Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Teacher keeping Y1s behind for 15 minutes?

126 replies

OMeOMy · 06/09/2022 15:06

Yesterday was DC's 1st day in Y1 and my first day back at work after mat leave (WFH). I'd negotiated taking a late lunch to allow me to pick up DC from school. The teacher kept them all behind for 15 mins. When I asked DC (admittedly not necessarily a reliable witness) he said some of the children at the back of the queue were being noisy and the teacher wouldn't let them all our until they stopped messing around. AIBU to think this was unreasonable on the teacher's part? I was 15 mins late logging back on to work on my first day back - presumably other parents had similar commitments/potentially other kids to collect. I'm still quite new to being a school parent so keen to hear other people's thoughts before potentially mentioning something to the school (if this happens again). Ta!

OP posts:
Laiste · 06/09/2022 15:12

15 mins seems a lot.

But if the teacher is getting them to learn to line up nicely for the future then it's time well spent ....

Teach them properly now at the start and save spending 5/6/7/8 mins sodding about at the end of every day of the school year.

Herding 30 ''excited to be going home at the end of their first day'' year 1s into a sensible line is never a quick thing.
(i've been there and got the T shirt).

Laiste · 06/09/2022 15:13

So in other words it's v unlikely to be like this every day.

35965a · 06/09/2022 15:14

In primary school I wouldn’t accept my children being kept behind for any reason. People have shit to do. Work to get to, other children to pick up.

Suedomin · 06/09/2022 15:14

I think you should mention it to the school. There will be many parents on a tight timescale. Either to pick other children up or take them to activities etc.
It is very unreasonable for s class teacher to do this.

LilacPoppy · 06/09/2022 15:16

Yanbu but why didn't you just take your ds?

purplecorkheart · 06/09/2022 15:17

I think keeping kids behind like that is very unfair. Some children where I live have to make school buses with tight times. Other are being picked up by people who have to pick up other kids and some like the op have to return to work.

Greensleeves · 06/09/2022 15:18

No, that's not acceptable practice. I would have taken my DS and then sent an email to the Head. I'm a KS1 teacher btw.

Makemeanxray · 06/09/2022 15:20

We had this a few times last term too. It became quite frequent and a whole assembly overran by 20 mins too.

I received a formal warning about it from work! I was making up the time but colleagues said it was unfair. Gutted.

One of the other parents complained to the headteacher in the end because she said if she picked them up 15 mins late then she'd be in trouble - works both ways.

RainbowsMoonbeams · 06/09/2022 15:20

Happens at my DC’s school. Very annoying when you are in a rush to go somewhere (in my case, to pick up from high school across town).

They get pissy if you are late to school, so should work both ways!

Dotjones · 06/09/2022 15:21

Seems fine to me, 15 minutes is nothing in the grand scheme of things. It's hopefully enough to make the troublemakers think twice about their behaviour. Also it's an early introduction to the unfairness of the "collective punishment" system the innocent children will be screwed over by repeatedly for the next decade or so.

Hurrrrrah · 06/09/2022 15:21

I sometimes nip out to collect my children not very often but I need to be back ASAP, I'd be pretty mad if our class teacher did this (one of my children is also year 1). My children have swimming lessons where they only have around 30 min once home to eat change and go back out to make it on time, I wouldn't be impressed them missing 15min of a 30min lesson!! I'd be speaking to the teacher and confirming what happened if this is true just say you aren't authorising them being kept late and will collect at the usual time due to work commitments. OTT at this age anyway.

10HailMarys · 06/09/2022 15:27

I'm not a parent but 15 minutes sounds like a long time to keep kids behind when they're so little. Y1 is what, five year olds? Six-year-olds? Fifteen minutes is a long time for kids that young, and it was only their first day back so you'd expect a bit of over-excitement.

And yes, a real pain for parents who have to get back to work or have children to collect from another school. I get the impression some schools really don't take on board the fact that parents have responsibilities that go beyond the one child who happens to be at the school.

Surtsey · 06/09/2022 15:31

Perhaps the children need to learn to do as they are told then.

FruitPastilleNut · 06/09/2022 15:34

I work from home and on non ASC days use my lunch hour to pick ds3 up and drop him to childcare - I need him to be out on time and keeping him a full 15 minutes would make me late back for work.

I would bring it up with the teacher - personally I wouldn't wait and see if it happened again, I'd mention it straight away so that the teacher was aware that my dc needs to be out on time every day.

PAFMO · 06/09/2022 15:34

What did the other parents think? Say?
Presumably all the other children had gone home so there was just one class of parents waiting?
I'd say 15 minutes is a long time to be messing around to the point the teacher keeps an entire class behind on the first day.

Coyoacan · 06/09/2022 15:34

Apart from the parents' problems, I do not agree with collective punishment and I'm not certain such small children should be taught that school in itself is a punishment

AllThingsServeTheBeam · 06/09/2022 15:35

Not on at all. I would have just taken my DC.

Wakinguptooearly · 06/09/2022 15:38

It's unacceptable. I also pop out while WFH to pick up my child and would be really annoyed at this.
As mentioned earlier, if I was 15 minutes late then it wouldn't be okay.

WhoopDeeedoo · 06/09/2022 15:40

Fifteen minutes! That's a long time. I had to keep a class in for six minutes once at playtime and it felt like a lifetime.

Thereoncewasahorridmama · 06/09/2022 15:42

LilacPoppy · 06/09/2022 15:16

Yanbu but why didn't you just take your ds?

Barge the door open, walk in and pull him out? That's going to finish his first off lovely!!

Sh05 · 06/09/2022 15:42

I'd mention it to the teacher.
It's not great classroom management by the teacher to have to hold them back 15 minutes. They're only 5!

I wonder if she'd struggled all day and home time was just too much

Thereoncewasahorridmama · 06/09/2022 15:44

Surtsey · 06/09/2022 15:31

Perhaps the children need to learn to do as they are told then.

It's their first day of proper school after 6+ weeks off, excited, exhausted and probably overwhelmed.

Imo if the front of the queue was quiet, they should have been let go. Presumably the DS wasn't one of the "naughty" ones.

OP if you knock the door and explain you have to get back urgently, they should send your DS out in future.

Wakinguptooearly · 06/09/2022 15:45

Sh05 · 06/09/2022 15:42

I'd mention it to the teacher.
It's not great classroom management by the teacher to have to hold them back 15 minutes. They're only 5!

I wonder if she'd struggled all day and home time was just too much

The teacher struggling is a problem for her and the School to deal with, not the parents who need to get on with their lives. If I struggled with my a work issue and collected my child late as a result it would not be okay to have held up the teacher.

HuzzahIndeed · 06/09/2022 15:46

It isn't right. At my son's school, huge groups of kids sprint across the road after school to catch the bus which pulls up a few minutes after school ends. If they miss that, they have to wait 45mins until the next one.

Ponderingwindow · 06/09/2022 15:47

How exactly do the parents proposing they would just take their child suggest that would happen? If the child is inside the building and you are outside the building getting access is going to take time and someone agreeing to let you pass the gate and/or door.