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?

The parent should make the assessment. If the school has a specific concern about a child walking home alone, they can then address it.

Why will she not win? The school are in the wrong and they haven't got a leg to stand on. They can't put the child in and after school club without OPs permission.

Exactly, the OP has not entered into a financial agreement with them. They can't then try and charge her for a situation she has not entered into willingly. If its a safeguarding issue they can't charge her for care she hasn't consented to. They need to address what the safeguarding issue is, and refer to social services if necessary if there is a disagreement over child care and the school think there is enough of a concern.

Parents also act in the best interest of their child and are the ones who make the decisions out of school hours. If a school or anyone else thinks the parent is being irresponsible they need to take it up with the authorities.

Raise a safeguarding issue with the school.

They school have indicated that they will hold your child in school without her or your consent

Yep.
If you don’t like it, pick a different school.
This is the choice you have. You don’t get to tell the school what rules they can make.

You sound ridiculous and entitled now.
what is it that you don’t understand about rules?
Oh wait, you do understand- you just think that you should be the special exception.

That's terrible but you can't let things like this cause you to fall into panic.

A child of her age is more likely to be knocked down by a car - but you don't mention that? She's also more likely to be sexually assaulted by someone in the home - but you don't mention that? A statistically anomalous tragic crime shouldn't stop you from living your life normally - and letting a kid walk to school from her house on an estate to her school on the same side of the road on the same estate that can be practically seen from home it's that close is living your life normally!

So rather than challenge a stupid nonsensical policy you think a better option is disrupting a child's education?

You do actually get to tell the school if they are doing something that is outside their remit as in this case.

At every age? Obviously not, assuming you don't favour toddlers strolling home alone from nursery. So there are going to be ages where some parents might not like a school's decisions.

But it isn't about rules. It's about development of life skills.

If you are seeing this through the lens of rules you really are missing a huge point in education.

And in a situation like this (a toddler strolling home), the school would be justified in raising safeguarding concerns with SS.

IME schools, quite rightly, aren't afraid to escalate any safeguarding concerns.
They've not done that here. Because the truth is they don't have any.

The fact they haven't suggests this is money making scheme. Or they're worried that SS would tell them they're breaking the law.

Sorry, quote fail, that was in response to @bignosebignose

If a parent wanted to let a toddler walk home from school then it would be better to inform social services because that child is obviously being neglected. How is it in the best interest of the child to insist the parent takes them home from school when they are clearly not going to be looking after the child when they get home?

Coming from an neglectful and abusive household, and being a 'latchkey kid' way younger than I'd be comfortable with for my kids - I can guarantee that if my school had insisted on a parent collecting me (with threats of additional costs or social services involvement) it would have increased the abuse I was subject to, not made me safer..

I think you have this the wrong way round.

The school are breaking the law. They have no justification in keeping the child in school.

They have not reported a safeguarding concern.

If the school has genuine concerns there is a very clear process for them to follow. They havent. They aren't following their own processes or established safeguarding procedures.

Calling something a 'rule' doesn't make it acceptable or legal.

I am with the school on this one - it is there responsibility to make sure your child is safe on leaving school. If requests have been denied then there will be a reason behind it - perhaps there has been some recent safeguarding issues that the school are taking seriously.

Because she wants the child to have some responsibility.
It's not the schools job to do the parents job.
They have to learn sometime.
My kids walked home from school from 7 years of age.
No wonder the kids can't do anything on their own.

Ok, so I've skim read OPs replies.

I assume that if your child is now in Yr5, then this has been ongoing since Yr4. I admit that your schools rules about waiting until April is ridiculous.

My personal opinion, if you feel that strongly about it then the only way to challenge it from now is through court..... Which is likely to cost more than the afterschool club.

Well yes, so we agree that that would be a ludicrous age for a school to allow parental discretion. And I doubt anyone would think 16 year-olds should have to be collected from school. The point is that somewhere in between there are ages and sets of circumstances that will be a grey area. And a school will have a rule that one or two parents don't like.

They don't have responsibility outside school hours and grounds. If the parent is happy for their child to walk home they should either accept that or they need to inform social services. They certainly don't have the right to put them in after school care and charge the parent. That is probably against the law.

There is not always a good reason behind every policy and you're very naive to think that.

They can't extort parents for child care fees as part of this though.

This thread reminds of when a teacher insisted that I was trying to break the law when I said I didn't need to sign a permission slip for my daughter to stay after school. She was 18 but apparently that doesn't matter if they are at school because the school policy overrides everything else.🤔

Your dd sounds fantastic, mature and sensible OP.

And it’s ridiculous to suggest that the OP’s can regularly pick up his dd. It may only be 15 minutes but it’s disruptive to his work. In my job I offer have a team meeting which starts at 3pm. I don’t think it would go down very well if I told my manager that I’ll be late because I had to pick up my child from school.

Because they know they're BU and really only posted to hear people agree with them?