Noone picked up my daughter and school didn't ring.

[Cantheowneroftheredcorsapleasemovetheircar]

On Thursday my daughter was supposed to be picked up by my sister as my husband and I were both working. She finishes school at 3:20pm, she's 7 and is in year 3.

At 4pm I was on my break at work and called sister to ask how DD is.

Sister bloody FOROGT to pick her up and wasn't even in our home town. She was about an hour's drive away at her new boyfriends house.

In a panic I hung up on spluttering apologising sister and immediately rang school to find out what happened to DD. They just casually said "yeah, we've got her, she's in after school club"

At the time I was too busy arranging for someone else to pick up her with only 10 minutes left of my break and relieved she was safe to think much more on the fact that the scholl hadnt informed me so I just said thank you to the school and said someone would be there soon.

Would you complain to the school or at least mention it that noone rang me or DH to say she hadn't been picked up? If I hadn't rung sister I wouldn't have known, and what would have happened when noone arrived at 5pm when it closes?

They also charged me and I could have avoided this charge or at least got a lower charge if I'd got her picked up by 4pm.

Where you typed 'complain' was that a typo for 'hand in flowers and biscuits for the lovely caring staff who kept DD safe'?

I would email the ASC and thank them for taking your DD when she wasn't booked in. Apologise that your planned pick up let you down. Then ask about their normal procedure in this situation and if they can call you (although you don't expect this to happen again). I imagine staff are busy looking after the children and will prioritise that before working through a contact list. There may be some families who regularly forget to prebook.

The school should be complaining about you not the other way around. This is neglect.

Now you are just being silly! The child wasn’t ‘thrown’ anywhere. The school noticed the child wasn’t picked up and she was moved into appropriate child care.

The issue was the parents and guardian’s messed up. That is usually the issue. The number one priority for the school cannot be calling parents every day when they are a bit late for pick up. do you know how many flaky parents there are out there?

it is likely the teachers and office staff were handling a million other things and a perfectly safe and happy child is unlikely to be top of their list.

In my experience it is unusual for a school to just not ring. My son's school rang me when I was just 10 minutes late the other day, and gave us a talking to :/

What does the school policy say about late collection?

Just on a tangent...I. so curious to know how much the afterschool charged you, from the thread it feels like a substantial amount.
I'm not in the UK, but where I am it would be €10 for a random last minute drop in.

I find the fact they didn't call concerning as that is what our school do. Years ago me and my husband had mixed up pick up, I was at work when they called me 15 minutes after pick up to check everything was ok as we hadn't collected which was very unusual for us. It meant I could arrange for someone to collect and that my children weren't worried about where their parents were. I obviously thanked the school for looking after them but I'm so pleased they called.

What many parents fail to appreciate is that, even in a small school, there will be a couple of hundred other children to deal with. Your daughter was safely in after school club and it had only been 40 minutes. Staff may well be dealing with lots of other situations that afternoon which took priority in that short window. No doubt she would have become a priority as time passed bur in that moment she was safe. The child who was ill or had had an accident would have been dealt with first, the parent kicking off about something in reception would have been dealt with first, the vulnerable child whose parents showed up stinking of alcohol would have been dealt with first.
Our school policy is to call after 30 minutes but it could be longer if staff have to prioritise more vulnerable children or immediate issues.

This happened to me recently- my mum got muddled and didn’t collect DD, so she got taken to after school club. They rang me at 5.30 when after school club was closing. Ran down there and apologised profusely- don’t really see an issue with how they handled it. Plus DD said she had a lovely time being the last one there 😂

I think I’d be relieved the school scooped her up and put her in a care provision that your sister failed to remember. Yes of course I’d pay - probably would have taken a thank you gift too!

Not sure what their policy is to contact, but I imagine they would have done once all were in, accounted for and fed. I think this happens more than you realise and they just charge the family. imo buck stops with your side, I know not you per se, but as parent sadly in a way yes.

Bloody school, how dare they not leave your child abandoned on the street.

Likely another teacher or TA would go into the club, or failing that SLT would have to. It might prompt them to phone quicker in that situation.

Same.

They call DH and then me if no one comes, but they also know that it is rare one of us isn’t there to collect since it is just DH and I with no family nearby. When family does, we do let them know since it only happens during one month out of the entire year.

The rare times we think we’ll be late due to traffic, we have called in advance to inform them.

I'm a primary school governor and - whilst the OP's sister is the one at fault here - it would not be unreasonable of the OP to check whether the school followed its policy for a late pick-up. This might be on the school's website. If the policy says that someone will attempt to ring a child's parent/s, then clearly staff need a reminder. If it simply says they will take the child to after school club, then they followed the policy and that's that.

OP, if you really want to raise this with the school I would urge you to do so as a "concern" which can be informally discussed or investigated, rather than a full-blown complaint. See your school's Complaints Policy (which will definitely be on the website) for more about this. This is not a safeguarding issue, as your child was safely cared for, and all you've lost is the after school club fee (a real expense, I know, but that's on your sister).

At the school I work in we would always contact parents or emergency contacts first, they might just be running late, in which case a teacher or TA will wait in reception with them (depending how long they are going to be, sometimes they will be taken across to our ASC, subject to availability) but we have had times where staff have missed out on important meetings or training because of this. School doesn't just close when the children go home unfortunately, but ultimately we have a duty of care towards the children.
So whilst I understand them sending your child to ASC, it's unacceptable in my view that they didn't think to contact you. (Unless of course they tried, and for whatever reason, wrong number, unclear writing on forms etc).

Be grateful SS werent called!!!! You sound very entitled and your sister is having an early dementia or clearly has not your best interests at heart

They would have phoned if nobody collected her from after school club. Do you think they would have all switched the lights off and left your child in there overnight?

😂

Last i checked when i worked in a school it was the admin/receptionists that did the phoning of parents when children weren't picked up, not the teachers.

Quite frankly, the reception team should have phoned OP to let her know her DD was in the AS club.

The hyperbole from some posters is bloody ridiculous.

I've worked in schools. Yes, I would expect that a member of the office staff would have rung or at least texted you before 4 pm. Depending on how busy they were, but definitely within about 30 minutes of finding she'd been left.

Can you post that particular school's "basic processes"?

At our school you'd be charged for the full session regardless of whether it's 10 minutes or a hour!
This is on you - surely you know your sister is unreliable?

Oh and if a parent hasn't informed us within 30 minutes that they're running late we don't call the parents we call social services! Because honestly if you can't remember to collect your kid or arrange someone responsible to collect your kid social services need to know!

Had you let them know that your sister would be collecting her?

Of course it wasn't the schools fault. They put her in the after school club which was a really sensible decision. Your sister is at fault here. Nobody else.

I dont think anyone's at fault except your sister.
If your dd goes to afterschools its perfectly reasonable for school to assume that you forgot to book and they sent her to afterschools.
Iv seen it happen in out primary esp if the child is a little unsure of they should be picked up or going to afteschools