To want to drop and run at school?

[Cuppaand2biscuits]

My dd is 6 years old, in year one. The school got a new head teacher in September who implemented a new morning routine that I just can't get on with.
Old morning routine = Assemble in playgroup, bell gets rung, all children into lines, teacher leads into.classroom. Parents welcome to follow if children requests or they wish to speak with teacher.

New morning routine = Everyone assemble in classroom. Some mornings we have to choose a book and read with our children for 5/10 minutes other days it's 'Wakefield Up Shake Up' where we have to dance along to a bouncy routine! Then the tambourine rings and we kiss goodbye and leave.
Obviously I don't object to the interaction with my child but there's 30 pupils in the class, each with an adult and lots with a younger sibling or 2. It's too many people, it's too hot when we're dressed for the cold. It's a bloody faff!
Anyone else successfully challenged this sort of shit?

This sort of thing really frustrates me... I totally understand what they are trying to achieve, but realistically it just isn't feasible.
I'm a childminder who does school runs at a local school. I dropped off 3 year old in the nursery school at 8.40, dropped off 5 year old at the school (attached to the nursery) at 8.45 and then would walk home and drop off the 2 year old at another nursery at 8.50 and then be home for 9 for my mindees to arrive.
This worked fantastically for 6 months, until the first school's nursery implemented a new rule that every day you had to go inside the classroom (with 30 other parents, 30 students and everyone's siblings), search for your child's name (laid out in a different place every day across 6 tables) and then watch the child write on top of their laminated name with a pen (a very long process for a 3 year old with a double barreled surname and a long first name). It set my whole morning back. Once I was late for the reception child, they shut their doors and you had to walk all the way through the school from reception to find the assembly hall where they would be. I would then be 10-15 mins late to drop off the 2 year old, and 10-15 mins late for all my own mindees that arrived at 9.
I tried speaking to the school, who told me that 3 year old would be very upset if she was the only child not taking part and that they thought the new regime worked well.

drop of at gates, wave and we are all gone by 8.36 lol!

I had two children in the same school when they did this.
When dd1 first started in reception, I used to sit and read with her. I didn't take part in the singing or dancing part. Some parents did.
When dd2 started the following year, I would take dd1 in her class first, see she was settled then take dd2 to her class (hoping I had walked slowly enough that the tambourine was about to go), settle her and leave. There were a couple of kids who didn't have an adult stay with them, but most did.

I too would be dropping at 8.54 and dashing off.....no wakey shakey for me thanks

Teachers, we need YOU to do YOUR job, and stop fucking expecting the parents to do it for you!

^ (To those schools that participate in this lunacy).

These are probably the schools that send constant letters demanding money/donations. But you can't get to work on time to make the money to goddam pay because of happy sing along /read time

They do this at the school my friends dc go to, go into class for 10 minutes each morning to play with dc. Thank God we're a drop and run school - also stops the teachers being hounded by parents, bell rings, kids get into line, teachers come out of classroom and take kids into school no faffing around.

Lol @liz70

Bollocks to that first thing in the morning.

In fact bollocks to that at any time.

The sheer palaver of it has made me smile though

Teachers, we need YOU to do YOUR job, and stop fucking expecting the parents to do it for you!

Trust me, it's not the teachers' doing. New Head. There's your clue.

Absolutely ridiculous, this year that would mean getting to work even later (umm, nope not happening), next year would mean I'd have to get my older one to the Juniors 10 minutes after I drop off at the infants and still need to get to work because you know I have to work for a living! A quiet (or not quiet) word is needed with one of the governors.

It does make you wonder if any of these overenthusiastic headteachers with their crazy ideas have ever been an actual regular teacher.
Or a parent for that matter.

that's what i don't understand about this, our school got marked down on ofsted regarding access to the school, they installed a double gates system and an electrical sliding door, no parents allowed in the school and you see the teacher by appointment only. Parents drop off at the edge of the yard before the second gate but can go nto the yard to collect. How can they let all the parents roam the school freely from class to class, how do they know there are only parents who have walked in the school.

