To be furious with daughters school.

[Incognitomum11]

Year 6 daughter. I came to pick her up yesterday from after school club to find that they had cancelled the club and my daughter had stood waiting for me for an hour, by the side of the road, all alone.

she walks from school and I pick her up from the small village on her request, to give her some independence in preparation for secondary soon.
I have a new job and have specifically given the school instructions to contact me on my work number because I have zero reception or internet at work.

BUT the school hadn’t even attempted to contact the parents to say the after school club had been cancelled.
they had only sent an email.

When I later looked at the email it clearly says “Please can you reply to this email to confirm you have received it.”
and normally they phone to check if they dont hear back.

but they hadn’t, they had told her I had been made aware and let her leave at usual time.

AIBU to be furious with them?

I know some of you may think that year 6 she should be able to deal with this but she had no phone and no money.

and in future, yea I will make sure she has a phone with her to school.

YANBU, that’s pretty bad

That’s shocking. The parents should definitely have been phoned. Complain to the Head.

Yes that's a fuck up, you need to go in and talk to them first thing today. And frame it in terms of how will they make sure this never happens again ie their phone procedure

Emails have a place. But for me if you're cancelling something with such short notice, you should phone.

Yes, you should have been phoned. I would also expect a year 6 child to speak to her teacher and stay in school though and tell them she was worried about getting home. Or to return to school when it was clear you weren’t there. Was she told you had been informed? Mine had phones (returned to them at the office after school) in Y6 and would have text me themselves.

I agree though-an email is likely to be missed. I’d ask for a phone call/text to be the sensible

Thats terrible and seems like a possible safeguarding issue. Nobody looks at their emails minute by minute to see if they're updated. You should definitely complain!

So the children in year 6 come out on their own and walk home?

I work in a school where we allow children from Y4 to go out and meet their parents. The caveat is always that if the parent isn’t where they’re expecting them to be, they walk back into school and we’ll phone the list of contacts. Our parents also say that to the children. Worth a conversation with your daughter on what she should do if you are not at the meeting place.

I'd be fuvking livid and making it well lnown! That is really really bad,

I’d be so angry as well, they should have called you. Emails aren’t acceptable for last minute or urgent changes or details.

Complain by email that’s a safeguarding issue.

How far away is your meeting place?

I'd be very unhappy about this.

I think they should have phoned. I’d also speak to your daughter as she should have gone back into school and ask them to call you.

It's not ideal, but we are in the last term of the school year and she is year6. If she usually takes herself home perhaps the school would assume she would do just that (does she have a key ?). Also it was a warm sunny day yesterday so an hour waiting outside (assuming she had a book?) isn't really the end of the world. So close to the end of year 6 I'd say it was becoming the DC's responsibility.

Yes definitely complain to the school

But also to your daughter about what to do in such situations (go back to the school office)

Plenty of yr 7s use public transport to get home. They could easily have an unexpected wait of an hour (although they might have friends to wait with).

@Goodskin46 the school knows we don’t live in the village and that daughter gets picked up

@toomuchlaundry a two minute drive, it’s on the main route everyone else walks and there is a playground and shops.

Absolutely if they didn't follow procedure I'd be complaining.

As an aside I'd get a child of year 6 a phone if they've started to travel alone. A basic non smartphone to make calls will be fine and also give them some emergency money.

YANBU - irresponsible too, as they are still quite young.

That’s really bad.
back in primary, I always had 2p extra so I could phone my mum if there were any issues. But phone boxes have disappeared.

do complain to the school. That’s not acceptable.

but also talk to your daughter about safe ways of dealing with situations like this.

Why didn’t your dd go back into school when she realised she wasn’t being picked up?

My dc has a similar arrangement to yours in Y6, I taught them to go back into school and tell an adult if I wasn’t there for some reason.

Be annoyed with the school for poor communication, but not because your dd had to wait for you alone for an hour, because that would have been easily solved.

Too late now, but in circumstances like clubs being cancelled I would have suggested DD stay at school rather than walk to your meeting place. Just in case you couldn’t leave immediately to pick her up

School should have made sure you knew it was cancelled.

but you have given permission for her to leave school alone. You need to remind your daughter that if something goes wrong she goes to the office and lets someone know. I would also give her a phone to keep in the bottom of the bag.