Why can’t parents look at the term dates for DC schools

[nfg]

Schools here, broke up yesterday. Today on the way to shopping, I saw about 4 sets of kids and parents with children wearing school uniforms. I have friends who have DC attend these schools (2 schools) and there are no day trips or classes today.

My friends knew the term dates as on parents pages and WhatsApp groups

I would feel sorry for them rather than bitter about it OP.

They clearly aren’t having a great day!

I'm sure they can look up term dates, but they're probably also affected by human fallibility.

Have you ever made a small admin error OP? Or are you one of the lucky ones who is immune from ever having made a mistake?

you sound very horrible and judgmental OP

If this is the sort of thing that impacts your life you've got far bigger issues than a few forgetful parents

Did you let them know tjat theres no school?

I find it strange that they don’t know school has broken up for summer. That’s usually a big deal and all kids tend to be aware that they’ve had their last day of school! Bit different to a random inset day.

Seems very early to break up, round here they have another week and a half to go.

It does sound odd because the last day of term is usually kids coming out of school with piles of art work, pe kits, missing clothes that miraculously turned up and the teachers giving them big waves and saying "have a lovely summer".
If that all happened and the parents still didn't realise it was the last day of term then that is very very strange.
Round my way all the schools finish on different days though so how do you know your friends with children in those schools aren't the ones who are wrong....🤔

Bloody hell op, have you never made a mistake?

However the fact there were 4 sets of people, and there's usually a massive deal on the last day of term, suggests there's something going on at the school that you aren't aware of.

Every term there’s at least one person on our class WhatsApp asking whether they’re in school the following week the day before half term. This information is readily available on the school website, repeated in the weekly newsletter and mentioned on the class chat. Boggles my mind as to how people live like this.

So you don't have kids who attend this school you are just going off what friends say. I think the parents of these kids know better what's happening in their kids school than some random on the street, you. My kids have attended school past the end of year date for some activities that randoms like you would never have known about.

There are activities that go beyond the school calendar. We have an awards day. Some clubs meet up for whatever reason. Some out of school events require you wear a uniform as you are representing the school.
Or, could be some people are preoccupied and they have mistaken the day? Schools don’t break up until next week for the kids I know, and it’s also not unreasonable to note the week but not realise they broke up on a Thursday rather than a Friday.

Unless they are very young, most kids would be aware of their last day in that year at school!

I've got that scene from Motherland in my head now, when Julia takes her kids to school (late) only to find it's half term.

I'm surprised the kids didn't tell them they were on holiday. I'm not a parent but when I was a kid I'd definitely know when my school was closed for holiday as I'd be counting down, plus there'd be special events. Especially the summer holidays, we barely did any work at all apart from cleaning our desks out (do kids still do this? We had to bring dusters, polish, and depending how much graffiti was on our desks Brillo Pads.)

God imagine if it's you that's got it wrong and there's another week to go !!!!!

Seems very early to break up unless its all private schools or you are in Scotland. We have another week and a half but then not back till Sept 8th. Guessing if they are back on Sept 1st maybe ...

If theres that many going to school when it's closed I'd say there's been a communication problem.

So these children and parents failed to notice all the fuss yesterday about end of term
missed everyone saying see you in September and went to school today
yeah right

4 sets is alot. I wouldn't put that down to not know when school finished but more that something is going on you dont know about. OR there is a communication issue at the school. Something was published wrong somewhere.

Its quite easy to got a bit of school admin wrong (we have the discussion was it tues or wed they finished in a few weeks only this week with school parents) esp as it seems quite early to be finishing - all our school are in for another week or so at least.

All schools in the area have broke up mid week? That seems odd to me.

I look at dates. I’ve printed off term dates well ahead before, then found out they changed. I have two kids at different schools, with different inset days. I have mixed up ‘event days’ and sent the wrong child to school in the wrong uniform. I’ve got my child dressed in uniform and realised they started the next day. I’ve learnt to check the school websites the night before to double/triple check but sometimes life just happens.

You have no idea of the circumstances. You don’t have kids there, maybe there’s still school clubs on.

how would they know there was ‘fuss’? The whole last week of term is often off timetable. Let’s be honest children don’t always listen or understand. How would they know others weren’t missing the last few days?

99.99% of parents know perfectly well the last day of the academic year, it’s a bit hard to miss all the fuss. Yes there’s always someone on parents WhatsApp caught out by a random inset day on a Thursday in November, but in a decade of kids in school I’ve never come across a parent not notice the last day of the year!

Likelihood is you’ve got it wrong.

Maybe they had an impromptu sleepover at someone else's house!
Maybe they don't have a lot of other clothes!
Maybe have busy lives and forgot term dates
Maybe you should've just asked them 😂