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.

D0oinMeCleanin I agree with you whole heartedly. 'mummy who shoved past dd2 to get to her whimpering child - shame on you'

DS starts Y1 this week. Last year his class entered through a door straight into the classroom. Parents/ carers were asked not to go into the classroom after the first week. We had at least six reminders and some people never did listen. Every morning without fail, he couldn't get in past dadzillas and momsters.

It isn't always obvious if children or parents have special needs. Anyone that needs extra support should get it. The DC are in Y1 and most will have spent a year at school so that probably isn't what happened here.

I was thinking about this. When I started secondary, I rode my bike to the station, caught a train, then caught a bus at the far end. Now I can't say for sure that I did all that on the first day (might have been taken in by car, possibly), but I know neither parent ever did it with me. I also remember that when I was knocked off my bike by a car I got up, carried on, and it was my form teacher who sent me to the nurse to have half the road gravel picked out of my knee - and that must have been in my first year there, because I was only at that school for a year before we moved and I had to do the whole first day thing all over again .

Thanks for this thread D0oin, my PFB starts school tomorrow so I now have a list of what not to do.

I totally agree that parents should abide by the rules. If they don't like them, they need to address it with the HT, not just do their own thing.

I hope it gets better at your school as the year goes on.

OP I couldn't agree with you more. YANBU.

At school I work at parents in infants DO come into cloakrooms and classrooms. It is encouraged. Infact they HAVE to. Parents have to at least bring the child into the cloakroom. There is then a 10 minute period of time between doors opening and the bell going - parents can come at any time. They can come into class and begin a task with their child or they can leave straight away. They can also see the teacher and TA at this time.

It works fine. The 10 minute time period allows for people to come a little staggered. despite a smallish area there is no unpleasantness, no pushing and shoving, no upset children....it just is a pleasant time of the day infact.

If school is going to have a stay out policy though then there should be staff out there to monitor it and not allowing parents to enter the school.

i think fuck off parents tbh- they make other kdis way more angsty in an effort to calm their own

OP YANBU, why do they do it? I don't believe that all the children there needed sooo much support. The mother was bang out of order.

I can see TheRhubarbs point of view, if a child needs more support then parents should work with the school to get it and balance everyones needs, children settling in well is important.

I've got DS1 in Year 1, I'll have to see how the others work out but DS's school split the class, half come in, in the morning, half in the afternoon. They gradually increase the time to include lunches and from the third week they are in full time. Seemed to work well with all the children, some still have their parents helping them in later, but only a couple so didn't seem to cause any problems.

This is why I love my children's school.

Because we are welcomed into the school building and are expected to accompany our child to their classroom until at least year 2.

It makes for such a different environment than the headteacher stood at the main door of the school making sure parents don't go into the building without a good reason.

However, the mother rushing to her precious whimpering child sound slightly irrational...

I have nothing really to add to this thread other than to state clearly that I hate the term PFB.

This is a really nasty and offensive term for a mother who simply cares for her child and may go that extra mile where other parents just cannot be arsed.

Oakmaiden, genuine question, how does it work if you have smaller children? I have twins who are two and I would have to leave them outside for that time, I really couldn't do that. DS1 lines up at a gate with the other children, I say goodbye and he goes in with the others.

Just read Hula's post - I think that makes a difference, Hula. Our children are welcome in the classroom any time from 8:30 (for a 8:45 start) and many go to breakfast club before that, so are dropped off any time from 8am. Which means there are not many children arriving at one time.

Thanks

tryingnoto - parents take smaller ones in with them. It is strange
I can see it would be tight with a double buggy though... so I am not sure how you would manage two children who didn't walk.

Although in reality I the school entrance hall is a sort of open office with the secretary sat there, and I suspect most parents in that situation would park their smaller offspring with her for a few minutes.

the "it is strange" part of my post is not supposed to be there. It was a random thought about how "family" focused the school is, and I was going to delete it, but forgot...

Oakmaiden, they can walk which is the problem, whenever (rarely thank god)I take them in the classroom, I have to leave the buggy outside, they leg it in opposite directions and start playing with everything, love paints and scissors.

tryingtonotfeckup - at our school the siblings come in too. If they are also school age but a lower class parents here tend to drop the older one off first, quite quickly, and then take the younger child to their class after that.

