To think the school could do more to accommodate working parents

[Eastie77Returns]

By working I mean parents who do so out of the home (don’t want this to turn into a SAH/ working parents debate, I know all parents do work of some nature)

DD is going on a residential trip next week. Parents are asked to drop children off at the venue at 12.30 and collect them at the end of the residential “sometime between 12 and 3pm, we will let you know what time exactly on the day”

It’s pure bad luck that I have all day work meetings/training on both days. The residential venue is a short walk from the school and a number of teachers will be going from the school to the venue mid morning. I spoke with some parents who are also a bit stuck due to work commitments and we collectively e-mailed and asked if our children could be dropped of at school in the morning and then walk with the teachers to the venue. We were told no (no reason given). We asked if we could get some clarity around pick up time on the final day as 12 - 3 is quite a window of time and were told no as it depends on the weather and if the children do an outdoor activity on that day or not. We are to keep our phones on and look out for a text from the school. The school also often schedules meetings at 3.45 for example and there are other instances where they have organised events mid morning/afternoon.

I am very lucky to work for a flexible employer and I will somehow have to adjust my work schedule but some parents I spoke to work in retail, medical settings etc and do not have that option. AIBU to think the school could do more to take into account there are parents who cannot just start work in the middle of the day or up and leave at short notice to pick up their child?

the easiest way around this is to find a parent who is available and ask them to take your child and pick your child up as well as theirs.

this is almost certainly it being done because there’s only really two options for moving children en masse in this situation - walking or coach. (I’m presuming it’s too many kids for a mini bus)

risk assessment on walking usually requires a lot of parental helpers. You can get them for a trip - eg my school used to do an autumn walk for reception - but we did need about 5 just for one class.

coach is more controllable (kids can’t run off or get lost) but hideously expensive.

school will have refused to take your kids because if they take a few all the rest will ask (it isn’t convenient for anybody!) and then they’ll have a problem.

I’m surprised they can refuse kids on the drop off day if it’s a normal school day!

Tbf it’s pretty bad form. As it’s a school day , they should be leaving from school and be back there for pick up and normal school hours.

If the school isn’t budging though, all you can do is find another parent that can take and pick up your DD , or team up with one and you each do one way.

How long have you known about the timings? If recent, seems unreasonable, but if you've known for months (as is common with residentials) rearrangement of meetings/trainings should have been possible, no?

I was a parent volunteer at DS's Primary School. There was a venue near the school that the school used quite frequently for trips (day ones, not residentials). It was within walking distance but they had to get in a group of parent helpers to walk with the DC, there were not enough staff for ratios.

They should be using normal drop off times for the pm pick up. I work in a school. We would be offering to keep any child until normal collection time.

As a SAHM I would offer to help another parent if they were unable to drop off/pick up their child

It's a school day. If they refuse to have them at the normal time it would be informal exclusion and unlawful.

The irony of this is that none of the teachers would have this kind of flexibility with their own children, teaching is very inflexible.

It’s a normal school day they should have the children for normal school hours. I’d contact them again and cite that they are not meeting their legal duty to educate your child for set school hours, I’d also be asking what registration code they’ll be using for your child who will be absent from AM registration.

Perhaps they’ve only just been told about pick up times. I expect if you are a teacher for example, you can’t just book time off when you need to for this sort of thing.

Our school manages pretty well to schedule “important” things like parents evenings etc in the evenings, but there were a load of daytime things which you just couldn’t do if you worked full time.

They should be encouraging you to sort it out with other parents in the class and if not provide a solution for you. There's no reason not to keep children til the end of the school day so that's just nonsense. No doubt they are trying to keep coach costs down though - I'm not running a trip I've done for years because it's completely unaffordable now because of the coach.

The complaint about meetings after school are unreasonable though. Staff can't be expected to stay or go and come back for a 6.30pm meeting. Plenty of teachers are parents too and actually have much less flexibility than many jobs to attend things at their own children's schools. They're in exactly the same boat as you. If you want to see a dentist, solicitor or accountant that'd be in working hours but somehow the expectation for schools is different.

Yeah this is pretty crap re the residential timings and not what I’m used to.

We made the point that it’s a normal school day, hence asking if the kids could arrive at their usual start time of 8.35 and then walk with the teachers. They are 11/12 year olds, the venue is a 10 minute walk away and parental supervision would not be needed - these children all normally walk to their school on their own.

The entire year group is not going so even in the unlikely event every parent asked for this, there would not be 100+ children walking with the teachers. I don’t mind asking another parent but all of the parents I know (not many as it’s not like Primary where you get to know parents at the gate) are in the same boat.

Oh. Well that changes it - I was assuming we were taking primary age.

he can take himself in that case

secondaries usually phrase it as “make your own way there” - never seen one insist on parental drop off.

I think saying they will decide pick-up time on the day is unnecessarily inconvenient. Surely they can do an indoor activity if it rains, or just decide to finish at lunchtime.

Drop kid off near venue early, Pick up from near venue later? Kid gets bus home with suitcase and rucksack?

They’ve made it clear parents must be present to check their child in. Otherwise this wouldn’t be an issue. DD and her friends are more than happy to go on their own. Apparently one reason is all children will be checked for mobile phones and parents must be present to take back those or any other banned items.

Then the children cannot leave the venue on their own due to safeguarding…but they leave the school (a 10 minute walk away) every day on their own.

I would escalate this to governors.

And consider just letting your DD go on her own and not picking up until 3:30 if you don't get a satisfactory response - what are they going to do about it? They would look ridiculous if they called social services, they would just live with it.

This is really odd and not something I’ve experienced in any school I’ve worked at. For us, children arrive to school at the beginning of the school day even though we leave near lunchtime and they are collected at the usual home time even if we arrive earlier. It doesn’t make sense to expect parents to be available during the day when children should be in school anyway.

We also allow children in Year 6 to arrive on their own and walk home after a residential if parents have given permission. Honestly, I hope it gets sorted out for you because what you’ve described sounds like a nightmare logistically.

I think schools generally could do more to support; our school often does events 9.30 and 2.30 on the same day for different key stages and it’s a nightmare for those of us who work. I’m dreading end of summer term with show and tell mornings and sports days

This does sound odd.

They could. My personal favourite is informing the parents of a school dance/play one week before it happens as if everyone is unemployed sitting around waiting for the school to email them.

And if you can't get it off work you're child being the only one without their parents watching them.

It is unreasonable that the school will not allow the children to attend at the normal registration and dismissal times. Besides, if they give parents the option of drop off and pick up from school or from the venue, there will be fewer children for them to walk between school and venue.

All these parents who have to pick up and drop off their kids at the venue - only a fraction of them would be needed to help with the escorting to and from the venue. And if enough do not volunteer, and the venue is so close to the school, why can't the staff shuttle children?

I have been both escorting parent and shuttling staff-member in my time.