Child given money by "Vicar" at school

That’s very bizarre! Does this person visit the school a lot?

Tell school AND church. There will be a contact for safeguarding on the church website prominenty. They legally have to have that. The diocese will also have an obvious contact and tbh id let them know too.

Then why would she add the bit about not telling anyone 🙄 Can't beleive in this day and age that people are doubting this child's explanation and still giving the adult benefit of the doubt.

But the difference is he singled her out within a group.....
And no he may not be an ongoing risk to the DD but he could be to other children he has more regular contact with for example in his parish.

The school needs to be the starting point.

Someone must be able to verify who he was and if indeed he sat beside the children.

Was he talking to the girl while someone else was talking and they were meant to be listening?

Was the money loose in his pocket?
Did he pull out his wallet and take it out from there?
How did nobody notice?

The OP said it was CofE.

Absolutely. The poster that I quoted said she felt uncomfortable about an unknown man giving her child money in front of her. It's just a 'good luck' tradition which has probably pretty much died out now. The OP's situation is completely different.

As a retired teacher of many years there's a tiny part of my mind that thinks OP's daughter acquired the money some other way and thought the vicar giving it to her was an innocent explanation to cover it up. Things like this do happen. However, it absolutely needs investigating through both the school and the church.

Either your daughter stole the money and is coming up with a story or it’s true. Either way TELL THE SCHOOL! Completely inappropriate- praise her for telling you!

OP has said C of E and they know the name of said cleric

But in the first instance it has to be the school as the OP has no idea if the "vicar" is CofE, Methodist, Baptist, URC etc, or what their name is. The school will know all that.

It’s the “just between me and you” bit that is inappropriate.

@TakeALookAtTheseSwatches Even though the email may not be dealt with before schools re-open, I’d still write it and send it now (or as soon as possible) while everything is fresh in your’s and your daughter’s mind (not sure I have used apostrophes correctly there 🤔).

When my daughter was a baby it was a normal thing for older people to give them a coin (10p then maybe a £1 now) there was no suggestion of anything inappropriate.

Nobody said ignore it.

A few are being cautious wait speak to school, let them verify if indeed this vicar sat beside the child.

I know there's hiding in plain sight but is a vicar going to try handing a fiver to a child in a room with at least 30 other people. Where someone is bound to see?

Grooming would mean he'd have a plan to see the child again. What is the odds that he'd be able to sit beside the same child at any other assembly or church visit?

It may be innocent, but I don't know why an adult would do this, especially now, when most people should be very away not to do anything that looks like they're crossing any sort of line with a child. An older man we didn't know stopped us in the street one day for a chat and gave my son £1. I didn't want to take it, but also wanted to get away safely, so just said thank you. Maybe he was missing his own grandchild, who knows, but it didn't feel right. I'd believe your daughter and say to the school that the vicar gave her £5 and you wondered why. (Don't provide potential excuses/reasons for it; wait to see how they explain it.)

Isn't it? It just gets worse!

😮That's appalling.

It's also very sad.
There used to be so many people who were willing to do church youth work - as I mentioned in my post of 8.01 today who are now discouraged because of all the 'red tape'.
This increase in bureacracy has been caused by a few individual with nefarious motives.

Agreed,

These historic allegations are now being taken seriously and are investigated fully.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y5e32vwdwo

What?! That's even worse! Seriously. She needs to go to the police. There are dedicated officers.

Did she do something eg distribute hymnals maybe and it was a reward?

Just a thought as I can't imagine anyone being so stupid to do such a thing with a child in this day and age. But then, what do I know.

I will do. As I said luckily she doesn’t work there anymore. The only thing she may be worried about is press attention. Her mother is a staunch Catholic.

I have no idea. Probably not. As I said I’ll speak to my friend. It’s not as cut and dried as you think as there was historic bullying going on there to my friend, probably because she knew of the sexual abuse and they didn’t want her to whistleblow.

Please urge her to go to the police. Even if it was some years ago. These people need to face justice. She won't lose her job.

And was the perpetrator taken to task ?

She’s now left both jobs. One was for a cathedral Anglican, other was for a Catholic diocese. Doesn’t work now.