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.

I can kind of understand what the OP means. I'm sure the vast majority of them would be fine in a secondary school but there were probably some 11 year olds who are less grown up and sensible than others and might have forgotten their key and not mentioned it to an adult. There also might be 11 year olds who aren't trusted to spend the entire day home alone.

£5 emergency fund? We had 10p for the phone box!!

If ds were to have an accident or fall ill at school and they couldn't get hold of either of us, they'd get in touch with the emergency contact we have to give them every year. I chose someone I knew would always be available. That's what an "emergency contact" is for

I agree with you op, some 11 year olds will have barely left being 10 years old

Hardly - 11 year olds in secondary school must have reached that age by the end of August, therefore by now they're at least 11 and a half. Plus they've had one and a half terms of having to be much more independent at school, and many of them are travelling to school on their own anyway.

Parents who don't give their secondary aged children door keys aren't doing either their children or themselves any favours. I would find it a complete pain being forced to juggle all other commitments to ensure, come what may, that I was in at whatever time they get back from school, or having to hang around for them to get back from visiting friends and other activities.

nanny3, if your daughter would have been in danger to to her SN I'm sure the school would have made separate arrangements for her in this situation.

Absolutely not a safeguarding issue.

At 11/12 a child should be independent enough To have access to a key for home and able to stay at home alone for a few hours.

Give DC a key or hide one in garden or so,we here safe, leave with neighbour, relative so that if it happens again there's no need to panic.

I can see where the OP is coming from - the question isn't whether most 11 year olds have a key and are safe alone at home, but whether all children would have a key and be safe at home alone.

I would hope that any children with significant SN weren't just left on the street, but many children, while not qualifying for support, would struggle.

From what the OP says it doesn't sound as though parents had been adequately briefed on the procedure for when children have to be sent home.

It depends on the child, and where you live. And all this "NT children should be able to..." is nonsense. Its such a grey area, what kids can and cant do, and varies greatly.

I very much agree with this If Not Now.

The world doesn't neatly divide into NT and SN.

ds1 is 11, and not even in secondary and we have planning these thing ms with him now, we have bought him a key chain where his key will be attached to his school bag, he has a wallet with emergency money in t and we are in the process of buying him a new mobile phone.

Our neighbour wil also have a spare key asides his grandparents.

I don't understand why you've left thing like this to happen without planning it, these things happen and school is for education not childcare. This is not a safeguarding issue

This thread is bonkers. It's everything I love about mumsnet.

Although I wish the OP would come back and explain why she thought it so dangerous.

All parents of secondary age DCs must have a plan in place for just such emergencies. There may be a day when DCs cannot enter the school for safety reasons and are turned away at the gate - a fire for example or snow so heavy access isn't possible.

What procedure for when children have to be sent home would anyone expect, other than the parent being informed a full hour beforehand??
If any of them told the teacher they wouldn't be able to access their home until their parents arrived home at 6pm, I'm sure there is a policy in place for that, and they wouldn't be turfed out into the street.
But op had the chance to verify that with the school when they first make contact, didn't she?

I wouldn't bat an eyelid to be honest. They are secondary school age not primary school

I think 11 and 12 is still quite young to be locked out of home. My 14 year old ds generally takes a key - if he forgot it, it would be his look-out but I do make sure he's got it when I know I am definitely not going to be at home when he comes back.

I used to feel guilty when I worked in a library on a school site. Some of the kids went into the library after school, obviously because parents were at work. The library closed at 5pm and sometimes we had to close up and leave the kids sitting outside. The school was still open because it had an evening class programme so I guess if the kids were not collected they could have gone into reception, but I didn't feel it sat well with child protection/safeguarding, even though the library wasn't a school library. What I did find incredible was the number of quite old teenagers who didn't know their home phone number! They used to come and ask us to look up their details quite often - because they'd forgotten their mobile phones or the batteries had died. I made sure my ds (about 9 at the time) knew the home no and my mobile no after that.

You don't even need to give a child a key if you're worried about them losing it. You can get one of those key safe things for around £20. Then anyone in the home can get back in if they have lost or forgotten their key. Not like the old days of leaving a spare key under a flowerpot.

As a previous poster asked "what did schools do before texts?" Answer: just send kids home without any contact. I remember being sent home early on buses due to approaching hurricane. No phone calls were made. How could they possibly ring round over 1,000 parents? It's a nonsense. I'm astonished the school even sent texts, quite honestly.

OP, if you are still reading this thread, I am sure you are very reassured that so many people have taken the time to tell you that their child would be safe on this situation because of their top notch parenting.

I don't think that was what you were really asking, but never mind!

