PFB first day at school parents ignoring the schools request to NOT accompany their PFB into the cloak room.

[D0oinMeCleanin]

If you are one of these parents FUCKING STOP IT! FFS!

The cloakroom is built to comfortably hold 60 children, 2 teachers and 4 TAs. Not 60 children, 2 teachers, 4 TAs, 30 mummies, 20 daddies, 10 sets of grandparents, 6 toddling siblings and 3 babes in buggies.

20 fucking minutes it took me to convince my yr1 child to go into her cloakroom because she didn't dare push past all the fecking imbecile parents. Do you realise how daunting it is for a 3ft something child to have to force her way through that lot!?!

And to the mummy who shoved past dd2 to get to her whimpering child - shame on you You'd better hope you don't me in small, crowded space. You'll be the one going face first into the fucking wall. I can guarantee you that.

at dd3's new school the teacher stands at the door of the classroom (which is an external door) and greets each child. There is no question of a parent going into the classroom. The teacher firmly but kindly lets the child in and they go the cloakroom where the TA helps them find their peg and stashes lunch box etc.

layout of school helps but everyone is treated the same throughout the school.

I start college tomorrow, I wonder if I can persuade my Mum to drop me off

That sounds lovely diddl - I can understand parents wanting to be present and support their little one on their first day of school ever....too bad the school hasn't set it up in such a way that it can be positive and interactive for everyone.

Drop and run is the best approach IMO.

Hanging around just prolongs the agony!

I'll never forget one mum who carried her DD into reception class on the first day! then wondered why she clung onto her when she tried to leave.

I couldn't bear to read all this thread. So many posters come across as completely uncaring and judgey. I teach Year R and I'm quite happy for parents to come in, help their child and settle them. After all they're leaving their child with someone who is basically a stranger, which can also be scary for a child. Why should they just be left because it's 'easier in the long run'? Not for all children it isn't. A bit of time invested in the beginning can make all the difference to some children and you don't end up with a long term problem.
They are small children who deserve care and consideration in a new, big maybe scary place. And why should parents be left outside? Is school not a partnership with parents? Why should I expect you to support me and my job if I have so little respect for you - stay outside like a dog tied up outside a shop?!!

Bosgrove - why so many people with each child though? We rarely have more than one adult bring a child in and only about 1/3 class even have siblings too. In the school you talk about it definitely wouldn't be sustainable. In our school though it is nothing like that and works really well.

And these parents will turn into the same bloody annoying parents who insist on bringing in their new Yr7 child into reception when it isn't even time to start and the staff will actually be filtering the children in from outside into the hall via the fire exit.

These are the same parents who have been told the arrangements on the meet the tutor days...

Sheesh

I have already sussed the needy parents out...

I have three children, it seems to be the most popular number at our school, a lots of the parents have three children, some four and a few more. Reception starts 10 minutes before year 1 and 2, as their entrance is at the front of the school and the other years at the back.

So I have my YR child, my Y2 child and my preschooler. The school is on a busy main road with an open gate ( it gets locked at 9am), so I have to take the other two children into the Reception class with me. I leave the pram parked in the playground.

On the first morning, most of the children have Mum, Dad, Grandparent and siblings, after the first week you just need each child to have 1 parent (extra 60 people) and 1 or 2 siblings (60 - 120ish people), plus the 60 in the class and the school staff, it soon adds up.

I am not looking forward to next year when I have to do it all again with DD2 - the teachers did suggest that we complain to the school about it, they changed it from drop and run because of something in the schools ofsed report.

My DS(5) was convinced he was to walk to school on his own - the teacher meant go into the classroom but he was fully prepared to go it alone on day 2 of Reception.

His friend from nursery was very upset until after Christmas (at least). Her lovely mum didn't shove other children out of the way or block the door . She arranged for her to go in a bit later and she was allowed to go into the classroom. She made sensible arrangements with the school.

I have an only and don't mind the term pfb. I thank feck that people have psb, ptb, etc. so they can share the madness around the school a bit.

Bosgrove - sounds very much like my school in the description, just without quite so many people milling around.

YANBU, that must have been so infuriating.

I work in a school with a totally open door policy. There are parents everywhere, well past the bell and it's so annoying. We don't even have an infants, we start at Y3!

Every Y3 classroom is full of parents every morning and parents are a very definite presence in all the higher years too. I have Y6 and fully expect to be talking to parents for a good 15 minutes past 8.30 on Thursday morning before I can even begin to welcome the actual members of my class

A couple of years ago I had a Y7 class and a mum put her head round the door at 8.55 (25 minutes after the day had begun!), completely ignored me and said 'X darling, you forgot your jumper, come and get it'. Child wasn't even embarrassed, it is normal to them! Another Y7 child used to be regularly seen crying outside her classroom and clinging to her mum in the mornings. Perfectly nice, normal child, just ever so overprotected! Sobbing Y3 and 4s aren't unusual at all and I swear it's only because the parents are there. If it was drop and go, they would be fine.

