic, caught in a meeting, don’t really care about getting to school on time etc!

it’s not like the kid was standing at the gates alone for two hours! I am sure they would have rung at some point - they just hadn’t yet because there is a lot going on in a busy school and one child safe and well in after care isn’t always going to be the top priority.

this is all so silly

This is why I could never be a teacher! Entitled parents!

you failed to make adequate provision to collect your child from school. That is your responsibility not the schools.

The school made sure your child was safe and well cared for. You are now angry with the school for not doing a ‘welfare check’ on you and for charging you for the after school care your daughter used.

dear god. when did society get so bloody useless.

You have purposely reduced the PP’s valid comment to make it appear petty.

I know lots of teachers (myself included) who have left the profession, in part because of the expectations of some parents that schools are there to be moaned and complained at over matters that at most required a civil conversation. Don’t get me wrong I got on brilliantly with most of the parents but a few made life incredibly challenging.

If course one parent making a query about school policies doesn’t make a teacher want to leave the profession 🙄. But a parent who turns an incident like this into a complaint, on top of the several others that will happen that day or week from other parents, extended throughout the school year may well do it. The OP clearly asked if she should complain, not if she should find out what the school policy is. There’s a big difference.

I think they assume the family will know if they don’t have the child - it’s not like in the morning if she didn’t turn up for school and was missing.

You should be apologising to them

@thirdfiddle

I guess what people are saying is that given only 40 minutes had passed between pick up time plus then herding the children to ASC, it is more reasonable to assume that the school WERE going to call her than to start off with the view that the school did something wrong.

Hence why people are responding to her focus on making a complaint / being resentful about having to pay for ASC etc - because honestly, this is all on her sister and OP didn't give the school a chance to enact their processes.

Some of it though is schools just being really rubbish at acknowledging when they have messed up.

If they had proactively said to the OP when she called "we've got her in after school club - sorry we should have called you", she wouldn't need to complain.

YANBU.

I think school dropped the ball by not phoning any of your emergency contact numbers within 40 minutes of pick up time. I’d ask them to clarify their policy on this.

They know you occasionally use the after school club but she wasn’t booked in on this occasion, so surely they should check why she wasn’t collected on time? Presumably, they don’t have more than 1 or 2 children not booked in on any given day, so it’s hardly onerous to check?

Imagine if you’d had a car accident on your way to collect her? They would only become aware of a problem when everyone is leaving and she’s still not been picked up.

@Cantheowneroftheredcorsapleasemovetheircar

Our ASC runs in one hour blocks so if DC are not collected at the correct pick up time they take all of them to ASC club, the first hour of which is prep and then it moves to free play. If by 5:30 a child not previously booked into ASC is still there they start making phone calls.

They also do bill you via the system and if not booked in advance / no credit on your account it does take you into "ASC overdraft" which you then need to clear before you can make more bookings.

All this to say that, I really think you jumped the gun i.e. in 40 mins they would only have been in the first half hour of ASC - maybe they were going to call you.

And I am sure if you were not reachable they would have called your emergency contacts. Why would they not?

I don't think you have given them much chance - 40 mins is not a lot of time when they have other kids to get settled down and assist with their homework.

Edited for typos.

No, me neither. That was sort of the point I was making. That the ‘complaint’ would be better as a ‘query’.

At the start of this thread, the OP was very much phrasing her response to this fairly minor issue as a ‘complaint’. My observation is that over the top complaints (that could sometimes have been queries or clarifications) are very much contributing to teachers’ stress and workload.

I’m SLT in a school and I actually don’t think you’d be unreasonable to question this. Obviously they did a good job keeping her safe but it’s clearly out of character for you not to collect so I would expect a well-being call to have happened at the very least.

This is on you, your DH and your sister, not the school. Complaining that they kept your daughter safe and you think they shouldn't have charged you? You're ungrateful and a CF!
Time to get some proper childcare in place, instead of your flakey sister.

School did absolutely nothing wrong. Your sister is the one who did. School kept her safe and yes you should be charged for that facility.

So who did pick dd up in the end ?

Wow teachers really do get blamed for everything don’t they.

No they couldn't, SS are a last resort AFTER attempting to contact parents and then emergency contacts. School had apparently not even started on the contact the parents stage. OP can reasonably ask why not - as she recognises herself in one of her responses, it may have just been a time issue and they would have called soon.

I'd go mad at your sister, must have been terrifying in the minutes between that phone call and school confirming that your daughter was still there.

I know you are probably thinking you would have preferred for school to call so you didn't have to experience that jumpscare, but it is on your sister really.

wtf you should be redirecting the entitlement to your sister. Please give your head a wobble no wonder people don’t want to become teachers anymore

So much judgement of everyone flying around here!

But why? Why are people inferring things the OP hasn't said? Not comprehending what she actually has said? Posters never used to be this stupid.

School could have reported you to social services for abandonment, rather than taking care of an effectively abandoned seven year old

🙄

As I was commenting on the observation that these sorts of things are the reasons why teachers are leaving the profession.

I don't know any teachers who left the profession because a parent spoke to the school office to clarify policies.

It's the other way around surely!

School could have reported you to social services for abandonment, rather than taking care of an effectively abandoned seven year old. It's astonishing that you think you should be complaining!

So much judgement of everyone flying around here! Does seem odd they didn't phone, but she was looked after which is the main thing. Also I remember the odd abandoned child at school and it wasn't that big a deal; they just went and sat in the school office. But I don't think anyone acted like it was crime of the century. I'm talking genuine one off mix ups etc, not actual neglectful parents.

I do have some sympathy with OP and how sister's not really involved. And she did agree to pick up.

Yes the problem here is that school charged you for after care. Really?!? that’s what you are annoyed about?
No one turned up to pick up your daughter - school appropriately brought her into after care and presumably would have called you if no one turned up at end of day.

DCs school and they had a policy about reporting uncollected children to social care after a certain amount of time.

And they reported to social services before phoning the parents/guardians?

Everyone did there job here apart from your sister. The school would have phoned you if nobody was there to pick her up at the end of ASC.