Seems more a parental issue - no forward planning -

Key - Change - phone - back up battery - discussion on local neighbors who'd help - learning phone numbers

Don't see how the school can be expected to teach them this stuff

What procedure for when children have to be sent home

"If we have to send children home early, we will inform you by text"

(So please make sure you always have your phone with you and you keep your details up to date)

"Children will be sent home on their normal school buses, but children without a place on a bus will have to make other arrangements.

We may not be able to keep children in school."

You might think this is all obvious, but some families and children need additional help. If the school makes their policy clear, they can ask for help and prepare in advance.

I'm actually quite shocked at the number of schools which don't seem to have backup power! I'd have thought this would be mandatory on H&S grounds.

I'll suggest to our business manager that she buys an emergency generator from next year's school budget. Oh wait ...

lol at the emergency generator!

I seriously think people have no idea how bad things are financially.

If schools had a budget that would allow them to have an emergency generator just sitting there, would they be sacking teachers, increasing class sizes, axing subjects and operating four-day weeks?

JamDonuts: yes, there is a real practical difference between the rural and urban / suburban circumstances, but they key is everyone surely needs to equip their kids in the best way.

The OP says the children were 'sent home on buses' which implies either school buses that were organised early, or a regular bus service.

Options for rural kids surely include going home with a friend, or to the parent of a previous primary school friend? Or simply telling a teacher they have a problem. Or if your child has anxiety or other issues that makes the unexpected traumatic or risky in some way you make sure the school are aware of this.

All this is good for thought, on secondary allocations day, for the value of a local school, and the implications for running from The Horror that is London for a rural idyll. For example.

My nieces and nephews live in a rural area with little / no public transport. They are, as you say, used to being ferried everywhere. But groups of parents of friends did at least have each other's numbers so they could help each other out.

What if there is a fire and the back up power is destroyed along with the roof?

Aha! The school should have a back up school to move pupils into!

Whatthefreakinwhatnow "Your secondary aged child doesn't have a key?! How does he get in after school normally then? Surely you don't go and collect him?!"

Maybe, like me, she makes sure she is home for the time he comes home.

Maybe like my dd, her son has said he does not want to be home alone.

Not all kids are super confident at 11 or 12, and not all are safe to be left alone for long or even short periods of time (speaking now for me and not for the OP).

If your child/ren are able to left alone for long or short periods, use a key and not lose it, etc, be glad but try and understand not all kids are like yours.

I think it is fine to differentiate between normal and emergency with children - they may not want to be alone BUT in an emergency they have to make an exception as a last resort - if they don't want to be alone at home make other arrangements for emergencies, make sure they are aware and can enact them e.g. phoning a grandparent to collect or other relative, contacting a friend or neighbour willing to go out or contacting yourself or coming to your workplace if that is possible etc

IamFriedSpam I am glad you can see what he OP means because some seem to be unable to comprehend not all kids are the same.

However, "There also might be 11 year olds who aren't trusted to spend the entire day home alone." Are most 11 year olds trusted to be at home all day alone?

I'm really surprised if most 11 years old could be trusted alone all day.

Megatherium "Hardly - 11 year olds in secondary school must have reached that age by the end of August, therefore by now they're at least 11 and a half."

My son will be 11 and a few days by the time he goes to secondary school. It's really surprising so many people seem unable to see that not all kids are like their children!

oleoleoleole "Give DC a key or hide one in garden or so,we here safe, leave with neighbour, relative so that if it happens again there's no need to panic."

Our nearest relatives are an hour and a quarter away. Our neighbours mostly work and are out of the house.

And hiding a key?

www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/news/11332176/Spare-key-hiding-spots-like-under-plant-pots-most-likely-to-be-found-by-burglars-LV-Insurance-reveals.html

There are key safes you can use and we were investigating one or another option. But our daughter is going through a period of anxiety and doesn't want a key or to come home to an empty home.

I am just curious what the school would have done if it had been a primary or nursery school, if it was a boarding school or a children's home etc. They would have had to deal with it, wouldn't they?

RB68 in emergecnices my friends and I would support each other, collect kids etc. We are lucky, in the high winds we made arrangements to ferry our cycling children to and from school as it was not really safe to cycle. I am lucky to have brilliant friends who support me and who I can support.

I just think some people have a very interesting view of family life, my parents are both dead and when alive lived miles away and/or were too ill to care for grandchildren. My in laws live miles away.

I would get the text because I have my phone on and check it at work etc but not everyone has that luxury.

Maybe there needs to be a plan before an emergency (if a power cut can be called an emergency) and parents need to make their wishes known. Schools, IMHO don't have the right to abdicate their responsibility for the kids in their care just because their is an emergency.

If most kids are fine to go home alone under those circumstances then that should be recorded and those kids allowed home. Some, who for any reason cannot do that, should stay at the school and await collection by suitable adult or other arrangement, IMHO.