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

Several hundred pounds from the outrage it had caused one would presume….

Parent should absolutely be called if child isn’t collected. And if a parent can’t be reached then the emergency contact should be informed. What if the parent had an accident in way to school? Or a heart attack at home? Etc… there’s every chance that at the end of afterschool club there would still have been no one there to collect DD.

They made the right decision moving her to after school club so the teachers could go home, but a mistake was made not to let anyone know she had been left at school.

Not to let your sister off the hook but did you remind her or just ask her a week in advance and then not get in touch again? I have a few people who help me with pick ups and drop offs and I always remind them the night before/morning of the pick up because I know how chaotic/forgetful humans can be!

Im guessing most parents dont have sisters who forget to pick up their niece so they usually have capacity?

How do you know what their procedures are? How do you know their SOP isn't putting the child in the Afrerschool Club?

You are moaning about the charge? Fucking hell.....

wrong thread

Love the contrary contingent out to make you understand that of course school wouldn't normally call about this .

Of course YANBU to want to raise it with them.

Honestly, OP, this one’s on you for not confirming with your sister before pickup. It does come across as quite entitled to complain to the school when they were simply looking after your child. They may have a set time at which they call if a child hasn’t been collected, but in the moment they were likely just focused on keeping her safe - and 40 minutes can go by surprisingly quickly when you’re trying to manage lots of children, I’m sure! That said, it could still be worth checking what their policy is, just not in the form of a complaint, as that would be shifting the blame.

You would have got a phone call when noone collected her from ASC.
I think that school offices are busy and calling a parent is something they do as soon as they can get someone to. She was safe, and the club wasnt finished. You would have been charged for it by that point anyway.

These things happen, just enjoy the fact that it all turned out well.

So there are probably several children collected late. After a set time they would be put safely into after school club. The staff will then check that they hadn’t had a message from the parent to say that they were running late. Then they would start calling contacts in order of priority (eg mum, dad, grandparent, aunt, childminder etc) often leaving a message.
At the same time there are calls coming in to say that Freddie will be collected by uncle instead of mum, has Mary left her lunchbox in her classroom?, is it really non-uniform day tomorrow?

You wouldn’t believe how manic the office is between 3:20 & 5:00 each day. There are also some very rude parents who get very upset about being called because they haven’t collected their children because they “told someone last week on the gate” that they would be late today but couldn’t be arsed to book the after school club. The favourite was parents turning up just as the children were put into after school club because it’s easier to park outside the school that little bit later but of course they refuse to pay.

What if the op hadn't realised her sister had forgot abs just assumed her daughter been collected - then the daughter could have been left at ASC and not collected?
What if a parent is involved in a serious accident and can't make it to collect them or call anyone and no call is made to the other parent/emergency contact?
What if a mother is so drunk/out of it they forget to collect their child but no one alerts the child's father who is able to come and is reliable? Obviously big issue with mother there but in the child's interest to be collected by the other parent.

I think it's in the school's and child's interests to call.

There are ratios in after school clubs.

I would expect to be rung by the school. It would be ok for the child to go to after school club, but I would need to be rung after school, not after the club!

Going against the grain here.

I work in a primary school office and yes this is poor.

They had àn uncollected child who wasn’t booked into ASC and instead of calling to find out what is going on they just took them to ASC and assumed everything would be ok.

An uncollected child with no communication is a potential safeguarding issue. They absolutely should have called you.

Of course they are going to keep your child safe and sending to ASC is fine. But they also should have absolutely been trying to contact parents to check everything is ok and find out where you are.

Yes they should charge you, full whack for not having booked.
Yes they should have phoned emergency contacts, I can see why they might not but tbh I think that's a risky policy on their part. E.g if my DH failed to pick up child, I'm an hour away from getting the phone call at least, even if I drop everything and run. But maybe they are ok with that, who knows..

Childcare gives me nightmares, wish I could afford to stay home more..

Recently retired school administrator here. The school should have contacted you within 15 minutes of her not being collected if you had not booked a place in after school club - whatever your usual arrangements are!! Then they could offer to put her in ASC or for you collect asap. My school would never just put a child in ASC without making every effort to get a hold of a parent or carer first. If no contact was made, a message would be left and an email sent saying child was not collected and is being put in ASC and for them to contact school asap as there will be a charge levied. You have every right to be concerned that the school did not let you know she had not been collected, whilst having every reason to be relieved she was being well looked after.

Christ, how ungrateful and vvv unreasonable of you! Blame your sister (and maybe yourself for not reminding her) and leave the school alone!

That.

I would really really not say anything than thank you…actually have a go at your sister whom left her niece of 7 to possibly fend for herself (if school didn’t do its job) and not ask her again.

please do not imply in any way that the school did something wrong.

I'd take this up with your obviously flaky sister NOT the school! They did the right thing in my opinion! And seek more reliable child care in future!

1 think you need to give your sister a good tongue lashing. Too distracted by her boyfriend?

Urgh, nasty comment, @hcee19 . Stop it.

You are very quick to blame everyone but yourself...Why don't you adjust your working hours to suit your child, or arrange proper child care. I don't get it, blaming everyone else for your failures...

I'd expect your sister to pay for the ASC plus a big apology to your daughter as auntie let her down.

DS’ Primary would have sent the child to the afterschool club if not collected by the cut off time.