Can I ask a stupid question about KS1 dismissal from school?

[IWantClearSkinFromSanta]

2 reception classes, 2 Y1 classes and 2 Y2 classes are all dismissed from the same door.

It takes aaaages at the minute, which I know is only to be expected.

Should it be the oldest or youngest who go first? Or the first classes ready?

First class ready, but honestly that would drive me mad and they should come up with a different solution.

I suppose you can never really get something like that 'right'.

The Reception classes are currently going first. Y1 and Y2 are much quicker so I could see the argument for them going first and leaving the Rs to the last.

First class ready!

I agree though 6 classes from one door is madness. Can they not be led to the playground and dismissed from there or something?

I'd be interested to hear how a playground dismissal works. It seems very easy for a child to wander off on their own or worse.

We just have the headteacher on the gate ensuring everyone is leaving with a parent. Never known a child leave unattended in my many years at school.

Is there not more outdoor exits? What about in the event of a fire?

Our school have Ks1 released from playground, yr 3,4,5 from side door and yr 6 walk through the playground unaccompanied. Last year the playground was out of action do it was chaos 4 classes from a side entrance and 3 from a different side entrance further back

One school near me has the children line up on a line, parents have to stand behind a different line.
Staff dismiss ch one at a time when they've seen a parent.

At ours the teacher leads the class out to a particular point in the playground. There's a painted line that the parents have to stand behind so that there's a clear space. Teacher dismisses each child in turn. If they can't see their adult they get sent to the back of the line to keep things moving. There's a member of staff at the gate to keep an eye on who's coming in and out.

At my DC's school Nursery and Reception get dismissed from their classrooms (a security door stops parents going into the rest of the school. Year 1 come out of the hall, Year 2 a side entrance and Yeard 3 and 4 come out of the main entrance and Years 5 and 6 have classroom doors that open externally so are released from there. It works pretty well.

At our school Reception have their own playground so are dismissed from the class room door to the parent who is waiting in the playground. All other years line up in the playground until the class teacher sees the parent and lets one child at a time go, which has taken a long time this week as the teacher doesn't recognise all the parents/ grandparents/ child minders etc yet (some children, like mine, can be picked up by 3 different people in a week as well as going to after-school club on 2 days, because that is how my childcare works some weeks)

That sounds crazy.

At DS's school there are 3 separate buildings, Reception classes have their own building. Years 1 and 2 are in their own building and Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 are in the main building. Each year group has their own exit but nobody leaves from the main entrance, they all leave from side classroom doors and have to go out the gates where there are teachers positioned to keep an eye on them.

All KS1 classes are let out one child at a time when they see the parents but I'm not sure how they do it with the older classes yet as DS is still in year one.

Thanks everyone.

R/Y1 did have doors which opened straight onto the playground, but that was fenced off a few years ago to create a secure area for them.

The problem with playground dismissal would be

• they're all still coming out the one door
• parents are being constantly batted back from the door as it is, it would be really hard to get them far enough away to safely do a playground dismissal
• HT/SMT try to be in the playground but don't always make it!

At my DCs primary school, each class had it's own door to the playground, so much easier for us, then. We had to juggle working out which class would dismiss first. I'm just glad I'm even further away from the crush, with both DCs at high school or college.

We have two classes through one door & that’s bad enough! Presuming that the fenced off areas not have gates? Our reception is free flow indoors/outdoors but has a gate to dismiss through - one for each class. Years 1 & 2 also have fenced play areas with a gate for each class. Do they all go in through that one door in the morning, too?

Mornings aren't so bad because R and Y1 go straight in and only Y2 lines up outdoors.

R don't have a morning break and the lunchtime rota means they are staggered coming out of the dining hall, so the biggest problem is hometime.

The secure area has no gates, no.

Are you a teacher at his school?

At my son's school KS1 are behind a fence. ( which is also their playground). There are 3 gates in this fence. One for each year group. They line up in specific places and the teacher dismisses them once they've made eye contact with parents and the child walks through their gate to their parent. Parents are asked to pick up their youngest child first. KS2 is similar but there is a white line instead of a fence and everyone is on the one playground, although there are three doors.

I would look at staggering the exit times, putting a fence in or at least painting a line, and get them coming out of different doors. Could a gate be put in the R/YR1 fence?