The only thing we say is that pushchairs have to stay outside the building - so parents just carry babies, and toddlers just toddler around in the class.

One thing it does mean is that for many younger siblings - school classrooms are very familiar to them and so are many of the teachers.

Last year the little one's loved our Y1 classroom as I used to make a big role play area in one corner, one where they could get right inside - the little ones always wanted to go and have a look :) The little ones were very excited at the end of term as I was making a dark dinosaur cave!

Yes mrsrigby they go that extra mile whilst pushing other children out of the way

I have been through both the drop and runs system and the softly softly approach at our school, it changed between my Ds and DD starting.

I much prefer the drop and run approach, I used to take DS to the playground, the bell went and they lined up in classes and were talking in my the Teacher and TA, yes some cried (DS cried for weeks), but they were comforted by the TA at the back of the row and they stop quite quickly once they were in the class. Mums, Dad, siblings, Grandparents, Uncle Tom Cobley and All waved goodbye to their precious child fromn the safety of the playground.

With the Softly softly approach, they open their doors at 8.50 (for a 9am start) and it seemed that each child had at least three people with them trying to put their bottles, coats, bags etc away. The classroom isn't huge and there are 60 kids in the class (two teachers and two TA's) so there are between 150 - 200 people plus the child trying to do the drop in that 10 minutes, the number did drop down after the first week, but still there were around 100 people doing the drop off, once you had the carer and siblings for each child. It was madness. The number of people upset my DD more that the drop and run would have, I was so glad when they said after Christmas we had to leave them at the door.

Parents are welcome in the school, there are at least 2 parents helping in the classes each morning and afternoon, but even if you are helping you are ex-pected to leave at the door and then go to the office to sign in.

And if you need to talk to the teachers for any reason you have one Teacher and TA in the playground every morning to answer questions and help.

I had to bribe dd2 to let me go to the bus stop with her this morning (there are no other kids that use the same stop). There was no way on this earth she was letting me anywhere near the school. She's 8 with cerebral palsy and attends mainstream with no support. The biggest risk to her safety (and indeed her peers lol) is that she gets jostled or bumped, as she will fall and take out anyone who's in the way. (ask the TA who was behind her on the stairs).

She has no clue who her teacher is this year, they don't do the 'move up day' thing. Kids (and parents) turn up to school on the first day of term and there are class lists pinned on the walls of the school, so you have to go and find your name, and then find the classroom.

She's nails, my kid.

Sorry haven't read the whole thread. BUT some kids do need more personal attention at 4 not everyone is ready to skip into school happily and leave Mummy and everyone familiar outside, regardless of how many visits have been made. Actually some kids are still struggling in year 2.
My kids school has reception kids starting 1/2 hours later, one adult per kid max, and encouraged no to go into the cloakroom etc. after the first week.
BUT some kids need a differently arranged drop off, my eldest wasn't even scared but would hold onto me so hard I would have to prise his fingers off to get away. Some kids will just shout and scream, and then set everyone else off, if you can even get them from the playground to the door.
Another advantage my kids school had was that every class room had a back door so parents could take their kids into the classroom then sneak out if necessary. It also has TAs who are very good at separating parents and kids.

Not long until three o clock...

Hulababy, sounds lovely and a good way of getting children used to the school before they start.

From lots of the posts, lots of schools seem to manage the start of school well, the different methods vary depending on personalities plus the layout of the school. DS1's school seem to manage it well, it goes smoothly and I've always felt welcome and able to talk the teacher / TA whenever I have felt that I needed / wanted to. Shame it didn't happen for the OP today.

Couldn't agree with OP more. Why can parents not abide by rules that were made to ensure every childs safety. Instead they are obsessed with making THEIR childs experience better often to the detriment of others.

Life just doesn't work like that everyone has to do difficult things occasionally. Starting school working out how the classroom /cloakroom functions is one of those things. Much better to learn in reception than discover in yr 3 that your kid has no concept of removing outdoor clothing and putting on their indoor shoes because you've been helicoptering for the past 3 years.

our primary school doesn't have cloakrooms and positively encourages parents into the classroom so its not really an issue.

Why did you not just see the teacher and ask her to get everyone to leave? Or at least send a note home asking that they don't do it again tomorrow!