To report two infant age children walking to school alone

[ThePosieParker]

... to the head of the school.

This morning I saw two siblings (I assume) walking to school alone, the oldest looked about yr2 at the most and the youngest a reception child. I wanted to phone the school as there could be a number of reasons these children are walking alone, not all sinister but in my mind none good enough,. This is Bristol, a busy city, not the place to allow children to cross roads and negotiate traffic and people at the age of 6 or below, surely.

just give your OP stop picking people!

You don't need to defend yourself Posie. I think alot of MNer's are drawn to these threads just to have a bash at someone that dare mentions a 'rough' area. It comes across as overwhelming defensive, which, IMO, says alot about them.

bestmamaderwelt ..will you never allow your children out alone?

''just give your OP stop picking people!''

Should be, stop picking on people and give your opinion to the thread! [incompetent smiley]

Well done OP on caring. I would have rung the HT, nothing to lose. Some parents are too dam lazy to get off their arses

Yes I'm rough you got me there

Posie - genuine question, if you were initially going to ring the school, how come you just didnt try them again when you got back with your DD?

Posie, I thought YABU for going to SS, but I don't think you deserve the flaming you're getting here

You did what you thought was best, not the decision many of us made, but so what? You have a clearer idea of the situation than we do from our armchairs.

BTW am not suggesting you glue yourself to the window phone all day. Just why not try the school on and off inbetween all those chores you have?

Alt-and I would imagine, in your scenario that this was still a child protection issue (ie a concerned parent worrying that a child may be scalded) and so a child protection officer should deal with it, no?

OP has passed the info to ONE arm of SS......she happened to see the children walking alone near and school and assumed that they were going to a specific school.......she tried to phone that school, couldnt get through and so phoned an arm of SS. The problem lies where??

If she had passed these children and it WASN'T obvious which school they were attending........who should she have called then? Genuine question.......no sarcasm intended......

But I didn't get all excited and think 'fuck those lazy rough bastards I'll call the SS', I thought once home that I felt very uncomfortable doing nothing, so tried the HT and then CSC thinking that they would say either phone the school or nothing they could do, it was for advice.

Those ideas are great Alt...but I don't think Joe Public is aware of that at all....

I think you did absolutely the right thing, Posie.

Fair enough if you were worried ...I still think you went OTT

I think you did the right thing Posie. You were rightly concerned about the children's safety, could not get through to the school and did the next best thing you could and phoned Family Support.

I would have done the same thing under similar circumstances.

If my understanding of the OP is correct, at NO point did you make a judgement about anything other than the safety of two small children who appeared to be in a vulnerable position as they were not being adequately supervised for their age.

actually the school being in special measures could be relevant given that for all one knows it could be in SM for reasons of safeguarding?

disagreement on a point is one thing. name calling and swearing because someone does something different to you is quite another, is uncalled for and says far more about the opposing posters than it does about the op.

Well I think you've done the right thing posie.

Social services is the wrong call here. The op should have tried harder to speak with the school. I agree there is a concern here - not around the situation in itself because teh childreen seem to have been coping ok but with the WHY they wee there. Mum or dad walking on behind ok, exercise in independance with clear guiderules - ok, children getting themselves out to school because parent is too ill or drunk or drugged or is leaving for work at 5 am and they are alone in the house for hours - not ok. School should have some idea what's happening and could talk appropriately to the children.

A few years ago I notice a young boy - year 3 then - was always dropped off at school about 30 minutes early - when I was taking d1 to breakfast club. It bothered me a bit as he was always by himself in the playground. On a very cold day with frost on the ground I couldn't bear it and went round to the main entrance. The deputy head came out and asked him to come in and help with getting the classroom ready. I spoke to the head afterwards and he explained they were aware of the circs. The child continued to play in the playground but I realised that he could go in if he wanted to and they knew he was out there. I had to trust the school with this and they had it covered.

Btw - my understanding of the age for road safety is 8 upwards, varying from child to child and road to road. I let my 10 year old walk home from school alone now and she can cross town roads ok. Yesterday a 12 year old boy was killed on an A road near us, going to catch the school bus. There is no way I would let my very sensible 12 year old cross that road alone. YOu have to combine age and circumstances and hope like hell you've got it right.

My son is 4 so not really no, he plays out side with neighbours children who happen to be considerably older and i like to be able to see him. Would i let him walk along a mian road by him self at 5 definitely not. I'm fairly wary of these massive moving metal boxes that trevel along meters form were my son walks fast enough to regularly kill children

[bshock]

But OP doesn't know how old the children are.

OP YABVU - What you did was disgraceful. If you were genuinely concerned you should have waited until the school answered the 'phone or rung back. Don't know why you didn't have time to do that, when you've had time to be on here all day.

Ringing the S.S. was pure nastiness and passing judgement on other peoples' parenting choices - you DON'T know how old they are - you can say it until you're blue in the face.

I hope you never see my 10 year old DD because you would assume the same thing.

I thought McHobbes summed you up beautifully in her 13.50 post.

Posie My DD is almost 9. She wears age 4 clothes and is TINY.

She is ALWAYS being taken for younger than her age by other parents at school, shop assistants and the like.

Today I gave her money, and sent her into the shop to buy a drink as I sat in the car outside.

Would you have phoned SS on me too?

(I have vomiting bug and temperature, and it's good for her to learn independence)