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AIBU?

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Original poster

Kids sent home - safeguarding issue?

372 replies

PutTheBathOnPlease · 28/02/2017 20:18

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.

OP posts:
eddiemairswife · 28/02/2017 22:20

A History lesson for all you young things.......aged 6 and a half, arrived at school, teacher at the gate turning us away. An incendiary bomb had fallen on the roof and burnt out the top floor. Walked down the hill, crossed the main road, got the bus home. No-one batted an eyelid, or complained to the Governors, or got kidnapped.

Natsku · 28/02/2017 22:21

Had this been the very best option, her parents need never have considered the afterschool club. Why would they, if it's more than reasonable to expect an 8 year old to be home alone?

A lot of parents don't even consider the afterschool club, especially not at 8 (2nd grade, last year that the club is even available for - from 3rd grade there's no option except for children to manage by themselves), her parents did because her dad lives a good 30 minutes walk away from the school so on weeks she's at her dad's she'd have a long way to walk home.

PigletWasPoohsFriend · 28/02/2017 22:21

I don't think OP is coming back....

atheistmantis · 28/02/2017 22:23

The OP must have got lost on the way home/.

Italiangreyhound · 28/02/2017 22:24

I have not read all the posts but PutTheBathOnPlease YANBU.

I would be angry. My dd doesn't have a key, doesn't want one, and doesn't want to be home alone. She is 12. She has some learning difficulties.

Not all kids have mobiles, not all kids with mobiles remember to take them every day or keep them charged up.

I am not sure why the children could not be accommodated at school safely for the normal school day.

There might not be hot dinners but something could be worked out. Buying bread and fillings and letting kids make their own lunch etc.

Torches to go to the loo. Does the school have any?

Wearing their coats in the classroom if cold.

I wonder if without Data projectors and on line facilities the teachers could not manage the lessons.

Who knows, local children's homes may also have been affected by power cut. So kids leave a cold school to go to a cold home.

Secondary goes from age 11, lots of 11 year olds are not great when left alone for hours, unsupervised.

I wonder if the school have learnt anything and would be better able to cope with this if it happens again I seriously doubt it

greathat · 28/02/2017 22:25

Its happened at a school I worked at. Kids were told to phone home on their mobiles, check it was OK. Tell teachers if it wasn't ok and they'd be able to stay. It was because the pump for the loos stopped working. School full of kids and no working toilets - much bigger issue

OneWithTheForce · 28/02/2017 22:26

There is a landline number for both of our works and in the very unexpected emergency they could call that and someone could come and find us

Why on earth didn't you just say that when i asked what happened in an emergency? 😂

greathat · 28/02/2017 22:26

SEN students - teachers phoned home

onceandneveragain · 28/02/2017 22:28

also it wouldn't be as straightforward as two mins per pupil - first the secretary or whoever would have to download and print all contact numbers for all 800-2000 pupils, then allocate them to each class teacher. Teacher would then have to find a phone and organise swaps so another teacher could monitor their class while making calls - this would already double the time needed. Then they would ring parent a - no answer, okay dial parent b - no answer, leave a message, try next pupil, parent answers but asks if they can call grandparent instead as they can't come home, teacher tries calling next parent but parent b has received the voicemail and is now calling back - plus the fact that at least one of these parents will spend ten minutes moaning/shouting at the poor teacher for the inconvenience.

I assume that they did ask if there were any pupils who had issues in getting home and couldn't make any other arrangements - this should have been your son's opportunity to speak up. Provisions should have been made for any pupils who couldn't get home to stay in school and be monitored - however this would be for each child to establish themselves.

Letseatgrandma · 28/02/2017 22:28

Torches to go to the loo. Does the school have any?

I can't imagine they'd have many. When one child falls down a flight of stairs in the dark and breaks their neck (which happened in a friend's school), I would imagine the parents would be fuming that the school should have sent the children home in a power cut.

I wonder if without Data projectors and on line facilities the teachers could not manage the lessons.

Hmm
rollonthesummer · 28/02/2017 22:29

lso it wouldn't be as straightforward as two mins per pupil - first the secretary or whoever would have to download and print all contact numbers for all 800-2000 pupils, then allocate them to each class teacher.

This would also have been difficult without electricity!

