stalked by school!

[Brioche201]

Last Friday DD was off sick. I start work at 9.30 so got her up and dressed and dropped her round at my parents.When I got to work there was an email on my work email address (which I have NOT given out to them as a contact address), an emaul on my personal email, messages on my mobile and home number and DH's mobile! All before 9.15 wanting to enquire as to DDs whereabouts!! Now DD gets a lift to school every day with another child from the same village (we are 4 miles away from school) so pretty obvious that she hasn't befallen an accident on the way.Infact the secretary would have asked the other child if DD was coming
I am thinking of complaining to the school, as I think it was pretty rude to try to contact me by so many different means especially my work email wanting to know her 'whereabouts'.WTF !!

You could always put a letter in formally letting school know that if your child isn't there, that they are safe to assume she is sick, and that you take complete and utter responsibility should something untoward have happened to her?

Fine, OP, maybe the brownies, sports clubs etc are doing things wrong. That doesn't justify a complaint that the school is taking safeguarding seriously.

How about this then:
The system was already in place in some schools to tackle truanting. Something terrible happened to two young children after going missing on their way to school. Someone said "why don't we expand this to all schools to try to prevent such a terrible thing happening again?" Then it became common practice.

So travelling home from school. You either collect, nominate a responsible adult to collect or agree your child can leave school on their own. If you do the latter then any harm that comes to your dc is your responsibility.
If my dd isn't going to Brownies I do let them know partly through politeness and partly to confirm her absence.
However education is mandatory so if your chosen education facility hasn't got your child they have to activate safeguarding procedures.
Brownies/clubs etc independently of school are voluntary. You do not have to justify absence. The leaders have a duty of care once during the club and until they leave.
Because there is no statutory attendance there is no duty to act on non attendance.
It is very simple.

Rather obviously, they aren't more likely to fall in to a ditch in their way to school rather than on their way to brownies.
But that isn't the point is it.
The point is, school is compulsory, so if a child is not there, alarm bells are raised. Brownies is not compulsory, so they are not.
Obviously.

Freya I remember that case, how sad. It was after that that schools in my area brought in the phoning home thing, iirc.

You supplied them with your work email when you used it to contact them. Do you expect other people not to email you on an address you've emailed them from?

If they think you are at work, it is reasonable for them to think you'll check your work email more often than your home one.
Do you work for MI5?

I expect them to contact me on the email I have supplied to them

But why? As has been said above, what is wrong with using every possible contact they have in what could be a very urgent situation? How were they to know that you would object when you had given them your work email address? How were they to know that you hadn't just forgotten to tell them the address when you first gave them your contacts? Did you tell them that those you gave them were absolutely the only ones they were permitted to use?

You want to debate whether safeguarding has gone too far?

Well while there are children being deliberately kept away from school to cover up physical and sexual abuse. While their are children who's only contact with someone who can alert authorities to Protental safeguarding issues is while at school. No they haven't gone to far.

Yes most parents/families are not abusers and most absences would be like your child just illness. And yes most times a parent doesn't ring before 9 o'clock is because the ill child is being sick and the parent just hasn't had time to call.

But there are those children that walk of school grounds because their being bullied or their home life is unsettled, or just having a really really bad day. There are those children who have boyfriends/girlfriends and skive without their parents knowledge, there are those children who's parents don't answer the phone dilibrately because they don't want the authorities to be involved. There are those children who may being groomed and abducted.

No it may not be YOUR child, but they don't know, it has to be one policy for all. It may not be your child or any child at the school, but those chances are simply not worth taking!

There's also the time frame thing. If your kid leaves for school at 8am and isn't back til 4.30pm that's a heck of a long time for them to be missing with nobody looking. But for brownies / karate club or whatever they're only out of the house girl a couple of hours. So actually far more likely to get in to a dangerous situation if they're truanting from school. Also, less likely to truant brownies because they don't have to be there.