Personally, I'm a firm believer in wave, smile and go from the outset. Plus, surely not every child has someone able to hang about at 9am. My youngest was walked down the drive to our connecting infant school on her first day in Reception by a helpful Y8 because I got stuck in a meeting with another parent. Having to be at work well before 8.30 or 9 can't be unusual.

DS has just started Yr4. At 8:45 door to cloakroom opens, kids line up and walk in. No parents allowed in as the cloackroom is too small. Same as for Yrs 1-3 previously and Yr 5&6 as with his older sister.

Reception has separate entrance and small separate playground, although when the kids get more confident they can join rest of Key Stage 1 in the wider playground. The Reception kids can have parents going in for up to 10 mins in the morning (although I rarely did, I had to be at work by 8am). Buggies not permitted in the building, and numbers of parents allowed in was limited to 2 per child due to space.

As for secondary school, DD walked there with friends last year for the start of Yr7. No parents, they already knew which form they'd be in. They had already had two days of acclimatisation at their new school at the end of Yr6, so they had already met their new form mates. One of her new friends was the only one attending from her small village school, but she was already known to DD and a couple of others as they are in the same Guides pack.

If I'd offered to accompany her, to go in, even, and see where everything was, I think DD would have died on the spot rather than take me up on the offer. It's sooo not cool to have parents doing anything other than the taxi run at this school.

Lara - As a reception teacher surely you know like the rest of us that have worked in education that it tends to be the parents rather than the children who are upset by the whole first day. Obviously you have the odd child who will cling but not a class of 30 (in my experience).

In the schools I've worked in the children entering reception make a few visits to spend time in their new classroom and meeting their new teacher (whilst still at nursery) so that first day of school is not actually dumping your child with a stranger.

I don't think some of the people on here are coming across as uncaring at all. In fact I think they care about their children having the ability to go enjoy the first day of school without inflicting their own worries onto them. Most of the children who get anxious are the ones with the parents flaunting their anxiety.

YANBU

I think it's lovely when parents can go in with the little ones to settle them in, but wether they can or they can't it's up to the school and I have no respect for anyone who ignores the rules and think they and their child are above them. If a child needs extra help then the schools are usually more than happy to help so there should be no excuses for just deciding to break the rules and making things harder for everyone else

Lara - totally agree with you.

And op - IMV YABU and totally self centred.

Why does such a small thing bother you so much?

Marb, it was not a small thing: OP's child was hurt by a thick as fuck adult parent. It was that parent who was being VU and self centered.

I wouldn't just be bothered, I would have been fuming and would have told that parent there and then.

Ah fuck, just had a lovely year off the school run because my eldest (PFB) started taking himself. Now I have to start it all again with DS2.

OP YANBU, I hate the school run.

Marb, small thing? What?

Did you actually read the thread?

OPs daughter was shoved, face first, into a wall. She was injured, bleeding and shocked.

You think that is a 'small thing'?

Words fail me.

DooinCleanin..., I sincerely hope you do not work in a school (apart from dooin some cleanin) as one would be rather opposed to having you, based on your wonderful way of expressing your kind thoughts etc on this forum, anywhere near say, under 18s.

OP sorry your dc got hurt and that is not acceptable but you come across very badly in your post. Different children require different handling especially on the first day of something so huge and being so young. A bit of understanding and help all round is best, now isn't it?

Rollmops, who cares about a bit of swearing and venting on an adult internet forum? In fact, who gives a flying fuck?

Her child has been hurt today by some arsehole parent. I would far rather OP was in the vicinity of my child swearing under her breath, than some Mummy twat shoving my DS 2 out of the way when he starts school on Thursday.

The worst thing the OP did was rant here.

I normally can roll my eyes at the special snowflake squad. If someone had pushed my DC into a wall, I would have been upset in the same situation.

The OP has made it clear that any special needs or additional concerns can be dealt with sympathetically.

I know Egg. There a people on here doing the "You sound lovely ", are more concerned about the angry (justifiably) tone and swearing, but not one of those types has asked the OP about her DD or said it is awful that she was hurt. They are the ones who will be bustling around the cloakroom and class room for weeks on end bothering the kids and teachers and they are the reason I mainly dislike the school run.

The more I know of people, the more I like books......

I am dreading all this again. Can you tell, I go down like a fart in a spacesuit in the school yard?

I hate the school run too, so I don't do it

(I get DH to do it...)