I can guarantee the teachers hate it as much as you - trying to get all the parents back out again on time and then calming the kids down, especially the clingy ones. What a nightmare!

I'd request it either stops or is reduced or I'd be using the Breakfast Club to avoid it. It would def be worth saying you're worried about safeguarding with all those extra adults let into the school.

As a teacher I would find this a nightmare scenario too. I hated when this sort of crap was imposed by headteachers. I bet your DCs class teacher wishes they could say bollocks to it too. I can't think they won't be relieved when some parents duck and run. Then ther might be space to do what they have been told to do! Arriving at 8.54 seems like the plan for me!

Or surely some of the other parents much feel the same? Can you all not get together and say this is not working for you.

It sort of assumes that parents (and I/they probably mainly mean 'mothers') have all the time in the world to muck about at school in the mornings. It would get up my nose for that reason.

Just don't do it. If a teacher/the head mentions it, explain that you don't have time.

OMG no way.

Our DCs school changed the routine because of building work and ALL the teachers and kids much prefer it. Before: playground with parents, bell ring, lining up, going up to class, wave goodbye.

Now: kids say goodbye at entrance to school, senior staff at gates for queries. Kids go in from 8.45 and then arrive one by one not en masse, bell goes at 8.55. Kids who get in early get to sit and read and chat to teacher.

End of school is for talks with teachers.

DCs with any problem negotiating a line up and saying goodbye or arriving in a noisy jangly classroom (mine) find it much easier to settle down. Teachers say reading improves with those that arrive early.

I am so glad that our school won't allow parents through the gate. All parents and children line up on the paths around school (which can be a bit of a nightmare, but I'm willing to accept it). Somewhere between 8.45-8.50 the headteacher opens one gate, deputy opens the other. Children say goodbye to parents, go through the gate and off they go into school. No messing around and no parents through the gate.

They used to let the children on to the playground to play (but not parents) from about 8.35, then blew a whistle, children lined up and in they went, but teachers had to supervise this and tbh I imagine it was stopped as teachers had better things to do with their time.
No way I would want to be dancing around in the school hall. Bonkers idea. Arrive just as the tambourine goes, kiss goodbye and off you all go.

I've seen this suggested as an idea to get parents interested in their children's education in schools/areas which struggle with this, so I kind of understand the rationale behind it.

But YANBU, it's a safeguarding/safety nightmare, and it also highlights the children who aren't dropped off by parents and could make them feel left out (at least the younger ones who might actually enjoy dancing with their parents each morning)

I can answer the "what about working parents" as our reception year does this though stay until 9.10!!

The answer is I leave her, or never go at all she's in breakfast club and she spends her entire time upset that hers is the only mummy that doesn't stay and do "Style Tiles"

No because mummy has money to earn FFS

Funniest thing I have read this year ..

My dc are lucky if I even come to a complete halt at our school gate. There is no hanging about. They out of car, kiss if time allows, air kiss if not... and off I go. Who has time for that shit in the morning.

I should add that our school starts at 7.25am, so it would NOT go down very well here at all.

What about working parents? Really, I am still giggling picturing the mums and dads jumping around in the playgroup FOR A WHOLE TERM! And no-one thought it odd....

What a nightmare! I haven't read the whole thread but I hope this isn't a "thing".

Our (village) school was marked down by Ofsted for allowing parents pretty well free access into the school in a morning - it was a nightmare if you wanted to avoid general village small talk and debate about which private school was best to transfer to for Y3. The new head implemented a thorough review and we got shiny new locked gates/doors/a buzzer system. Drop kids at the gate and run. Works a treat!

just drop and run.

what nonsense.

Oh good god that sounds like a nightmare. We drop at gates of playground, don't even go into the playground and we go, right from reception. I can't imagine doing it any other way, much better. I could not be doing with a morning social. No way