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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Head taking advantage

75 replies

CakeWarrior · 05/07/2019 08:31

Not sure if we are all bu but the parents of the breakfast club are feeling mutinous at the moment! We have begged, pleaded for the school to open breakfast club at 7:45, the same as the other schools in the area which are open longer and cheaper than our schools. Despite the amount of people its fallen of deaf ears, resulting in us having to pay childminders, run like the wind and in a few of us having to work an extra half day a month to make up for being unable to get to work for 8am and having to do 8:30. However... the headteacher brings his son every morning to school with him at 7:45... and we see him sitting in the breakfast club while we are all having to stand outside on the playground!! Our issue is this - either open it to ALL for 7:45 or none at all and he should - like the rest of us mortals - have to find suitable childcare arrangements until 8. Our children all say "oh X is there every day". I don't see why the head is able to have special treatment and we feel is abusing his position. He is no different to the rest of us working parents. However this man isnt the most approachable person - the deputy is lovely but we dont know how to approach this?

OP posts:

jellycatspyjamas · 05/07/2019 09:32

Despite the amount of people its fallen of deaf ears, resulting in us having to pay childminders, run like the wind and in a few of us having to work an extra half day a month to make up for being unable to get to work for 8am and having to do 8:30.

Is that not just part of having children? It’s not the schools job to provide you with childcare, if your job starts at 8.00 you need to arrange childcare to suit - and is it an extra half day a month (ie on top of your hours) or just you making up time that you owe your employer for not coming in on time?

You have no idea of the logistics involved in opening earlier, while the staff may physics be in the building I imagine they need time to get their coats off, do a wee, have a cup of tea etc before their day is taken over by children. The head teacher is still physically in the building with his child, so is responsible for him besides there’s a huge difference between keeling an eye on one child while getting set up etc and starting your working day 15 mins early.

Its really not the schools job to sort your domestic arrangements so I’m not sure why the parents are feeling “mutinous”.

Pinkmalinky · 05/07/2019 09:33

My DC’s school is the same. Opens at 8 despite school starting at 8:45 so hardly like you’re getting a good deal for your money (especially given the fact breakfast is cereal or toast...) It’s only convenient for parents who start work at the standard 9am, everyone else needs a childminder.

I don’t think the head is doing anything wrong fwiw. It will be a staffing issue, they need x amount of staff to x amount of children and perhaps the staff who run the club can’t get to work that early. The head isn’t asking staff to watch his son, he’s sitting with him.

HandsOffMyRights · 05/07/2019 09:34

So are you all there in the playground at 7.45 when the head and his son walk in?

I understand your frustration. My children's after school club finished earlier than others in the area, but we knew that when we joined the school and had to work around it.

I feel sorry for the head in this situation as it sounds like he is being press ganged.

Pinkmalinky · 05/07/2019 09:34

You also need to consider the staff who run breakfast club, they may have children themselves so can’t get there any earlier.

The head is only doing what anyone else would do in that situation.

trackingmedown · 05/07/2019 09:39

If they started opening at 7.45am, I am sure there would soon be a movement asking them to open at 7.30!

I agree that the answer seems to be very simple. One parent take charge every morning so the others can head off before 8am.

echt · 05/07/2019 09:59

I agree that the answer seems to be very simple. One parent take charge every morning so the others can head off before 8am

Wouldn't the parent have to CDBd?

millymae · 05/07/2019 10:00

If I’m reading this correctly breakfast club starts at 8.00 but the staff are there at 7.45 to get ready.
OP states that the head teachers son is sitting with the breakfast club staff at 7.45 and if this is the case then I don’t think it’s unreasonable of those who would like to drop their children off then being a little peeved about it.
The headmaster might well be in the building but he is not looking after his son the breakfast staff are! If the headmaster was doing the looking after then his son would be sitting in his office with him until 8.00am.
I don’t think it would be unreasonable to submit a proposal through the proper channels that breakfast club should change its hours from 8.00am to 7.45 which would more than likely mean that breakfast club staff would need to arrive at 7.30 to set up.
There’s an awful lot of defending the headmaster and carping about parents standing in the playground hanging around waiting for breakfast club to open. . I’m not entirely convinced that he deserves all the support he’s getting from posters - if what the OP is saying is true he is using his position in the school to solve his own childcare issue but is unwilling to support a proposal that would help other parents at the school solve theirs.

herculepoirot2 · 05/07/2019 10:02

millymae

He does not need to explain his childcare arrangements to the OP or to any other parent. This is absolutely overstepping the mark.

herculepoirot2 · 05/07/2019 10:04

Wouldn't the parent have to CDBd?

