Childcare excluded my child

[BrokenAndAfraid]

My child aged 7 sneaked a mobile phone in to school and from there into childcare. Of course I accept she was naughty and shouldn't have done it.
the childcare facility has now excluded my child - as she took a photo of another child - whist under there care.
They have said she had created a safeguarding issue.
She was caught by the staff and asked not to play on the phone, but they did not confiscate it. They handed it back to her. Older children have phones so this confused her. The phone has no sim and access to internet - it's used to play games.
AIBU to expect them to take responsibility for allowing a child to play with a phone? And then to exclude her with no prior warning?

@NumberTheory i never said exclude all children who don’t follow instructions but this is serious. It is a safeguarding risk.

confiscating the phone brings up all sorts of issues should it get damaged. Childcare facilities can afford to be picky.

If she has access to a phone with a camera at 7 it's the responsibility of the parent to ensure she understands about safeguarding too.

The whole thread title is really inflammatory.

I doubt the childminder 'excluded' the child.

She ended the contract with the parents.

The childminder is under no obligation to continue providing care for a family she doesn't feel she can work with.

Care of older children cannot be allowed to impact on the care of early years children.

However this incident was dealt with between childminder and parents, it seems like there has been a breakdown in their relationship - so best for everyone to end the contract.

I completely agree with you here @ChildminderMum sounds like a break down in the relationship. None of us know what happened with the parents of the child who was photographed, that was probably a serious complaint that had to be acted on.

I think you as a parent got of very easy here. The message is : make sure your child never again brings a phone to school. Childcare made you notice something was not right - and it was not your child's responsability but yours. Huffing and puffing about the reaction of the childminders is not the right respons to the situation.

People are, as usual being harsh as they are all perfect parents on mn. I think at 7, esp as the phone has no sim or wifi capability, it’s little more than a toy. Would she have been banned for using a kiddy camera? I doubt it. She should be warned not to do it again but exclusion is a huge over-reaction, they didn’t realise that she couldn’t post it online and they’ve panicked, over-reacted and now won’t back down.

do you mean expelled her ? I don't understand what excluded means in a childcare setting

Got off easy?

What more severe thing would have been reasonable in the circumstances?

She means the childminder gave her notice to end their contract.

Why does a 7 year old even have a phone??

@NumberTheory I know of a case where the police was called because a picture had been taken in a schoolsituation with a strictly no-pictures policy.

My 7 year old would do and she would find it unfair. Certainly something she would question and challange, maybe by sneaking the mobile in. The phone should have been confiscated and child spoken to. Why exclude them, that is not going to bother the child one bit. Probably doesnt want to be there in the first place.

Lots of afterschool clubs do not allow staff to confiscate phones as they often have nowhere to keep them safely. So I am not surprised they handed the phone back.
This may be the incident that broke the camel's back. If she is generally difficult then the afterschool care place may decide she is too much hassle. Its shit but when you have private providers they can be quick to exclude disruptive children when a a state or charity club would not.

If it’s serious, their response was appalling

• Giving her the phone back.Yes, there are risks when confiscating property off a child. But clearly those risks were more severe from their perspective than the safeguarding issue of OP’s dd having a phone.
• Not supervising her fully after giving it back despite knowing she had it.
• Not asking for the photo to be deleted.
• Allowing other children in the setting to have phones.
• Not even mentioning it at pick up.

This was clearly not something they considered to be a serious safeguarding risk while it was happening. If they don’t even recognise that at the time, excluding the child - who will have no clue about the potential repercussions of taking a photo - is ridiculous.

As you say, childcare providers can afford to be picky, and that’s what this appears to be. Being picky so they don’t have to worry too much that they aren’t competent.

What kind are f child have you created that at 7 thinks it’s ok to sneak a phone and start taking pictures of other kids. So wrong

I'm with you here Op, and would raise a complaint to be honest.

They handled it terribly. They didn't remove the safeguarding risk, they enabled it. And exclusion is way OTT.

You can equally complain that you're now concerned about their ability to safeguard children as a result of their handling and could notify Ofsted.

And? Police can be called for anything. There’s been no crime here.

Why would that be more severe than having your childcare contract canceled with no notice?

In what world would a 7 year old think taking photos of kids or anything else come to that was wrong?

Blimey. Some MNers really do take the biscuit with their sanctimony.

However, clearly the relationship between the childcare provider and the child/parent has broken down so they don't want the child there.

All these comments about it being your responsibility 😒 🙄 If phones are banned then they should have taken it off her and given it back to the adult who picked her up. It sounds like the carers didn't have too much of an issue and then when it was mentioned later 'management' flipped about it. My sons secondary school would say the students could bring phones to school but if they were seen out during school hours (even during breaks) they would be consficated and a parent had to go pick it up which was difficult for working parents. I complained that they were giving the kids mixed messages and if they didn't want phones out during school hours then they should be told they aren't allowed to bring them, I mean why would a child need a phone they weren't allowed to take out of their bag? I would complain to the provider but it possibly won't get you anywhere unfortunately but they should sort out their rules!

Year 6 (aged 10) are allowed phones and can do what they want on them.

What are the safeguarding issues with a 7yo having a phone if the 10yo are allowed to do anything?

My youngest son had a kiddy digital camera at that age.
I can absolutely see that he might have sneaked it into school against my wishes and would take photos.
That's not so different from this phone (no SIM) the OP's child took in.

I think that’s an extreme reaction, why not just confiscate the phone? I don’t think any children should have a phone there, if there are concerned about safeguarding then why have phones at all? It seems to be a bit crazy to ban her permanently. Can you appeal to the head?

She sneaked a phone to school as the older kids have one, and took a selfie of her and a friend. Why are people suggesting this is some kind of problem child? Come on, total over reaction on the school but also on this thread

@Zanatdy “Can you appeal to the head?”

This didn’t happen at a school.
It’s just a childminder.
The child hasn’t been “excluded” - the childminder just doesn’t want to take this kid any more.

There’s obviously a backstory.

“Come on, total over reaction on the school”

School haven’t reacted at all. This did not happen at school.