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.

Yabu

They're secondary school kids. I'd expect them to have their own key and mobile phone and to speak to a teacher if there was a problem. If a NT secondary pupil can't do that then you have problems.

At first I thought that you DS should have a key. Mine has SN and has a key.

However the key is the least of my worries tbh. We are not on a bus route or in walking distance of the school. Also I work in childcare care and never have my phone on me. I don't get a break either so the text wouldn't reach me until 3. They need to call my workplace land line. The school cant remember this little detail on a normal day let alone a day when their systems are down so...still you'd think they have a list of things like this...(doubtful)

Obviously we have emergency contacts so someone would be found for him but he would need to tell them. I'd hope that he would. (goes off to make sure he would).

Just saying, in NZ it is against the law to leave children under 14 alone/ unsupervised.
If OP had been a single parent then her son would have had a long wait for her return. I do not think she's BU to question the school at such short notice

I'm going to buck the trend here, and say I don't think it's acceptable to send 11/12 yo kids home, without warning, and without specifically assessing if the kids were able to get in home, etc.

Here, children that age would still be in primary, and the vast majority would go to some form of childcare after school, rather than home alone.

I have a 10.5 year old. Neither he nor any of his friends have mobile phones or keys to their homes. I also know plenty 11/12 year olds who would be the same.

I also think it is wrong to assume that children should know to call to a neighbour. Around here, you'd be hard-pressed to find people home during the day.

We have just started to leave our 10 year old at home alone for short periods of time (10-15 mins). I wouldn't be overly confident that in a years time he would be able to be at home alone unexpectedly for a number of hours.

It was reasonable for a parent to assume that when their child went to school in the morning, that they would be there for the day. A power cut doesn't pose any danger to the kids. I would think it far more appropriate that the school contact parents and tell them of their need to send children home, but to not actually do so, until they had received a communication from the parents that they were agreeable with this. It is not acceptable to just send kids home.

Genuine question.

What on earth did schools do before they had the ability to text everyone? Must have been a complete nightmare.

I had a key from year 5, and stopped having my gran come pick me up and take me to school/ walk me home aged 9 or 10. By that point my secondary aged (11/12) sister would get home before me (about 2:45-3:00) and my school finished at 3:30. If i forgot my key she would be home to let me in, and were alone til my parents finished work at 5. 11/12 is more than old enough to have a key, travel to and from school alone and be home by yourself for a few hours, assuming no SN and been taught properly to be safe in the home. Once at highschool if i was too ill to go in i would stay home by myself laying on the sofa with crap daytime tv. Mobiles were just becoming mainstream and schools never contacted parents by text for anything. Real question is why didn't your child have a key or are you babying them/not taught them properly to be safe at home alone for a few hours.

When the substation beside/part of the front of ds' school was making loud sparking noises and potentially about to explode a few months ago, they had to evacuate the school out the back while it was isolated (and shut down of course). The S1s and S2s (11-13 year olds) were kept in the Sports Hall (fortunately, a new and separate building to the back of the school) until either a parent/responsible adult could pick them up or an older sibling at the school could take them. All the older kids were sent home (automated text alert sent to the designated parent they can only have one parent in their system )

This happened on a Friday morning, so Scottish Power had the weekend to try to sort out an alternative supply to the school. I think it took them 2 weeks to fix the substation, during which time the school was served by two other substations.

The school handled a scary situation very calmly - but still said that there were things they could learn from it (like practicing fire drills avoiding particular exits like the one beside the substation ). They were also fortunate that they had a separate building where the kids could congregate.

What were to happen at your ds' school if it weren't "just" a power cut but was a full-on fire? They wouldn't be able to "look after" the pupils then - although you'd want to be reassured they'd accounted for them all.

You could check that your ds has a plan of action for cases like this: a key/a friend you're happy for him to go to/a relative/a phone to let you know (not just a text - a phone call).

You could also ask the school what they do for those pupils that are more vulnerable for whatever reason.