No. I can leave my child with whoever I want.

spanieleyes · 05/07/2019 10:04

Well, the Head could quite easily then decide not to start work until 8!

herculepoirot2 · 05/07/2019 10:18

If I were the Head I would simply close the gates and make the parents wait where they couldn’t spy on my child. Outrageous.

Harpingon · 05/07/2019 10:24

The head is not responsible for your out of hours childcare, full stop.

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 05/07/2019 10:31

Well, the Head could quite easily then decide not to start work until 8!

Or just get his child to sit in any room where the breakfast club staff aren’t.

Original poster

CakeWarrior · 05/07/2019 10:34

@millymae that is hitting the nail on the head. Yes we sort childcare issues for our children but he doesnt? We have gone via the proper avenues to no reply. If he had given a reply then fair enough but its been ignored. I will
Ask for this to be taken down as instead of seeing what im asking people are seeing it as a teacher bashing thread....

OP posts:

herculepoirot2 · 05/07/2019 10:37

@millymae that is hitting the nail on the head. Yes we sort childcare issues for our children but he doesnt?

He has sorted his childcare issues. How he has done so isn’t your business. I am staggered by how rude and entitled some people can be. Who’d be a HT?

GladAllOver · 05/07/2019 10:40

Why do you think people are seeing it as a teacher bashing thread?
Could that be because it is?

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 05/07/2019 10:40

No she really isn’t hitting the nail on the head. There is a massive difference between your bosses child being in the room sitting/playing quietly/helping set up and a number of children for whom you have legal responsibility for being in the room.

The fact you are trying to equate these two things is bizarre.

echt · 05/07/2019 10:41

Wouldn't the parent have to CDBd?

No. I can leave my child with whoever I want

Not on the school premises you can't.

spanieleyes · 05/07/2019 10:41

If you'd concentrated on the fact that you would like the school to offer childcare from 7.45 rather than 8 and would like advice on how to deal with the lack of response from the school then you would have had a completely different response. But you didn't. You focussed on the Head's childcare arrangements and they have nothing to do with you.

herculepoirot2 · 05/07/2019 10:43

Not on the school premises you can't.

According to what rule? If I ask another parent to drop my child off at school, surely you aren’t saying I can’t?

Witchend · 05/07/2019 10:44

That is nothing to do with the governors. They're not there to sort out that sort of thing.

It's not a complaint anyway. It's a request: please can breakfast club open earlier. On the basis that is either run by outside staff, in which case it's them you need to talk to, or inside staff who probably have been there since well before you and an extra 15 minutes in the breakfast club means they have less time to prepare for that day.

If there's lots of you, then sort out a rota: Sarah and Millie look after the children on Monday, Jonathan and Bruce on Tuesday etc.

And my thought at seeing the HM son there every day would be sorry for the child who has to wait around (and probably after school too) and then gets parents sniping at him for something he probably would rather not do.

icannotremember · 05/07/2019 10:44

I think if the head can't see how this will be perceived by the parents they must be a bit dim, which is not a quality I'd want in a head teacher.

herculepoirot2 · 05/07/2019 10:46

I think if the head can't see how this will be perceived by the parents they must be a bit dim, which is not a quality I'd want in a head teacher.

It doesn’t matter how they perceive it. It is none of their business. A breakfast club is provided by the school with hours that work for the staff and school. Parents can avail themselves or that or not. They don’t get a say in what the breakfast club staff do before they start work, or how the HT arranges his personal time.

colourlessgreenidea · 05/07/2019 10:59

I will Ask for this to be taken down as instead of seeing what im asking people are seeing it as a teacher bashing thread....

“I will ask for this to be taken down as I don’t like the replies”

echt · 05/07/2019 11:00

Not on the school premises you can't

According to what rule? If I ask another parent to drop my child off at school, surely you aren’t saying I can’t?

Standing in the playground OK. Staffing breakfast club, which will have set up according strict safeguarding rules, no.

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