Secondary pupil not allowed to wait in reception

[Gonnaenodothat]

Hi everyone,
Apologies in advance for the long post.
Dd12 is in secondary school and Dh does pick up. School finishes at 3.15pm but Dh usually gets to her about 3.45pm because he picks up our other 2 dds from primary school and both schools finish at the same time. Our eldest waits in reception for him she used to wait outside but because its cold now goes inside to wait, She isn't quite sensible enough to walk home due to lots of busy roads which have had incidents involving pedestrians recently, the traffic is mayhem around the school so its not safe for her to leave the school site.
My issue is that just lately the receptionist had been making comments to our dd such as wouldn't you rather go to the library and wait and quizzing her about why dad is late what school do her sisters go to etc to the point where dd went outside in the freezing cold because she felt uncomfortable.
Today Dh collected her and was asked by the receptionist why he was late and is there anyway he can collect her on time, she knows why he's late and that it unfortunately cannot be avoided. She says the reception area can get crowded with upto 6 pupils and that why she's asking, the reception area is always empty when he arrives and if six pupils were in there it is a large space and I wouldnt really say it was crowded. None of the other receptionists have an issue so im genuinely unsure why it's a problem am I missing something are we in the wrong to ask dd to wait inside to be collected?

Ah OK @TotHappy I think that sounds like quite an unusual site for a school (tho maybe not?). School where I worked, students could not leave the site without being seen and would be rounded up if they did. Also staff were frequently out in the area where some would congregate to smoke to rally them back to where they should be.

Totally agree tho with no supervision happening after school – that’s kind of the point. Once the day has ended, the student needs to leave the site unless they are staying on for a club (which might simply be homework club – a chance to work in the library). That's why the OP’s DC needs to go home, meet her dad en route or be at a club/library.

How do all her friends and classmates get home . I few you are babying her a bit at age 12. Can't she walk with her pals or get a bus. Usually crowds of kids are walking from a secondary.

Could she walk to a meeting place. How far is home. Honestly she is 12 and she's your oldest so you are still treating her like
She is in primary school. All kids her age walk home. She won't be alone there will
Be loads walking along the paths

You can get a "not smart" phone from argos for £8 to call her on.
She'd probably learn road safety better with friends whilst having some independence rather than feeling she's constantly got you watching and doing it for her. Children can't develop independence without being allowed a bit of breathing space to do so.

I’m surprised some people (parents?) are confused by why a school wouldn’t be able to have random students on campus unsupervised. Schools are required to keep registers of which students are under their care in which locations at any given time, and to provide for the safety of those students; rolls aren’t just taken to track how often students are missing school. This includes things like emergency plans and ensuring students are never accessible by people without appropriate DBS checks. One of the most basic components of safety/safeguarding is knowing who is in the care of whom.

Basic example - maintenance and repair work on the premises is often contracted out to external parties and either this needs to be done in areas/times when students are not present or school personnel needs to be there supervising students at all times. Another would be a fire evacuation plan, or a lockdown procedure in case of external threat. Staff have plans and designated responsibilities for these scenarios that depend on knowing which areas might contain students and usually having a list (even a simple sign-in/out list) to account for all students present. And unfortunately students themselves can be the threat (to the safety of students, staff, themselves, or property) so rules about student presence on school grounds after hours have to guard against that. You can say that a receptionist doesn’t need to be supervising a student waiting for a parent but these sorts of grey areas where it’s left up to different parties to make independent assumptions about how much responsibility the school has are safety and liability nightmares.

I think, @GravyBoatWars , some people are perhaps not au fait with current safeguarding rules. They just remember when they were at school and don't understand how much it's all changed.

It's not so much that she "needs" to be supervised. It's more that, say you left her home alone for 1/2 an hour, you do it in the confidence that she won't have an accident or will be able to cope if she does. If you have that confidence, it's fine.

While she is on school premises, she IS school's responsibility. No she doesn't "need" supervising, but if she does randomly give herself a paper cut, even if she would deal with a small cut when home alone fine, it IS school's responsibility to make sure she's ok. If they have no staff in the reception area at that time, then it is still their responsibility. So they are very much entitled to want her off the premises at the end of school, unless she is doing a designated club, event, detention etc.

I see what you mean. I left school 18 years ago but I always remember pupils in reception after school hours for various reasons and nobody batted an eyelid! Perhaps it’s changed now. It’s a pity the school can’t cover their backs if she stays regularly and get her dad to sign a waiver in case of injuries etc.

She can stay though. It’s really a non issue she just needs to go to the designated area for children to be after school - the library.

to try to make an issue of it is just being daft and petty, tell her to go to the library and come out at 3.45!

Exactly. I honestly don't see what some people are not comprehending. All the receptionist has said is she can't stay in the reception area and she needs to use the space provided (the library) to wait. Yet some posters are responding as though she's being forced to wait outside in minus temperatures in the rain.

It's not that, he can't sign a waiver. As we've said upthread, it's safeguarding. When school ends and thet are dismissed they go home or to a designated area under supervision where their attendance is recorded. The reception staff have a designated job and it's not student supervision.
Anyway - it's either the Library or she finds a way to get herself home independently.

The other thing is the fact she doesn’t have a phone either isn’t on the school

OP you have to sort this out either we a new phone and library or she walks

I would cover reception but my normal job didn’t involve the students. It wasn’t my place to manage them and I actually couldn’t discipline them etc. so if someone kicked off in reception I had to find a member of staff, who might all be in meetings.
Students in the library/after school activity should also be logged in, in case there is a fire.
sometimes in my daughters school a site supervisor is sat at reception, probably as staff are elsewhere and he’s just there to open/close doors.