DS had had a key since he started secondary school in Sept. He usually gets back 1-2 hrs before I do anyway . However I wouldn't like him home alone from mid morning until I get home (around 5pm). I would be very unhappy fif he had to make his lunch without an adult in the house (even assuming there was food in he could make/) He doesn't generally have money on him (just a bus pass for the bus and maybe £1 or so;) not enough to buy lunch. He also wouldn't like to spend practically all day alone without any warning. So definitely a pain but I would have come home. Alternatively I would have told him to get the bus to my work (he knows how) instead of home and got him to sit in my office for rest of the day.

The idea of 500-odd kids (Y7 and 8) being corralled in the hall (in the dark!) while someone occasionally comes in and goes 'Joe Smith's parents have said he can go' and Joe Smith leaving quietly is absolutely hilarious.

Once kids have heard school is shut, some would undoubtedly be straight out of the gate. Others would be making arrangements to go around their mate's house (It's ok Miss, I'm going with Joe Smith). Or getting their mate to text their phone, changing their mate's name to 'Mum' and then waving it in your face going 'look, my mum's texted saying I can go'.

It would be total and utter chaos, and completely unmanageable.

We have a rock hidden in the garden with a key inside it, as we live very rural and if any family arrived without a key it would be a right palaver for them to have to return home to get their keys, or even to walk back to the main road.
Our school buses/coach services send the buses early if school needs to shut, but so they should with the prices they charge!

Of course a powercut can cause danger ( though i would never use such a strong word )
If it dark in the corridors, or in the loos ( it would be totally dark in both staff and student loos at our place) the risks of kids getting hurt in total darkness is real.
It may become very cold, and the vast majority of kids would be warmer and more comfortable at home, and m there would be no food available.
It absolutely is the sensible course of action to close a secondary school without power, and i agree with the numerous pp who have pointed out the massive difficulties in ringign the parents of 1800+ students, half of whom will not have bothered to update or correct their contact details.
But undoubtedly there was an option to wait in the cold, dim school but the OPs kid chose not to go for it.
Those posters who say they are 20 minutes drive away and no public transport would almost certainly find their kids are returned on the same school bus they came in on, otherwise if you have opted for a school that distance away and so are not entitiled to transport then that is something you also have to plan for.

It's not possible for schools to talk to all parents. You realise the amount of time this would take?
The parents were informed they received a text. This text would have been sent to every mobile on the students contact list. If parents don't update this that is their fault.
Sn children alternative arrangements would be made.
Unless entry systems are on a back up system anyone would be able to walk in/out of schools.
Depending on other systems there may also be no heating. Unless on a back up generated system there may be no fire alarm.
I asked my year 6 what he would do. He would use his key to get his phone and phone my work. If he didn't have his key or any change to phone my work he would ask his friends if he could go home with them and call me. If these weren't available he would talk to his teacher. He said he would ask his mates first before the teacher as he had more chance of being somewhere warm.

What did they do back in day? Sent you home. No text (pre mobile) no call (not everyone has a phone). Remember been sent home more than once due to weather or heating problems even at primary age.

I would hope my DS who is 13 would have the sense to speak up if he forgot his key, but neither him nor his classmates are allowed their phones at school so he wouldn't have been able to call me. Also, where we live, it is quite common to get texts several hours after they were sent. Or even a day on more that one occasion!

Alnd they are strongly discouraged from taking money in at all and they have a fob for their dinners/snacks, so he never has any money on him. So it is quite likely that he would be unable to contact me if this happened to him. He does have a key and would go home (he walks and gets home before us anyway) but to all those saying secondary school kids should have money or a phone and that texts don't get lost.....you are wrong!

Also, not all parents have mobiles - my DH doesn't! So if I had left my mobile at home or switched off (very common) then we def wouldn't know if he was sent home early.

My 3dc range from 12-16th and none of them have their own door key. They have no need as there is usually someone home. On the rare occasion They need to unlock the front door they use mine or dh.

Not all dc need a door key.

