Kids sent home - safeguarding issue?

[PutTheBathOnPlease]

Got a text at 10.20 this morning to say secondary school have a power cut and kids will be sent home on buses at 11:30. My son is 12, I was 80 miles away for work. Other half was able to get home just after DS, but school had not asked either kids or parents whether an adult would be at home - they relied on one text message with 60 mins notice. I find it boggling that they sent home 11 and 12 yo kids, not knowing if they would be able to get into their homes let alone have an adult meet them. Maybe I'm old fashioned! But what if the text had failed to arrive? The consequences could be serious. Your thoughts please.

Whatthefreak, your apparent lack of understanding does suggest you have a very strong bias, for some reason. What is the reason? Are you someone who has a vested interest in negating a school's responsibilities in this area?

Of course an emergency for the school, in this situation, would mean the child too experience emergency situation themselves- it involves them and requires them to act! The normal mode of operating has changed at short notice. Usually there might be someone at home or someone to pick them up. If they get public transport it might only run at specific times and more infrequently in the middle of the day. Because this is an emergency situation they might have been told what to do but not had much practice, as in day to day life as they never normally have to do what is needed. This is why people have to have refresher courses in skills such as driving or first aid if they do not get much practice!

OK, this is getting ridiculous now!

Your actually comparing a 12 year old being able to simply walk home and let themselves in to leaning to drive?! 😂😂

There are lots of people with borderline skills in some areas who don't have SENs or SNs. Just like you can be not very good at maths but not have a SNs or SENs. No matter when teaching those skills has started!

This^^

This is what I have been trying to get accross. I didn't have a car for a long time, always walked, took buses. I started teaching ds how to call 999/grandma from the age of 3. I go through scenarios with him, send him on local errands, have been training him to cross roads properly whenever we are out together. I still don't have a vast amount of confidence (yet) in his ability to deal well with an unexpected situation like this. He has no SN officially, but so what,thats meaningless really- he is how he is.
I was the opposite of babied as a kid, being ferried about and coddled was never in my experience, so his difficulties are not coming from my expectations.
I was out yesterday at secondary school kicking out time, and my God, there is so much variation in the year 7s I see wandering round on the high st. Some of them just seem so clueless , some of them seem very capable. You cant just say "they should be able to etc" I agree, they should, just like they should know at 7 or whatever to apply sunblock when its hot, but they don't!"

I can see your point OP - some 11/12 yo would be fine with that but others not. So perhaps there should have been a backup plan, or they didn't leave until after you'd got the text so you had time to say please keep them.

Had this problem last week .daughter sent home during doris .did not receive any notification and daughter does not have a key(althoigh she has now!) Luckily i was home and she arrived safely. I have asked around and none of the kids were asked if they would have a problem with this. We live in a rural area thaat was badly hit,with lots of trees down an roof tiles flying about.The point is , sure?y, that at eleven, she would have been safer at school until home time ,regardless of power faiure than being sent out to fend for herself? Whilst schools are nkt babysitters they do have a certain duty of care!

Rock - my comments aren't 'telling' or 'biased' any more than anybody else's. I speak as a parent who had to come out of work to collect kids from school (or arrange my backup to do it in an emergency) because the school had texted - as per their emergency plan - to say the school was closing.
As snow thumped down and other schools were closing, I watched teachers stranded at their work with kids whose parents hadn't come to get them - while they too were in receipt of texts to pick up their own kids from another school.
Teachers have lives too, and while at work their responsibility is to look after other peoples kids. If a school is closing and parents have been told that, then teachers have to close the school!
However - if parents fail to follow the emergency procedures in place at the school by claiming they can't check their phone at work, claim they are working 4 hours away, claim their children at high school are too 'young' to get home etc etc, then the burden falls on a teacher - possibly a parent themself - to pick up their slack. It isn't right.Schools cannot operate like that - and we were talking about high schools here, where nearly every kid has a mobile to phone everyone they wish.
The point is - parents need to set up contingencies for emergencies regardless of how shy/delicate/feckless/frail or whatever their high school child is. They will need to know what to do and do dry runs to see it works.

I think you're being precious. At that age, they should have a key and be able to look after themselves for a few hours at least.

My oldest has a key, him and the middle son knows where the spare is hidden incase this sort of thing happens. It's something you should always be prepared for with secondary age children. Not that it's happened to us but they are prepared, also incase the bus didn't turn up for school they'd need to get back in if we'd gone.
As for texts not arriving, we live in poor signal area and texts can arrive the next day, even if I've driven further afield. Same to my OH and we are on different networks. So texts can "not arrive"

Am I the only person here whose daughter let herself in from secondary school onwards as a matter of course .?And was alone until about 6pm You know Latch Key Kid ..
Obviously she knew what to do in an emergency and that our elderly neighbour next door was nearly always at home .And for the first year I rang the landline at 4pm to make sure she was home

Do your secondary school children go to after school clubs if you are working ? They didnt exist in our day and DD would have hated it anyway .
(She has turned out very independent ....)

