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.

I'd also imagine there is someone who keeps a discrete eye out for any kids hanging about. The issue could be that sometimes when people know that if they turn up at 3.40pm instead of 3.30pm there is someone who'll wait with the kids there's not the same rush. People don't mind being 3 or 5 minutes late because it's "ok as they'll not let X leave without an adult". We've had to introduce a charge at the out of school care for anyone late because the amount of people that think it's acceptable to regularly saunter in at 5 past or 10 past because there are "x and y are there anyway" (x and y who are there for tidying up/sorting paperwork) is ridiculous.

The school inspectors are just as strict as OFSTED so the procedures will have been run past them. The details for an uncollected child are probably in the school handbook - it might mention there what the children are told.

Have you asked your elder child what the school say to do if no-one comes to collect you? You might find it's drummed into them, a bit like the rules for not leaving the playground.

Omg strangers could be lurking in the bushes waiting to abduct your children...good god!

As I said, I never concerned myself with the question of collecting kids on an afternoon as DD goes to after school club Mon-Thurs and some Fridays. That's only come up as an issue on here. I've just asked DD1 and she said they're told to go to the out of school club. Makes sense as that's the only part of the school building they can access once they leave at 3.15.

larant I've not come across kindergartens letting 3 year olds out like that - most have the buzzer system. Some encourage Vorschule Kinder to get to Kindergarten alone but they'd be 5, and some bigger kindergartens run buses for outlying villages and let the bus kids out to go in a big group to the bus.

At leadt in our part of Germany there is quite a clear transition from Kindergarten to school child responsibilities and expectations - they are trained up during the Vorschule year but allowed to take on the independent schoolchild status at 6.

Blimey. That sounds crazy.

In my daughter's school (primary, SE England) all play areas are fenced off, no one could wander into them. School is accessible via the office (buzzer system) and the doors/gates that teachers open at the end of the day to excort kids out. In KS1 - years R to 2 - childrena re handed over by teacher at the end of the day and if your child is going home with someone else you nee to let them know or they won't be handed over. Kids leaving the premises without parents / authorsed adults just woldn't happen - right up to Y6.

I'd be horrified at the thgouht that my 6 y/o could just wander offsite.

We are in Scotland, and the primary school my kids go to is nothing like this at all, the playground is locked soon after morning entry and not opened again until the end of the school day. They were recently asked if another group who were using school buildings could open up the gate at another time of the day to enable a much shorter walk for the people concerned, and it was a firm no. So it's not a standard Scotland thing as far as I am concerned, security in our school is very tight indeed, to the extent that I hve stood ringing the buzzer for ages before when I have been going to school to see a teacher about my child.

I think the only conclusion to draw is there is a wide range of practice!

dont there are areas of concern that you have with the school. Perhaps, raise them at the next Parent Council meeting?

Sounds like my school too. We had 1 poor playground supervisor to around 100 children. FSM and paying kids ate in one room, packed lunches in another and all who went home just left and came back before 1.15.

Only primary 1s were checked in and out, but not formally - village school so you'd see at a glance who was and wasn't there. No one else was checked, we just left at the end of the day.

By 7 I was walking myself through fields/grass paths on riverbanks, a mile each way crossing one main road with no lollipop man at all. At 9 I walked myself, my 6 year old sister and two of her classmates every day. I was only very exceptionally met by my mum.

In secondary, I caught an unsupervised bus with 75 others, 8 miles journey every day. We had registers in every class but had absolute freedom at breaks and were actively encouraged to use shops for lunch, the school couldn't feed everyone. Didn't have the capacity for more than 200 or so, at the worst the school had 1800+ squeezed in. Poor Morrisons had to hire security staff and segregated two checkouts for school pupils each day. In fact iirc at one stage they actually banned pupils from being in school over lunch - you were kicked out at the bell, doors were locked and you were told to get back for an hour later. Can't remember why, might have been due to litter in class areas.

I'm English and we were always allowed off school at lunch. From juniors onwards. I am 34 now. We lived in a rural area though. School fields were also open, and houses backed onto them with open gardens. It's the same now, my nephew goes to the same junior school.