To think DDs school are a bit lax about kids going home for lunch?

[dontrunwithscissors]

h. DDs are at primary school. The school is very strict (of course) about taking a register in the morning and will ring parents if a child isn't there and you haven't notified then they are sick. They have lots of security for the building itself so nobody can just walk in. Good. What Id expect.

However, the school grounds are open and people walk through the playground as a short cut. I find it a bit bizarre that they're so worried about security in the school building, but during playground any child can walk through the gates and off the grounds (DD has confirmed this happened once, there's nobody watching the gates) & any adult can meander through the grounds while the kids are playing.

Also, if a child wants to go home for school dinner, all they do is tick a box next to their name on the lunch form and walk out of the gates. On one occasion, DD1 realised she had ticked the wrong box--she said she was having packed lunch instead of home lunch. Nobody picked up on this. Nobody checks for the younger children that there's someone there to collect them at lunch time.

AIBU to think they should have more robust procedures? I read a thread recently about a 4 year old walking to school on their own and loads of people said that their DC's school checks that younger children are being collected by adults. None of this happens at DDs school.

None really our primary has always been opened 1child has sadly been run down in the early 80s there has been no major incidents since

Well Dunblane was a case of someone walking into an unsecured school building, which is when I remember schools in my area really tightened up security, especially access to the buildings. Of course, it's very, very unlikely, but what's to stop a Dunblane happening during playtime? It seems bizarre for the school to be so concerned with stopping people getting into the building, when they make no effort to secure the playground. (Yes, it's harder to do, but they could do more and the predominant policy in English schools is to have more security).

There is a very busy road outside the school. They usually have a lollipop man there, but there are random days when he's not there (he's not replaced) and parents don't know. Two children were knocked down last year when the lollipop man was sick.

Lots of schools are on shared sites though.For example our school has a sure start centre and a pre-school on the grounds, and a previous school had a private day nursery and an independent pre-school.So it is impossible to be kept secure.
The going home for lunch procedure sounds very worrying though

I was at school in the Sixties and we were not supposed to leave at lunchtime even in the Sixth Form, whatever that is in new money (between GCSE and A-Level) - not that that stopped us.

But at primary school? That is outrageous.

I had wondered if you were in Scotland. Sounds like my primary school in Scotland, and I know from friends it still runs in the same way. Parents are expected to teach their children not to leave the school playground.

Schools are run differently in Scotland. It is a different education system and a different legal system.

Without wanting to step miles away from my original point, but...Yes, a different education system all the way through to uni. (I'm a lecturer). I think some aspects of the Scottish education system are better than in England (e.g. holding younger children back so they start primary at 5, the 4 year degree), but the question of a school's responsibility to keep children safe and have age-appropriate checks really has nothing to do with an education or legal system.

I've noticed that secondary schools seem far more 'relaxed' about uniform around here. Kids walk around wearing trainers, their shirts hanging out & incredibly scruffy. (And this is considered the best state school in the city.) When I was in a (bog standard) secondary, we'd get bollocked for that and put in detention after a few tellings off. I don't know whether standards have dropped all over.

When I asked my DD about what would happen if a child decided to leave the school, she looked at me wide-eyed and said 'but Mummy, we're not allowed to do that'. The school have obviously set out ground rules, but DD1 is a very serious child and would never dare break a rule. DD2 starts this August and she is one wild child.....

DS1's Scottish primary school was as you describe, OP, as was my own (Wales) in the 70s. DS1's school backed onto council land that was used by the community as well as the school, so it wouldn't be possible to fence it off without losing all the green space.

If you were used to a set-up like DS2's primary school where the gates guarding the playground from the rest of the world were locked, I can see why you'd be surprised at a different arrangement.

I do think this is a case of cultural difference. If other parents are happy with it, I don't think there is anything you can do.
In terms of safety, I echo the poster who says that I have never heard of any safety incidents with this.

I can see how it would be difficult for some schools to do this, although it would be very easily done with the DC's school. I'd not thought too much about it until there was a thread recently about a P1 child walking to school on their own and many posters were horrified and suggested reporting this to the school.

I'd put money on your school being on a public right of way. I was at high school when Dunblane happened and the big high fences were quickly thrown around all the schools. My old primary school installed gates and started the planning thing to allow them to block the right of way when they had children in. After over 100 complaints were received the council realised it was going to be too expensive (not great n terms of safety, but simply fact) to fight for all the schools that had rights of way. To this day despite the school/council asking repeatedly people still cut through the school rather than walk round.

Lunch sounds fairly common as well. There was a push years ago to stop kids leaving the school grounds at lunch, but again people objected. Feeding kids at home is cheaper than school dinners and I think it's more common to go home in Scotland. I'd have mine home for lunch, but the school here doesn't have going home as a lunch option and some folks were aghast at the idea when I mentioned it whereas my nieces go home every day.

