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.

Do you think they should have left her standing at the gate waiting for you, or perhaps they thought they’d got it wrong and inadvertently not booked her in ASC? Regardless, you would have been charged anyway even if they had phoned you. If you had received a phone call at 3.30, what time would you have been there to pick her up? Who picked her up eventually???

Several people have asked what the school’s policy on this is but you haven’t replied.

There WILL be a policy on their website about what happens when children aren’t picked up, and I’d be hugely surprised if they weren’t just following it. Ditto re the charge for unscheduled use of the ASC.

You need to read the T&Cs of the services you use before starting internet threads slagging off and threatening to make complaints about the people who actually DID have a plan in place to step up and unexpectedly care for your daughter when your family didn’t.

One hundred percent this. I was forgotten once at school. The thought of it now makes me still so sad for 7//8 year old me. I can still feel that feeling of sadness and being forgotten about, 40 years on.

Schools are really busy places at end of school. Receptionists often finish their day at that time, teachers are busy trying to go home themselves, after school club are making sure kids are safe, they have turned up, and are sorting out snacks/entertainment for them. She was there for 30 minutes before mom rang. That’s no time at all when you’ve got tens of kids to manage with probably two of you working

This was on you to ensure your family collection arrangements are in order. School do exactly the same if a child isn't picked up at our school. They'd ring us if child still at after school club closes. By then a responsible adult should be aware of where their child is, surely? I wouldn't ask your sister to pick her up again.

But under your added scenarios their lack of action is even worse.

Clearly there are two issues here, the child wasn't picked up and there was no contact from the family to explain why.

If it had been a car crash or some other bigger issue, the first problem would merely have been deferred until 6 o’clock. Traumatic for the child and very inconvenient for the staff.

@Cantheowneroftheredcorsapleasemovetheircar definitely let the school now! Could
be lack of procedure or just human error.
Either way, good for them to be aware. But no, not complaint-worthy. And your sister will pay the fee, surely?

Not till 6 o'clock, but possibly later than 4pm. If you're late for a good reason (which op was not), they don't want to start harassing people who might be having some sort of emergency or crisis. The child was cared for and safe which is their first responsibility. Informing parents and guarding their finances is further down the list of priorities

That’s a fair point, and also depends on the school and catchment area.

At one of our kids’ primaries no pick up and no phone call would have meant emergency at 3.15, at another, with more of a socio-economic mix, this kind of chaos was much more common.

Nope. Informing parents is one of the top priorities.

Safeguarding the child is always the first priority. Parents come further down the list. Do you work in education?

Gosh, you are incredibly lucky to have such a great school, they just made sure your child was safe even though your sister didn't care at all.

Obviously, you must never ever ever give your sister the opportunity to look after your child again.

Thank the school profusely for looking after your child when her own family didn't, and ask them if this happens again to contact you ASAP.

did you bother to read? She did, her sister was meant to be picking her up, and forgot. How is that the OP's fault when she's arranged someone who is meant to be a responsible adult to collect her child?

hyperbole much?

This is the stupid kind of reply that shows you're just here to comment and upset the OP, rather than actually be helpful.

The OP is not incapable of taking genuine responsibility.. and i'm not sure just how you extrapolated that from anything she has said.

She's dealt with her sister, she has paid the fine, the ONLY thing she has asked is if she should raise the lack of contact from the school with them.

Yes. Yes I do. As a school business manager and DSL. Guess what also falls into the safeguarding children category? Making sure their parents haven't abandoned them or had a serious accident on the way to collect them. Which has happened to a child in my school. If we had of waited to contact the parents then we wouldn't have known they weren't coming and would have delayed us contacting SS meaning the poor kid would have been even more traumatised.

I think your policy may be different to ours as we wouldn't consider waiting till 4pm to call a parent a safeguarding concern, whereas ensuring the child is in ASC is clearly the first priority.

Also, sorry to be that person, but had of? Had've or just had

Ah I see. So because you couldn't successfully embarrass me with your question about whether I worked in education, you've targeted my SPAG instead.

How lovely.

I do think, as a duty of care, you ought to of been called. However, because you have said various family members tend to pick your daughter up, and you also use the after school care on offer, that no body thought it was unusual for her to be waiting after 10 minutes.

Sending 7/8 year old you hugs

I can see your perspective but having worked in school office I can see how it might take 15 mins to conclude parent is not just running late and there is an issue , then deal with other things which at the end of the school day can be many many things...lost property, parents calling, other children etc. When you look at all the factors it is an understandable timeline. No harm done. Just forget it.

I haven't answered, because there isn't a policy regarding this on their website. I checked, it's not there. I scrolled through all the policies. Still not there.
Maybe trying writing WILL again. Might make it appear. Try it in bold, perhaps.

Why would it not be unusual for her to be waiting 10 minutes, just because family members pick her up and we used ASC?

This, and others like it, are reasonable comments pointing put the timeline and are actually helpful and put things into perspective for me, thank you

Thank you.

Of course I take responsibility. My OP literally says I said thank you to the school. Not one person seems to have noticed that.

I'm only asking if I should have had a phone call and I'm also just saying that an earlier phone call would have prevented me having to pay more. That's it!!

what's the difference in price between afterschool club from 3.20-4pm, and from 3.20 to 5pm?

Your sister needs a bollocking ! & make her pay for the after school club
the school where doing their best !