To think that a school cannot impose restrictions on what parents can do during the school day?

[crosstraineraddict]

A friend of mine was telling me about something that has happened at the school where her DCs go. Several times in the past few months, parents have gone out for the day to places over an hour away, to meet friends or go shopping or whatever, and their child has been ill at school, so they've been called and been over an hour getting to the school to pick up their child.

The parents have all apparently had a letter now stating that a parent must be within half an hour of the school at all times during the school day, and that they recommend that at least one parent works locally!

Am I alone in thinking this is bonkers and unfair, not to mention dictatorial!

Don't belive you, sorry, my dh worked in Australia for 6 months while I was in Stafford, dds at school in Worcestershire.

Never heard if this. I imagine the school meant could there be a designated person on their list to pick up the child if parents are too far away to pik up within the hour.

That's sensible as a sick child should be collected ASAP,,

I suspect crossed wires here.

Helen, why haven't you got a fall back plan if both you and dh are late to pik up?

As an ex cm I would be livid if a parent picked up hours later, how bloody rude, nursery staff, teachers and cms have commitments too.

No there is no truth in that anypoint, but schools can and do call social services if a child is not collected and parent is uncontactable within a reasonable period once school is closed.

re emergency contacts.
If you haven't got family nearby , i can't exactly imagine people, queuing round the block to look after somebody else's barfing child!

"Edgar no childminder would accept that role in case it took them over their numbers or they had to take in a sick child that would infect their regular mindees"

not only that, but if they joined that list they would have to commit to always being one child UNDER their numbers allowance, and they wouldn't do that without a hefty retainer!

Absolute bollocks. As a teacher myself, it would take me a minimum of 20 mins to leave site (talking yr child is sick, not life threatening emergency here) - I'd have to arrange covet, set work for classes I'll miss eyc. Then a 25 min journey. GPs live close to school but mil doesn't drive and fil not always at home.

"Helen, why haven't you got a fall back plan if both you and dh are late to pik up?"

you offering?

Shouldn't the childminders who cannot pick up their own DC because of work commitments also have a fall back plan?

TBF thebody a massive motorway pileup could stymie every backup plan and Helena wasn't the only one whose DC was caught in it.

And don't forget that everyone involved in the merry cycle of back up plans would need appropriate car seats on standby.

Personally, and luckily for me, I do have back up plans. The one that would involve my child being collected as quickly as possible would involve my husband leaving work and therefore not getting paid. Not something we would be happy about doing because of someone else's job. Especially if I did get paid for my time it would be well over half what we would lose in DH having to leave.

My back up plans are, like many people's, patched together...
Me (commuting 1h plus)
DH (commuting 1h plus)
SIL (finishes maternity leave soon, also has no car seat)
PT working mum friend - available two days per week, spare car seat.
Various SAHM or local Wohm friends who could probably borrow car seats off each other

All of the above have their own DCs and so I would be loathe to get them to collect a sick DC.

It is only luck that major transport incidents eg person under train haven't ever caught me and DH on the same day.

It's a ridiculous suggestion by the head, without a doubt!

However, whilst these things are fresh in your mind, can I ask you all to check that your emergency contact details are correct and up-to-date - especially if you have secondary kids.

As first aider at a secondary school, I spend hours sometimes, phoning upto 6 or 7 numbers and I get, 'no, sorry, she doesn't work here anymore' or 'number not known' etc etc. You'd also be suprised, how many teenagers, don't actually know where their parents work!

Still a daft letter to send though. Life ain't that easy when you've got kids and you work!

Well my hubby works over 80 miles away and I work about 40 miles away so if they want to find some work any nearer I suggest that they get looking on my behalf.....

Also, to those teachers who whinge when I send my child in with a slightly snotty nose I will point out that I weigh up mild illness of child against importance of dealing with very sick people in the community and usually they have a a lot more going on than a snotty nose.

Which teachers are those then?

I've moaned about parents sending unwell children into school. I don't include snotty noses in that.

I was called this week to pick up my son.

I am a TA and was running a group session, stuff spread out every where, right in the middle of our activity. I am 10 mins walk away from my children, but it took us half an hour to tidy up, I can't just abandon the children, I have to find my boss and the colleagues i will be leaving in the lurch at lunch time.

Even if you work close by it can take time to get there.

As an aside there was absolutely nothing wrong with DS, as confirmed by the doctor Grrrr.

Tread - quite. As I hinted, I bet this HTs staff aren't allowed to drop their class and run.

That is hilarious. I LIVE more than half an hour's bus journey away from my DS's primary school. Not by choice, my older DD was a mid-year SEN transfer on house move, it was the only school with places for her, DS1 & DS2 both started school before she went to Secondary, therefore had to be at the same school, and none of the closer schools have spaces for them.

Just, well, WTF! I'd go literally bananas at an edict like this coming from the DS's primary. Though it wouldn't surprise me...

Well yes. There's just been a thread about children - secondary, admittedy - having hour long commutes.

If you don't send your dc in to school unwell then you get a letter home telling you that big bro is watching you as your dc has had to many sick days from school all ready - so you have to send in a sick dc and then refuse to pick them up unless they sign a disclaimer about sickness when you get there....

Eh?

Did they not mean that you should ideally have emergency contacts who are a) contactable and b) able to get to the school?

I have had a situation before where a child was taken to hospital from school. Parents not answering their phones, no-one else on contact list. A member of staff had to go and sit with child for three hours until parent finally returned our call.

At the risk of a flaming
I am that school secretary; its a regular occurrence for ill children to be sent to school because 'mummy and daddy have to go to work'. The teaching staff try to keep them going for a while, but in the end send them down to me as their job is to teach, not nurse sick children.

I try and contact parents but also have to keep an eye on what may be a very distressed child. Ok in 99.99% of the time it's probably only a little bug but what if it was something more serious? As you can imagine I don't get much office work done if parents don't come for two hours. I then end up carrying out work in my own time. No budget for overtime payments or a school nurse. So what is the answer?

When I was at school in the dark ages we had a school nurse and sick bay

Well said fairyliz