to ring ofsted right now

[Inneedofbrandy]

First time poster and in shock, so please excuse any spelling or grammer mistakes.
Took my Ds age 4 into school today, started walking out the playground and realised i had his pe bag. Go into his classroom to give it to him and hes gone missing. Me and TA searching for him in all the classrooms and cloakrooms in the infant block. My neighbour dropped her son off abit late and told me he had been found trying to do a runner out the school!

HOW THE HELL COULD HE OF ESCAPED OUT OF THE SCHOOL BUILDING AND NO ONE WOULD HAVE KNOWN HE WAS MISSING IF I HADNT GONE BACK IN.

Ive then gone to speak to headteacher but ended up with the woman who enrolled kids into school in january. She tried to patronise me and twist it round and make me take equal blame in this. I told her how upset i am that i want a full written investigation and how are they going to make sure this never happens again. She said the heads going to ring me later hmmm. AIBU to ring ofsted right now instead of waiting for headmaster to ring

I think it's very odd that they are just dropped off at the gate. We take them into the playground and stay with them until the teacher comes out.

Thankyou everyone for replying,

Head just rang. She said she's spoke to teacher and TA, teacher is very apologetic, although she didnt apologize to me when i was there
They are going to stop parents chatting to teacher first thing so teacher can see them going in.
The TA in class is going to be placed nearer door
In the newsletter its going to have a piece on not talking to the teacher in the morning
And tomorrow theres going to be a staff meeting where they will all be briefed to be more aware.

I still dont feel happy, but i dont know anything that would make me happy right about now

they are dropped off at classroom gate as every classrom has a little garden outside

Stopping parents talking to the teacher before school? What? That is the only time a lot of parents get to talk to the teacher.

Surely expecting parents to supervise until they go in makes more sense?

I urge you to make sure your son knows not to do it again!
It is a naughty thing to do!

Marypoppins my son was already upset, he knew he shouldnt of gone out, but wanted his pe kit. He got scared enough without me coming down on him like a ton of bricks. He did say sorry to me and teacher

Sirzy he already was in, teacher didnt see him come back out

And i know Sirzy, what if there was a family disaster, when my grandad died for example i had to let teachers of DD DS know that morning they went back

Sounds like the system needs adjusting on all sides.

Parents stay with children until start of day, teacher outsider for 10 minutes before but no children go in. That's the set up at most schools I have ever worked at.

We can chat to teacher when they come to get the line. More often though if I needed to pass on important info I'd write a note in the dcs pink contact book. We can talk to teachers after school (this is better time because not trying to corall 30 kids into the classroom) - they come to the different doors with the children and let them go from there.

a contact book sounds a really good idea pooka

I know what you mean about not needing to tell him off, he obviously knows and I am sure he will not do it again.
I was wondering when I first read it wether he came out for the PE bag.
In my DS School FS1 & 2 class there was a TA installed on the door every morning to stop the runners! As there were a couple.
It does sound like your school hasn't experienced this and hasn't put measures in place.
Which hopefully they will do now.

It's not right to have the same person talking to parents as watching the door but parents need to be able to talk to the teacher in the morning. Can't the TA watch the children coming in (and not going out) the door while the teacher talks?

Policy here for Reception children is that parents can either bring their child to the classroom door (and watch them go in) or go in with them.

A TA stands on the door to check that children do not "escape".

The teacher is available inside for parents to talk to if they wish.

Does sound like your school needs to tighten their procedures.

I assumed it was normal to drop at the gate? At DD's school, parents aren't allowed in the classrooms, and aren't allowed in the playground at drop off.

Having said that, the main gate has at least one member of staff standing at it (normally the caretaker bloke) and the gate to the playground has 2 teachers on it. But all kids years R-6 have to go in by themselves, this applies from week 2 of Reception.

We have contact books for messages, and can speak to the teacher at pick up if necessary.

So what suggestions can i make to head to make drop off safer?
really like the contact book idea

thankyou verity thats going on my list :)

Look at it this way...I KNOW it's horribly scary but they will hopefully review their entry procedures now...and DS obviously is a boy with his own mind! Which is good.

It's not difficult.

TA at door. Parents can bring in if want.

My DS's school - children move their names from the out box to the in box. It's 2 bowls with their names in.

At 9am, door is locked. Only exit is through the office which is secured by security the office staff.

All other entrances are locked at 9am.

Late comers - through the front door. Parents should come through the office door.

We are told catergorically that there is no supervision of pupils before 8.50.
So at our school it would have been as much your fault.

Just read your post about him being worried about his PE kit. Poor lad Sounds as if he wastrying to do the 'right thing'.

Parents need to be able to talk to teachers, after proper arrangements have been made. If the teacher is the one seeing pupils in or out at the door then they should be left to concentrate on that. At our school we have written to parents to remind them of the dangers of distracting staff at these times of day, and told them that they can speak to the teacher after school, by waiting until the other children have been safely handed to their parents.
Strangely enough, if a TA or teacher is standing at the doorway watching pupils arrive or leave - it's not the time for parents to have a conflab with them! If it's important then the parents will be able to leave time to be dealt with properly.
Op, when you're unhappy about something that happens in a school you need to try to be calm and think about what outcome you want. Are you happy that they have acted rapidly to try to avoid a similar problem happening again? It sounds to me as if they have. In which case is there anything more that you want?

p.s. I'm not 110% sure, but I think if you rang Ofsted they would tell you to go back to the school and use their complaints procedure. They might be interested if this was a problem that kept happening. Don't bother ringing the LA, contrary to popular MN wisdom, they have no part to play at all in a complaint against the school (unless it's a child protection issue, which should not be dealt with under a complaints procedure anyway).