To expect a teacher to at least check that year 7s were being picked up from an evening event at school?

[CromerSutra]

DD is in a play at her school, she is one of only 3 yr 7s in the play (the others are older, right up to sixth form). The rehersals end at 6.30. The school is a little way out of town and approx 2.5 miles from our house.
When I arrived to pick her up last night the children were all getting their bits ready to come home and the teachers disappeared. One yr 7 girl was left as her parents hadn't picked her up. I ended up finally getting in touch with her parents and giving her a lift but I was a bit shocked that when it was pitch black out and in a not well lit area the teachers did not even try to check that the younger children had been picked up. They are only 11.

I teach much younger children myself so obviously we work by very different rules but just wondered if this was the norm?

I don't know about school but my son (who is Y7 and walks to and from school on his own) goes to an athletics club. He has to be signed in and out by a parent. I don't know how old they have to be before this policy does not apply, but at least 14. I think it's a bit over the top but it's because kids have been dropped off when the session has been cancelled and parents have just driven off without making sure the session was on.

I used to work in a public library which happened to be on a secondary school site and a lot of the kids use the library after school. The library closes at 5pm and I used to feel quite mean about throwing kids out of the library if their parents had not come to collect them by then. They were all at least year 7, but occasionally I would drive off and they'd still be waiting outside for their parents. The library is not part of the school (there are school librarians but they close up the after-school club at 4.30 and go home) and the parents know when it closes, but I was a bit worried about child protection issues if something had happened to a child.

We won't leave until all children have been picked up if it is after dark (most of our kids are very local and walk home everyday anyway, so if it is light, then they can still do so). But we're now revisiting all of our evening events because so many parents are seeing it as free babysitting and swanning in late for pick up. So far this year some excuses have been 'oh, the movie went later than we thought', 'we decided to have dessert before coming to pick her up' or my favorite, 'we thought we'd go for 'round two' wink, wink, nudge, nudge'. Ewww. We even had one parent ring and ask for their child to be dropped home because they had too much to drink. people who don't pick up their children when required ruin it for everyone else when teachers say enough and just won't run them.

I think you are being a bit precious and I would expect an 11 year old to be able to leave school and sort out the getting home whether that is walking or organising a lift. I'd expect someone was still on the school grounds if there was an emergency. They didn't turf them all out and lock the gates. Secondary is very different from primary, most children walk home.

At our school , kids would be expected to go and tell a member of staff if there was a problem with their lift

I agree with most - the onus, at secondary - would be for the pupil to

• firstly, know what the arrangements were and get on with it
• secondly, if there were a problem / mix up, to use their phone (or, when no charge / left phone at home, use a friend's phone)
• thirdly, know that the teachers don't stand there holding their hands, and that they need to take responsibility to go and find a teacher/adult to help them, if all the first 3 options had gone wrong.

Parents should really have prepared their dc way before this age with lots of "What would you do if...." questions about not being collected from something, etc.,

I'm a secondary teacher kids leave school assume the havebeencollected or walked home no one checks.

It's not the norm. Pupils need parental permission in writing to take part in evening events, and I'm fairly sure that in the school where I used to work, the reply slips had to state how the pupils were getting home.

Yes, but this is an afterschool activity finishing at 6.30.

In the horrible event that a child came to grief between an activity I was organising & their front door, I'd expect to be asked: did you know how that student proposed to get home? what time did you leave yourself, & did you check that all students had left the premises?

I'd really struggle to defend having buggered off without checking that all students had left (presumed collected or walking with parental agreement). If a child was abducted by aliens that would probably be OK, so long as I didn't see it happen, but left in the car park waiting for a delayed lift would not be.

That's the cold-hearted 'how much shit would I be in?' response; but also, I've taken an extra kid to a local Festival of Light event this evening - he's my ds's mate. I dropped this 11yo at his front door & watched him in - telling him I'd wait until I saw the door open as I knew his parents had planned to go shopping & might possibly not be back.

I don't doubt he'd have been fine waiting outside his house on his own, he's a perfectly sensible lad, but it does seem like a reasonable compromise, if you're in loco parentis for a child old enough to make their own arrangements, to hang around & ensure that you're available if something goes wrong.

My niece is this age and does lots of similar activites. They are expected to have made appropriate arrangements and get themselves home. If something happens to the pick up situation (which has happened to my niece) they are expected to be able to seek help from a friend or ring home etc. I think there is a MASSIVE sea change at secondary school. So whilst it would be ideal if a teacher 'saw them off' I don't think it would be the expectation in many secondary schools.

CromerSutra

Complaining is not the issue that I have with what you have posted, it is the assumption that the teachers had gone.

I can think of a few things that they could have gone to do.

Having been that teacher that has had to wait till the last parent has arrived after a long trip or activity I can tell you that I have often gone to get something to drink or visit the bathroom, neither would mean that I have gone home.

'It's not the norm. Pupils need parental permission in writing to take part in evening events,'
I don't think that is the norm at all!

If the building was still open, OP, there must have still been an adult there?

What RavenAK said sums up how I feel about it.