However - if parents fail to follow the emergency procedures in place at the school by claiming they can't check their phone at work, claim they are working 4 hours away, claim their children at high school are too 'young' to get home etc etc, then the burden falls on a teacher - possibly a parent themself - to pick up their slack. It isn't right.Schools cannot operate like that - and we were talking about high schools here, where nearly every kid has a mobile to phone everyone they wish.
The point is - parents need to set up contingencies for emergencies regardless of how shy/delicate/feckless/frail or whatever their high school child is. They will need to know what to do and do dry runs to see it works.

Tapandgo

Schools still have a duty of care. I know of a number of schools which will not allow children to bring phones into school. All that needs to be done is for the school to check whether a child is allowed home, whether they can get in etc. A form could be filled out in the planner for this purpose. It would also focus parents minds as to contingency plans.

Ultimately though, if a child is not able to go home from school by themselves, for whatever reason, the school has to look after them until someone can collect. This would be true for the teacher's children too. A parent is liable, in law, if they have left an under 16 year old at home and they have an accident. I would have thought, by the same reasoning, a school would be liable in the circumstances of releasing a child, early, without seeking a parent's consent.

Rock
Schools I am familiar do seek consent - not on each occasion, but usually it is agreed on intake at Y7. Often the 'snow closure and other emergency policy' is the planner, on the website or issued at New Entrants Eve. Once entrance to the school us accepted, agreement with the policies and procedures is assumed and expected. If your school doesn't have a clear policy, I suggest you raise it with them.

Tapandgo, my comment was in relation to the scenario described by the OP.

As a general principle, you can't rely on texts to definitely arrive. SMS are the lowest priority on a telecoms network and will get buffered of even dropped at times of high usage.

I had a couple of texts that were sent up me before Christmas that took two days to arrive! annoying as they were orders that I then lost

As someone once said to dh, "A message is not a message until it has been received" and there is an argument that there is a further part to it ".....and acknowledged"

Rock - I know that and it makes no difference. Children have to be geared up to know independently where to go to, and how to get there, in an emergency - whether it's a school day or not.

Tapandgo, obviously children ought to know what to do, where to go etc. I do talk to my own about this. The point is sometimes, with some, the message does not sink in or they panic. Even when they don't have diagnosed SEN. Even when their parents have taught them what to do. The school still has a duty of care because they are not adults. Just as a parent is liable if an accident happens when an under 16 is left home alone. There are plenty of things a school can do (outlined earlier on in this thread) to make the scenario, as described by the OP, less problematic for their younger or less mature, in this respect, students.

Happened at a high school I knew. Following week head wrote to all parents to say he was disappointed at the number of pupils who did not know how to get home, particularly those living within the town. The public transport users all went home but plenty who lived pretty close ( within 2 miles) hung around as they didn't know how to get home. had keys but had always been driven. parents need to have agreed contingency plan.

city, the headteacher can be as disappointed as he likes but if those children have not acquired the requisite skills, they have not acquired them. He would be still be potentially liable in the case of an accident, if parents had not (actively) given their consent for them to be released early. Perhaps instead of looking on and criticising he could have given them some pointers...

Our teachers (in the 80s) used to do this sort of thing. If they saw anyone struggling either on the way into school or coming home they did their best to help.

Rock - maybe the easiest thing for parents to do in circumstances you describe is to teach their children to go up to a teacher and say 'I don't know what to do'. However - back to the problem - if you have not left a list of alternative and available contacts for the teacher to get in touch with, what do you imagine the teacher does with a child when a school closes at say 10.00 am because of a weather warning for instance, with no contingencies put in place by the parent. In the end you simply cannot shove that responsibility back on to teachers. They too gave family responsibilities to take care of and homes to go to.

If parents were stuck on the motorway or hospitalised as a result of an accident, there has to be a contingency in place for an 'abandoned' child. Does it then get shunted on to social services?

Parents do not have to give consent 'actively' for every occasion an emergency occurs. Maybe instead of criticising the headteacher city mentions, parental energy should go into sorting out contingencies plans for children should emergencies arise.........we cannot brush it in the direction of others.

Does it then get shunted on to social services?

Potentially, yes. Simply because something could have happened to the parent, especially in the case of bad weather. The thing is a school cannot negate their responsibilities. They need to have clear policies, communicate them clearly and follow them. A single text is not completely reliable. Parents can do things, yes. I personally have made contingency plans, plenty of up to date contacts etc. I am easily contactable.

However as good as my plans are they are still dependent on the school and my child playing their part - I am not present and as much as I like, cannot be in full control, remotely. The greater responsibility still falls upon the school as they are the adults present. I would hope the school does their best to check each of their pupils know what to do, at the time.

I would be uncomfortable with this. My eldest child is 11 and brings herself home on the bus and is sometimes home alone for a couple of hours. However during this time I am aware she is home alone. I ensure she has her phone on her and charged, that she has her key, and that I am obtainable, ie. my phone is in my pocket as opposed to in my locker (where it is supposed to be). However if I think she is in school then my phone may well be in my locker for most of my shift. What if there is some sort of emergency and she cannot contact me?

Bangin yes, it can feel scary. Could you put your work's landline on her mobile?