Your DD won't be the first wild child they've had. I'd bet they play much closer attention to the infants until they've got a grasp of who wanders, who doesn't listen etc and then the staff resources that they do have will be focussed on those kids at lunchtime.

There was a huge debate when I was at school and the ruling was that the school wasn't actually responsible for the children at lunchtime, I imagine that has long since changed, but it's made me chuckle remembering the meeting in my school (we had some parents annoyed at discovering their little darlings were spending their lunch money in the newly opened mcDonalds rather than the school canteen), one parent told the local Reverand to 'wheesht'. [sorry that was a very random trip down memory lane that is of no help!]

In my lifetime pupils in secondaries have always been let out to roam at lunch/breaktime. Different matter in the independent sector as only pupils in 5/ 6th year are allowed out.

I'm in Edinburgh.

Ahh, a right of way is a possible explanation. The school has sent out letters complaining that people are standing in the playground talking outside of classroom windows and disturbing the children.

I would be surprised at a school that doesn't allow children to go home for lunch--that wasn't really my point. (DD comes home every now and then.) It's more that there are no checks at all, even from P1. It seemed a really big difference to what other posters wrote about schools that watch the kids leave on a night and check they're being collected.

Parents must be forking out a small fortune for their secondary school kids to eat in town every day. I find it bloody annoying, TBH, because you have to fight your way through hundreds of kids at 12.30 every day. Some have good manners, but others push and refuse to move. I wonder what happens to those children who get free school meals--it must be a tiny number around here, but presumably they get stuck in school.

Ours is a right of way it also has 3 different gates to get in to the school

They probably wolf their food down before heading out to meet their pals!

Do they not check the P1s are picked up? Thats odd

It must be a cultural thing, going home for lunch would be really unusual around here - I've just asked my teenage children and they have never known anyone go home for lunch from school.

When I was growing up the odd one or two used to and my mum used to go home for lunch (and her dad used to come home from work for lunch too).

If people are standing and chatting then I'd bet it is a right of way because there's nothing that can be done about it without costing a fortune. It caused ructions at the time. Our local paper accused people of thinking that walking their dog was more important than children's safety. There was a lot of complaining at some of the schools that were fenced off from people who cut through and hadn't realised the cut through wasn't a right of way.

The lunch thing is very different from the way it is in England, but is really common for Scotland I think. I think there is more emphasis on 'if you think your child needs collecting from school then it's your job to collect them' rather than 'we're not letting children leave until x age'.

No idea what the FSM kids do now, but I used to sell my dinner ticket to someone who didn't want to leave at lunchtime and go to McDonalds or the chippy with the rest.

Don'trun, as I understand it, uniform can't be legally imposed on (state) school pupils in Scotland. Many schools do try to encourage school uniforms by various means (2 of my DC chose to wear full uniform including blazer, the other a very slap-dash version).

Whoops, wrong school thread ????

Lots of our children live walking distance from school and will go home for lunch rather than pay £2.10 for a lukewarm school dinner. heck when I was at primary we didn't even have a kitchen and the food was brought in and kept warm - walking home for a home lunch was very much the done thing

I can't see the issue myself but I went to school in Canada, which sounds the same as Scotland in terms of the school culture of going home for lunch/public access to school grounds etc. I find English schools very OTT on security issues. They seem a bit like mini prisons to me.

It sounds completely normal to me, but I'm in Scotland too. When I was in primary school, I went home for lunch every day. DS comes home for lunch on the days I'm not working (twice a week) and it's not an issue. Kids tend to go to their local primary schools so they generally don't have far to go to go home. If they do, they'd stay in school.

I think school security is very lax. I was in second year when Dunblane happened and pretty much all schools had their doors secured.

However, as an adult I had to do a leaflet drop of about 15 Glasgow primary schools and only in one was I challenged for strolling about school grounds or premises (despite trying to locate the nearest adult or buzzing offices)

There's a primary right in front of my house and the rear of the play ground can be very easily accessed from here

I might be wrong, but I remember Dunblane having a massive impact on schools at the time & and wonder whether it is partly a legacy of that. (Although doesn't explain Scotland.) I went home for lunch a lot at primary school & was perfectly normal. Some did so at secondary. The strict checking in/out was, I think, because kids used to be allowed into town, but their behaviour was giving the school a bad name. It was stopped by a new headmaster.

All the schools have uniform and the primary schools are always very smart. The secondary just doesn't seem bothered about the pupils looking like they've been dragged through a hedge backwards. And , Jesus, the length (or rather not) of the girls' skirts....