MaureenMLove · 28/02/2017 22:35

Once - there's a power cut, the school can't download or print anything! WinkGrin

Loving the idea that it's just that easy to have all the kids make their own lunches from bread and filing that are readily available at school! Have you ever tried to get 3 kids to agree on what they want in Their sarnies, let alone 30 plus kids in a class? Nonsense!

Natsku · 28/02/2017 22:37

Have sudden fond memories of when the pub I was in had a power cut and I had to take a candle into the toilet with me to go wee. Just imagine that in a school - chaos.

Italiangreyhound · 28/02/2017 22:38

Lets " When one child falls down a flight of stairs"

I hadn't thought of that. My high school and my kids primary and high school were all on one level.

But even if they are mutli level are they all pitch dark? No windows?

I guess you do have a point about safety. But as I say the schools I am familiar with are all on one level.

Yes, maybe I was being biased against teachers! Not kind of me. It just seems so strange for their to a power cut and everything to grind to a halt!

Italiangreyhound · 28/02/2017 22:39

there to be...

noblegiraffe · 28/02/2017 22:40

This thread is fantastic entertainment. Kids stumbling about with torches, 500 of them making their own sandwiches, a teacher going to the shops to buy enough bread and cheese to do this, a hundred teachers manning the phones like a call centre. All sat shivering in their coats receiving texts from their older siblings taking the piss because they are in the local McDonalds.

Rosieposy4 · 28/02/2017 22:44

Agree Maureen, am chuckling away at the thought of 1800 students making their own sandwiches from the mythical 5 loaves and 2 fish.
Where would you even get that much bread at an hours notice?
And no we don't have a stock of torches in every classroom, most of the kids don't come in coats and i can assure it is bloody dark in the loos when the leccy is off.

MaureenMLove · 28/02/2017 22:44

I'm imagining the scene in my school, if we didn't have that handy page in the planners. Total chaos basically.

You could simply just not keep,them in school! There would be far more complains at keeping em in, than sending them home.

In the event of a power cut, there would be no lights, heating, computers to register and keep track of students and no whiteboards to do any lessons planned. There would be 1600 children all hyped up at the excitement of a dark school, various rat bags trying to jump the fence and plenty of others ringing their parents, followed by anger parents arriving at school because they haven't been informed of what's going on, they can't get through on the phone and demanding to take their kids home. We wouldn't be able to find their kids, because the computers are down and so we can't check to see what classroom they're in! It would be utter chaos!

Trust me, in the event of emergency students would be off site within 30 mins and the teachers in the pub a matter of moments later!Grin

Italiangreyhound · 28/02/2017 22:45

noblegiraffe you do make it sound a bit like a comedy caper, I though it might be more character building. Why couldn't the students go with the teacher for the bread?

What else would they all be expected to do? They would have all been at school anyway, teachers there being paid, students there 'learning'.

I just wonder how long after they all went home that the lights went back on!

OvertiredandConfused · 28/02/2017 22:45

There is a strictly enforced no mobile phone rule at my DC's school. Yes they have a key and yes, they can survive home alone for a few hours. However they wouldn't be able to get to their after school activities unaided from home.

bloodyteenagers · 28/02/2017 22:45

Our schools don't have windows on most of the stairwells. There might be one with windows but that's it.

Where the money coming from to buy several loads of bread and sandwich fillings? The amount of organising this would take beucase of allergies
Would be insane. Then if your school is at the back end of nowhere where is all this stuff going to be bought from?

MrsGuyOfGisbo · 28/02/2017 22:45

Snowflake generation with parents who abdicate parental responsibility to the school...
Giving our kids the wherewithal to get themselves home, and into the house when they are secondary age should be a given.
If they are really not capable, then do not work 80 miles away! YOUR responsibility to be within range then to pick up your kid.

Italiangreyhound · 28/02/2017 22:45

Why would they be in the local McDonalds? Don't they need electricity too?

BlackeyedSusan · 28/02/2017 22:47

I would expect them to check the Y7's have somewhere to go... mainly the teacher who had them at the time checking with the Y7's they have got with them, but only general questions. Any kids with additional needs should have parents contacted if necessary.

Phantommagic · 28/02/2017 22:48

Majority of phones need electricity in schools anyway. Half of the non school people on the thread seem to think that 500 Y7 and Y8 pupils sit around like meek lambs for hours, stoically agreeing that it doesn't matter that they need the toilet, they'll manage just fine, and saying please don't worry about the lack of food, or the cold.