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?

It's not actually "trivial nonsense". After school care is about 60 pounds a week where I live now and it's probably more in some places. So that's 240 pounds a month of unnecessary spending. Plus my DC really didn't like the after school club and were very happy when they got to year five and could start walking home on the days I was working at home. Moving the child from all their friends and the school would not be in the their best interest either.

OP has every right to be annoyed and every right to do what she can to get this "policy" changed because I think the school are thinking about protecting themselves from perceived liability and maybe getting more people to use the after school club rather than what's best for the children.

I don't know what the age of your children are but unless they are quite immature for their age or you live a long way from the school your attitude may be different regarding whether they can walk home by themselves when they are 9 or 10.

Cool, thanks for the advice. Good to see so many mums on here not supporting schools!
My husband works in the police and has confirmed it is not a police matter if you don’t like a policy at your kids school… 🙄

Well clearly if school policy was illegal, it would absolutely be a police matter.

But I do love it when a poster gets her husband to give us all a definitive answer. Where would we be without a man to clear this up for us?

Im not sure why anyone would want to unthinkingly follow a school policy. But,
lm cheered by this thread. Loads of people supporting good safeguarding principles and the OP who is struggling to work and teach her child independence.

I didn't say it was a police matter. I very much supported my children's schools policies but they didn't have any nonsense ones like OPs school. Not every school policy in every school in the country should be supported.

Why would I or anyone else support a school that has a blanket policy that doesn't look at an individual child's maturity and circumstances?

I've posted that I know children in year 6 who have been harmed from walking home alone due to their individual circumstances, while others the same age as the OPs child have been completely fine.

Oh and at my DDs primary school there are children who live next to the school plus some in the actual same building as a school hall, who the head has complained about walking to and from school from age 8 and half. When myself and other parents worked out what the head was moaning about we just thought she was completely mad. There are loads of adults around who can see exactly what these handful of children are doing including the staff that stand on the school gates as that's how near they live to the school.

Or they just honour the parents wishes for THEIR child to walk home? Honestly, the arrogance that a school thinks they can override the child's actual parent is breathtaking!

By the sounds of it, the school's 'good reason' is financially motivated - to make sure the child attends the ASC!

They have literally NO right to effectively hold the child hostage after school, insist that said child attends an ASC, thereby forcing parent of said child to pay for an ASC they don't remotely want their child to go to all because they won't allow this child to make the short walk home. Honestly, who TF do they think they are!?

They are detaining the child against both the parent and child's wishes. What would you call that?

Eeeeeeshh, no need for the dig about my husband (you go burn that bra, girl!!!)

It's not a safeguarding/social services matter if a school dislikes a perfectly justifiable parenting decision either.

You missed one option.

1. The school follows parent's written instructions with regard to their child leaving school alone.

If the school doesn't see it as safe enough, they can start with producing the actual written policy with clear explanation why it isn't safe and parents might reconsider based on it's content's enlightenment.

If it doesn't happen, social services can be involved to judge whether the parental decision is negligent or the school policy is unreasonable.

The school doesn't have absolute rights and has to be able to explain their decisions, not say "because we said so".

Ah, you sound like another one of those people who think the school “works” for them!
I guess I’m out, I don’t know why I’m fretting really, I’ll get on with my arrangements that work for me (and the school) and leave others to sort their own childcare issues! Nice discussing/debating/arguing/exchanging insults with you all!

Actually no-one on this (long) thread who supports the OP has made that point you are making.

Schools cannot make up arbitrary rules concerning the safeguarding of children.

It has been pointed out time and time again on this thread as that is what the school is doing if they cannot produce a written policy with an explanation of their actions.

The OP has welcomed the HT to call in SS if the HT thinks the OP and her husband are being neglectful. The HT strangely hasn't...

I am very supportive of teachers, as anyone who has read my posts in Education over a number of years will know.

School policies, not so much. School policies which are random, have no logic or commonsense behind them, which don't appear in the official guidance, which go against what most schools allow and for which they would get zero backing from the relevant authorities. Nah, bollocks to those.

So you are able to make arrangements that work for you but you don't think OP should be able to do the same. She should fit in with irrational policies even though it costs her money and probably doesn't work for her DC either.

@Kutika how did this pan out in the end?

Has school arranged a meeting with social services to determine what age you're allowed to make parental decisions for your child to walk this distance?

What was their response?

You haven't given enough information about what's going on

School can not tell you what to do.You are the parents.There is no legal law they should not let your child go home alone.I f you wrote a letter or emailed them regarding your son/daughter is allowed to go home alone,they can’t do nothing.
Issue with those people sitting in the school’s office that they are trying to be very important and bossy.I had the same issue with my 9 years old son.They didn’t want to let him go,we refused to collect him(he liked the reponsbility and he is a very mature boy for his age)…probably they contacted officials who told them off.Schools are terrible sometimes but you have to know YOU ARE THE PARENT,NOT THEM!