School not letting my child from the school

[Kutika]

I have read numerous discussions where people mention that schools cannot legally prevent a child from leaving, yet I find myself in this exact situation. The school is refusing to allow my child to leave, despite my clear instructions. I've sent an email, filed a complaint with the trust, and even contacted the police, but to my surprise, none of these actions have resolved the issue. I was told by the head teacher that the law does not apply to them. Any ideas on who to contact?

I'm curious, why is it that if you live just 300 yards from the school and your DH finishes work at the same time, that this is even an issue? Can't he just collect her? Would it hugely impact your life for him have to walk 30 seconds up the road to get her or are you just trying to fight this because you're put out that the school said no and want to be stubborn?

Make friends with another mum/dad from her class. Get them to take her from the teacher, and walk her out the school gate. They can then wave her off to walk home 300 yards up the road

Are you being deliberately obtuse?
It’s not about the school illegally ‘holding on to your child’; it’s about a rule the school has about only allowing children in Year 5 to walk home alone from April. It’s a school rule that is written in their prospectus- as said by you. They don’t need to write a policy for every rule. You can argue till you’re blue in the face, but they are perfectly entitled to make their own rules. You chose to send your child there. If you don’t like this schools rules then send your child elsewhere. Simple.

Why wouldn't that be a reasonable policy? Don't you think parents are capable of deciding whether their children can walk home? If the school had a particular concern and thought the parents negligent then they should contact social services as they would if they're concerns about anything else.

This is nuts! 11 year olds go to secondary and back by themselves but you wouldn't let a 10 year old out by themselves? If fully grown women aren't safe what do you suggest? Male chaperones for all women and children when leaving the house?

I'm not asking if it's a reasonable policy, I'm asking if it is the only legal policy.

It’s not right! Our local authority state that we should attempt to contact the parent if a child is not collected. If we are unable to make contact with a parent we inform the MASH team 1 hour after school ends. They then have their own procedures which happen while we still look after the child (unpaid obviously). If we DO make contact with parent then MASH won’t get involved unless chikd doesn’t turn up for a longer time (can’t recall that figure). Latest I’ve had to wait was 2 hours ( we don’t have ASC)

You actually contacted the police about this? What an absolute waste of their time. Also, if the school is only 300 yards away and someone is at home, what's the problem...just go and fetch her. Alternatively find another parent who passes your house and is happy to pick her up/drop you off and in exchange you take their child in the mornings or have them for some time during the holidays.

Legally parents make the final decision on the safety of their child don't they outside of school hours? if a parent is not keeping their child safe then the school should be contacting social services or the police.

"Why wouldn't that be a reasonable policy? Don't you think parents are capable of deciding whether their children can walk home?"

So if a parent decides that their 5 year old should be allowed to walk a mile home alone they can write a letter to say so and the school have to follow it.

Or does this age meet the threshold of possible harm? In which case the school is implementing a reasonable policy ?

If so at some point the child is old enough not to meet this threshold walking that same mile? This is not specified by the government so presumably set by the school governers.

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Argh I can’t see which poster wrote they wouldn’t let their year 5 or 6 make the short journey home alone with no roads to cross etc. Why? I’m intrigued.

If the child is only five they should be contacting the police or social services about it as a walk home from school will probably be the least of the problems. Any parent who thinks that's a good idea will be an neglectful parent in other ways.

I wholeheartedly agree with this and am staggered that so many posters think the school is right and a 9 year old is too young to make such a short journey unaccompanied.

Good grief when I started school it was very rare for a parent to take their child to school or pick them up. Mostly older siblings or neighbours looked after the little ones. I started just before I was 5 and my Mum asked the "big girl" next door if I could walk to and from school with her and her little sister. That was from day one.

By the time I was 8, i.e. younger than the OP's DD, I must have become a "big girl" myself because another neighbour came round to see if I would take her 4 year old to school every day. Must have been at least half a mile. Nobody thought anything of it.

So you want your 9-year-old to walk 300 yards on their own to their home at the end of the school day. To an empty house?

I think the lone 300-yard walk would be fine, but not to an empty house, but perhaps that's not the point.

There are lower age limits for all sorts of things. I appreciate this is school policy rather than the law, but I don't see a compelling case for an exception to be made.

"If the child is only five they should be contacting the police or social services about it as a walk"

But in the meantime, do they comply with the parents written request as a pp insisted or can they reasonable make their own judgement about harm thresholds of walking home unsupervised?

It's the same rule for the 4 schools I have collected from....maybe your area is very different ..we have no parental permissions slips. As a childminder I'm not allowed to let a child be collected by another child either.

But stiff if a parent of a 10yo has given permission - written - that their child can walk the 300m home they haven't failed to collect.

If you are concerned and the parent refuses to collect you do have to escalate.

Or let the child walk home.

What if you rang MASH team and they said "let the child walk home".

It's not black and white but there are processes.

You can write as many policies as you like. Policy doesn't supercede law.

The school can't even provide a policy that says they won't allow it.

They can refuse to allow the child to leave due to safeguarding concerns - but they must refer immediately to the relevant authorities. They don't have the final decision (and can't because what do you do - keep the child in school forever if the parent refuses to collect?!)

The head won’t be involved with the after school provision. They are run by private companies.

I agree, accompanying a high school child to school is leaving them open to ridicule and bullying.

The school can write any rule they want to, but they have to be lawful. It’s unlikely this rule, or its application, is lawful. It’s like employment contracts: employers can write any old bollocks into them but only the bits that are lawful actually count for anything.

What mean time? If a child is only 5 and noone arrives to collect her they should notify the authorities and let them decide what to do.

"They can refuse to allow the child to leave due to safeguarding concerns - but they must refer immediately"

And what would you classify as immediate?

It seems to me that the child is not at imminent risk of harm on school grounds and in practice a referral to authorities might only occur once after school club has finished and the child is still not collected.

Not unknown for staff to stay behind for hours after school until children collected . E.g when parents delayed by extreme weather etc

yeah I really don’t believe it’s nuts to not let a 10 year old walk around on the streets by themselves.

theyre 10. A literal child. Not even hit puberty. And I’m “nuts” for thinking this is a young age to be unsupervised??

and no, women are not safe. I mean do you really think women are safe? There’s literally another thread on here right now with everyone talking about how women aren’t safe around me and in this world but I’m crazy for not letting my kids out alone before they’re even half way to a fully developed brain?

I think you’re nuts and lax with your children’s safety if you’re willing to let them out alone so young but horses for courses eh?