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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To expect the shcool to inform parents if they are finishing early on the last day of term?

43 replies

LynetteScavo · 16/12/2010 19:24

Tomorrow is the last day of term.

Today DS (Y7) informs me they are finishing shcool at 1.30pm tomorrow, and the bus will collect him then. (this is the first I've heard of it!)

I have arranged work so I am home when he arrives home (around 4.30pm) or slightly later. He does cope with being alone in the house for short periods, but he has been diagnosed with anxiety disorder, and when he was in Y3/4 (I know, I know it's a long time ago) he couldn't even be alone in a room alone.

Tomorrow I will be home around 5pm...normally he can cope this long alone, but if school finishes early he we be alone for 2 1/2-3 hours. If he feels scared he will go outside and play on his scooter looking for some company. It will probably be snowing and no one else will be around.

I don't think a message from the school through the kids is good enough.

Surely some must forget to tell their parents, and will be roaming the streets for a couple of hours.

OP posts:

muminthecity · 16/12/2010 20:31

I got a text at 2pm today to say that school is finishing early tomorrow. It was the first I'd heard of it. DD is in reception and I finish work at 2.30pm. A bit of notice wouldn't have gone amiss

xstitchsnowscene · 16/12/2010 20:42

You are definitely NBU. Our school's holiday guide just gives the dates and not the times. All the parents are guessing they close early but are not sure exactly when.

Mind you the other local school sent home the children early in the snow without calling parents to collect them so children as young as 4 were wandering the streets. Thankfully they were all safe.

panettoinydog · 16/12/2010 20:44

Lots more messages come via the kids at secondary school.

Is teh school aware of your son's anxiety? If so , you should flag it up with the guidance tracher perhaps, and ask to be specifically informed of certain things if your son might miss them.

panettoinydog · 16/12/2010 20:45

Very early for schools to be finishing, isn't it. The 17th I mean, not 1.30

Original poster

LynetteScavo · 16/12/2010 20:47

DEFINITELY nothing on any newsletter or website.

Just a note on the website would have placated me.

As yet DS doesn't have any real friends at school. Actually he had no proper friends at all at Junior school. Things are looking up, however, as I decided to send him to school in another town, partly because he didn't "do" friends lol, but he seems to have made a couple of friends with boys at his bus stop. All looks good, as they must live close by, but they haven't got around to exchanging numbers yet. I've told DS he should ask for their number so I can speak to their parents if there is an after school match or disco, or something, and then we can car pool.

Now I know early finishes at the end of term are normal, I can ask DH to take a day/afternoon off at Easter. By the summer DS should be fine to be left for a few hours.
And probably most 11 year olds wouldn't be bothered about being alone...but this is going to lead me onto the fact that they obviously have never read his school file, and I don't want to be opining up that can of worms

OP posts:

MollieO · 16/12/2010 20:47

Our school does this at the end of every term. Tie published in the dates at the start of each term. Our finish is 12pm so too early for me to get away with only taking a half day.

Yulephemia · 16/12/2010 20:48

Another three days next week to go here.

mummytime · 16/12/2010 20:53

My kids have two days next week too, and are monaing. Although if the snow comes...(but DS has a GCSE thing to finish).

panettoinydog · 16/12/2010 21:03

we have four days next week

Original poster

LynetteScavo · 16/12/2010 21:06

What's the head's name, Scrooge?

OP posts:

sleighBELLasringing · 16/12/2010 21:08

I finish tomorrow at my school and my boys finish on Tuesday at their schools. I am looking forward to two days to myself so I can wrap all the presents and do a blitz of the house.

panettoinydog · 16/12/2010 21:10

it's a council decision. It's fair enough actually.

follyfoot · 16/12/2010 21:32

My DDs school closes at lunchtime on the last day of term every term. The newsletter always says its so 'staff can say goodbye to other members of staff who are leaving'. Is that some sort of euphemism for going down the pub?

I think its now being stopped in some counties.

Original poster

LynetteScavo · 20/12/2010 09:34

Well, in the newsletter that was sent out on the last day of term it says if parents wish, pupils will be supervised in the badminton hall until the usual school end time. Now I know they do this, I can plan around it.

So who wants to guess what an 11 year old would get up to left alone for 2 hours on a snowy day?

OP posts:

ilovesooty · 20/12/2010 14:47

That was normal practice at schools I've worked at: slightly early finish with the offer of supervision on the premises if it was inconvenient for parents.

I agree with posters who said that pupils are expected to be more responsible for home/school communication in secondary. As for the poster who said that secondary school communication is "piss poor" in secondary: yabu. You can't expect to have the same daily contact with a SPOC teacher that you had in primary.

SummerRain · 20/12/2010 14:53

snow angels?

peeing his name in the snow?

making an igloo?

Original poster

LynetteScavo · 20/12/2010 16:32

Nearly. He filled the freezer with snowballs.

OP posts:

SummerRain · 20/12/2010 16:49

lol.... sounds like the sort of thing i would have done... gotta save some for snowball fights when it melts

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