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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to be shocked that a primary school fence is only 4 foot high??

62 replies

Sobloodyworried123 · 16/09/2015 00:02

Playground is directly to the front of the school, car park to the left and the entire gate is a metal 4 foot high fence.
Isn't this extremely low?
The road is a quiet residential road but at the end of that small lane is a 50mph fast road.
Entirely put off the whole school based on that ( as well as pretty shit ofsted report ) AIBU?

OP posts:

BackforGood · 16/09/2015 00:07

Yes, YABU.
It's a school. A fence indicates it is the boundary.
If a small child were to start scaling the fence, it is likely someone would spot them - they could hardly do it accidentally.
I wouldn't want a school to look like Alcatraz.

Fatmomma99 · 16/09/2015 00:09

How tall is the tallest Yr 6?

VegasIsBest · 16/09/2015 04:46

It's a school not a zoo.

What are you worried about?

SavoyCabbage · 16/09/2015 05:02

We haven't even got a fence. And it's on a main six lane road. With a park on the other side. Nobody has escaped.

Childrenofthestones · 16/09/2015 05:05

Where I live there was always 4ft fences round them, but about 10 years ago they replaced them with 8ft ones for security during the night. They look bloody awful .
In the previous 40yrs with the 4ft fences they never lost one child.

Littlefish · 16/09/2015 06:25

Do you think the fence is too low because the children could climb out, or because an intruder could climb in?

I've been teaching for about 17 years and in that time, a child has only once tried to scale a fence. That was an 8+ foot high, anti-climb fence. He scaled it like a cat, went over the top and made a bid for freedom .

I say this to show that if a child has decided to escape, it doesn't matter how high the fence is!

IAmNotAWitch · 16/09/2015 06:30

Most of our school isn't fenced at all. Only the ends of the football field to stop the balls getting into the road.

No accidents that I know of.

BikeRunSki · 16/09/2015 06:42

DS's school also replaced low fences with much higher (8' or so) ones about 5 or 6 years ago. It was a safeguarding requirement that came out of their ofsted report.

mumsgoingtouni · 16/09/2015 06:52

That would put me off as well. I thought since Dunblane that school security was stepped up, it certainly was in our area. Railings around the school are at least six foot high and there are hedges planted inside as well.

Cindy34 · 16/09/2015 07:01

Fence is there to show where the playground ends and car park begins. It creates a delay if a child is running to the carpark. Children have to learn to risk assess for themselves, you can't be with them all the time.

Gates at school are left open at collection time I find, so nothing to stop a child going out on their own. Often see a child waiting for their parent/carer at the end of the path. Not yet had a child run over on the road, which is surprising given how some parents park as close to the school as possible, such as on the yellow zigg zags.

hattyhatter · 16/09/2015 07:05

I thought since Dunblane that school security was stepped up, it certainly was in our area

Yes here too. I don't think I've seen a school without a 7ft+ perimeter fence since shortly after the Dunblane tragedy. (As compared to 30 years ago -when I was in primary school - when the boys used to climb over the wall OUT of the playground to get their balls back from the road.) But this a big city. Perhaps that makes a difference?

SocksRock · 16/09/2015 07:12

Our school just has a 3' high chain link thin - I've never really thought anything of it.

How would an 8' fence help with safeguarding? Is that yo stop kids getting out or other people getting in?

Therewasanoldladywho · 16/09/2015 07:13

Ha, I can beat that. We drove past a school the other day with a four foot fence......on top of a seven foot wall. If a child was to scale the fence, they'd have an eleven foot drop to the pavement Would never send my dc there!

SoupDragon · 16/09/2015 07:14

I think our school fence is between 5 and 6 feet high. It's green metal uprights so doesn't look like Alcatraz. They decided not to top it with razor wire.

vestandknickers · 16/09/2015 07:18

What?

Why do you need a higher fence?

Is your town known for wild bears?

Spartans · 16/09/2015 07:18

We had an 8 foot fence put in because people kept breaking in and stealing plants, and equipment. Looks awful and fes like a prison. The children are not out unattended so no need to fence them in.

I would be much happier with a lower fence and less of a 'secure facility' feel.

Is there a problem at your school with children escaping?

Artandco · 16/09/2015 07:27

No fence at my school, no fence at ds's school either. Just open front door and straight into freedom!

TheHouseOnTheLane · 16/09/2015 07:27

My DC's school fence is about 4 foot OP....they just don't climb over!

Casimir · 16/09/2015 07:29

Maybe campaign to get it electrified. Our local pool (Lido) is.

londonrach · 16/09/2015 07:32

Anyone else finds its sad we fence schools like prisons. Yes i can understand the infants part but juniors.

gingerdad · 16/09/2015 07:36

Glad my kids went to a school without much of a fence. And none round here have fence most low wall.

We do live in a very sad society where we worry so much about a problem that hasn't changed in 100 years. Strangers aren't the danger there close family and friends are far more likely to cause harm or abuse their child than a stranger.

The press in this country have so much to awnser. Our kids are in far more danger not being introduced to managed risk than the 1/1000 chance of a stranger like Dunblane / Milli Dowler or April Jones.

YABU

pourmeanotherglass · 16/09/2015 07:41

Our primary school had a fence around 5 feet high. A few years ago a couple of tiny boys made an escape bid. I think they were reception or yr 1 and they had walked a short distance then crossed a main road before they were found. The school made the fence less easy to climb after that.

PlayingSolitaire · 16/09/2015 07:47

My school used to have a short fence a few years ago and, like pp's school, it was down rated in it's OFSTED report purely because the fence wasn't high enough. They replaced the fence with a higher one and were upgraded in the next OFSTED.

Schools with short fences need to beware if they end up with a jobsworth OFSTED inspector...

Mehitabel6 · 16/09/2015 07:53

My first thought was how dreadful to think schools need to look like prisons!
The fence seems perfectly adequate.

hattyhatter · 16/09/2015 07:53

The other thing that became de rigeur here post-Dunblane was remotely locked entrance doors/buzzer intercoms.

Do those of you in more relaxed areas not have those in your schools either?

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