In my day we would have been sent home. But then in my day my Mum was home all day doing the hoovering so it wouldn't be an issue.

I think it was completely unreasonable, particularly for an 11yo. It is absolutely not the school's decision whether an 11yo should be travelling home alone or being home alone. That is a parent's decision and a text which they have no idea whether it was read is insufficient. People have jobs where they cannot check their phones or could have been in a swimming pool or similar area without a phone. It was reckless and probably breaks safeguarding rules.

Any child whose parents hadn't been contacted and who was not accustomed to being home alone for half the day should have been supervised in a hall or something at school. Presumably there are windows for a bit of light. School should have also provided these kids lunch - sandwich or whatever. One member of staff could have gone to a shop.

Considering that my local secondary has gates and fences all round it which are at least 10 feet tall and nobody can get in without speaking to someone at school, I think what your school did was terrible.

Ds' school's sports hall has enough natural light during the day! The S1s and S2s are probably about 300 pupils - so fewer once those with older siblings at the school had left. M

Ds (16, in S5, so able to go home) said that "his" S1s (the rugby team that he coaches) were all trying to claim him as a brother as he walked through the sports hall to leave

Our neighbours have a boy in S2 and had to organise to go and get him which took a few hours. If we'd thought, we could have arranged that in situations line that we could take him. But they said that when they arrived, it was all very calm and organised - which is also how ds had described it. (A sixteen year old who made a point of saying to me how well the teachers managed it! must have been good )

At my kids secondary you have the option of either giving blanket permission for your child to be sent home in the event of a snow day etc or you ask that either the school or your child if they have a mobile contact you first.
The forms are sent and renewed out every year.

If they forgot it or something they would just have to go round a mates house or camp out in McDonalds/Library etc.

At 11 I had no key, there was no McDonald's or cafe or anything similar near my house and I had no friends. There's not always somewhere nearby to go.

Agree Kirsty

My son has SN but no statement and there have been a few times recently where he's been on school trips and they've just been left at the place and told to make their own way home. That's fine and dandy for most 16-17 years old but my son has aspergers, OCD, anxiety and developmental delay and struggles with a change in routine. SOme teachers have been excellent and always make sure they go back to school with him because he knows his routine way home from there. Others haven't bothered and he's struggled. I know it's slightly different to OP's point, but sometimes it's assumed that a kid can get home and be fine when they're not.

My 9 year old has a key and emergency money on his card as well as a small amount of cash and PAYG basic phone. How is this an issue for a NT child?!

Also, not all parents have mobiles - my DH doesn't! So if I had left my mobile at home or switched off (very common) then we def wouldn't know if he was sent home early.

How does your child's school contact you in an emergency? Say if your child cut their foot off in the technology lab?

If it dark in the corridors, or in the loos ( it would be totally dark in both staff and student loos at our place) the risks of kids getting hurt in total darkness is real.
There are standard's for the minimum safe level of emergency lighting within schools. If, during a power cut, a child is left in complete darkness, then you have a second safety concern beyond them being left go home alone and without warning.

It may become very cold, and the vast majority of kids would be warmer and more comfortable at home, and m there would be no food available.
This is not Siberia that is being discussed, but rather a typical day in a temperate climate. School buildings themselves provide far greater protection from the elements, than a coat and school bag does on a child who finds themselves locked out of home for hours at a time. Also, a few hours without food does not present any issue to the vast majority of pupils.

The gates wouldn't work in the event of a power cut.

Where is the school supposed get money to nip out to buy hundred sandwiches?

Toilets don't have windows neither do a lot of halls. What about toilets?

School isn't childcare and as parents you should realise this. The school can close at any time for any reason. You have back ups in place. You. Not the school.

Again how do you expect the school to phone every single parent? Year group has anything from 80-250 students. 5 minute a call, do the math, plus you are relying on the staff to use their phones. Mine is in my locker, there's no way in hell am I going to my locker in the pitch dark. Remember school staff aren't allowed their mobiles with them.