I admit this is an 'extreme' example, but when I read this article recently I wondered why schools aren't better at following up on absent children - our school definitely don't.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-34860532

I am not hearing a reasonable answer yet.

I'd you haven't given a reasonable answer about why contacting you on your work email is a hanging offence.

That is shocking. I'm honestly quite surprised that there are schools which don't follow up tbh. Our Keep Kids Safe messages go out automatically at 9.30am.

Sports clubs and Brownies do not have attendance policies, and fines for non-attendance or punctuality because they are optional organisations. Brown Owl does have to follow some safeguarding areas such as ensuring ratios of adult:child are correct and that activities are risk assessed, but they are not inspected and judged on their attendance and the onus on Brown Owl and Tawny Owl to ensure that Brownies missing a session does not affect them earning their next badge is not really on a par with external qualifications.

Parents have a duty by law to ensure their child is educated and if they choose to do that by sending them to school, then they are bound by the policies therein. Parents are not obligated by law to send their children to karate club, nor is their attendance at optional clubs monitored closely. Clubs do not have to hand over their attendance log to inspectors either. Some parents might tell their child that they are not allowed to go to Brownies one night over poor behaviour. Or they might decide their child could do with an early night or it might clash with a cinema trip. That would not be a problem. Parents are not allowed to keep their children out of school for those reasons because they have an obligation to get them educated.

What isn't clear?

I just can't understand why you didn't call before you left home. Problem solved. You seem to not really care about the school or the fact that your dd is not the only child attending.

Next time call them first and leave a message rather than prioritising everything else first.

It is nuts. School contact you at work about your child. What if she was on her way to school but didn't get there. Wouldn't you want to know that, even through your work email? Seriously?

Also a good idea would be to think about the wording 'I am just ringing to let you know that, XXX hasn't arrived at school today, is she off sick?' would be ok.It is their business to know whether to expect her or not. But 'I am enquiring as to the whereabouts of XXX' is quite frankly rude and none of their damn business.

Oh ffs. Grow up.

I expect them to contact me on the email I have supplied to them

But I think you said they did also email your personal address, didn't you? I would understand your annoyance if they started spamming your work email with newsletters and fundraising requests.... but this was a matter of safeguarding your child.

What would you do, through the course of your work, if you had to get an urgent message to a client. It was something you were obliged to do, and could potentially save the life of a child.

Would you:

(a) type their name into your email address bar, and use all the addresses that came up, thus maximising the chance that the recipient would see it.

(b) search through your files to find the form that your client filled in to tell you which email address they preferred, and use that one. On noticing that your client's work email also pops up in the address bar, you opt not to use that one, cos you know, you'd hate to disturb them at work with something as trivial as their child's safety.

Clue: One of the answers is what normal people do.

But 'I am enquiring as to the whereabouts of XXX' is quite frankly rude and none of their damn business.

It is their business.
Good lord woman, you are impossible.

A girl at DD1's school at the time (senior) was the victim of a serious hit and run on her way to school. Her parents got the text, rang the school to say that there was no reason she shouldnt be there and the girl was found shortly afterwards.

We had a letter after the incident to explain that this was why they did the text/email alert (suspect they had had disgruntled parents like the OP) and that they were changing the rules on phones. They could be in school but must be kept off during lessons, because the girl hadnt got her phone with her due to the ban. Everyone learned something as a result of that I think.

Personally I think that they are very good idea, I would rather know at 9am that my kids are not where they are supposed to be than when they dont arrive home at 4pm.l

Jessicas I'd never heard of a school contacting a parent in this way until this thread, so I'm equally surprised but in the opposite way, if you know what I mean.

You could always put a letter in formally letting school know that if your child isn't there, that they are safe to assume she is sick, and that you take complete and utter responsibility should something untoward have happened to her?

This.

I just cannot understand your attitude? You'd rather not have an email sitting in your work inbox from your child's school, than be unaware your child hasn't come to school that day?

As soon as you knew she wouldn't be attending, you should have called in.

Calling once you are at work FFs, is far too late. Get your priorities straight.