Breaking up for the holidays

[Crocsforlife]

Just wondering with fines and stuff what happens at end of term. We finish up today for Easter, eldest is going in for reg then going with her pals for a McDonald's breakfast. Youngest isn't even bothering.

This is normal at summer and Christmas also very rarely go in last few days. Schools are a ghost town with very few pupils in and I think the teachers like the down time.
Both in high school. In Scotland so don't get fined for time off. Do the kids elsewhere do this, is it just a west of Scotland thing?

They arent doing anything worthwhile so I'm not that concerned.

For what it's worth eldest went in and stayed most of the day. She left early with her head of year telling her to have a good holiday as she was leaving. He obviously wasn't bothered she wasn't staying .

Doesn't happen here, north east England.

We finished last Friday. No early finish and my whole form were in. Definitely not normal in my school.

I'm in Scotland and our local high school doesn't even have fences around it let alone gates! Doors are locked from the outside to prevent people getting into school during the day, except via the main reception but they all open outwards otherwise it would be a fire safety risk?

Our primary school is fenced in but doesn't lock the gates during the day and has a similar arrangements with the doors - locked from the outside but all open from the inside, except from in the early learning centre.

Definitely not my experience. My dc are always in school unless they are half dead. I can’t speak to secondary school, but primary school was as busy as usual.

Secondary school a bit different as I think overall attendance is poor. Dc has a friend who is literally in about 2 days a week. If she has a sleepover on a Saturday, she takes off Monday and Tuesday for ‘duvet days’ to catch up on sleep because she’s too tired to come in. 🙄 Her attendance must be about 30%. Her siblings are all the same so appears to be more a failure to parent rather than individual illness or SEN. Despite the 30% ish attendance, they left on a family holiday on Monday and missed the last 4 days of term. Again, clearly lack of parental effort rather than illness or EBSA, etc.

That said, the hoops I had to jump through to get mine excused from school for 3 days so we could go on a very last minute family holiday when I found out my cancer returned and we wouldn’t be able to travel again for a few years, if ever (if I’m dead before then!). 😂

@Crocsforlife- that children can and do just wander off site without anyone knowing at your DCs school is a safeguarding issue, not just for your child but if there’s any vulnerable children at that school, it’s a massive problem.

Id report that to the schools inspectorate. While it’s not a prison, if a child has left site, the school should know. (Eg imagine a fire at break. Or an abusive family member who isn’t allowed unsupervised contact with the child. Or an accident on the way to/from Macdonalds).

All good schools take a register for every lesson, not just form and first lesson after lunch. They have a legal duty towards yours and everyone else’s child at that school and it sounds like they are failing really badly.

at the risk of being overly dramatic, if a child is hurt by this lack of care by the school, every parent - including you - who failed to report /complain will equally to blame.

The school does know. In secondary school, registers are taken every period. If you don't take it, you get a very snippy phone call. If there is an anomaly, you get a snippy phone call to verify. Head of House will call you to check attendance of a specific child. You get a print out every week/month and have to query unexplained absences. Letters from parents are expected to cover those. Nobody wanders off a secondary school campus without someone knowing and contacting their parents.

Are children typically locked into campus in England? Is this another difference between England and Scotland? Our campus is a community campus so there’s a library and offices and other things on campus. PE and dance are in their own building, and there’s another building I haven’t worked out yet. Kids come and go all day - some have apprenticeships or go to another school for a specific class. My daughter is aiming for a programme at the local college for s5/6 so would leave at lunch twice a week. They take registration each period and you get a text if your child is meant to be there and isn’t, but there’s no way of stopping them from just leaving whenever they choose.

No mine never did in England, not a done thing at their school.

So members of the public can just wander into schools? Not just into the reception area but walk into corridors /classrooms with no restrictions? That’s not allowed in England I’m shocked it’s allowed in Scotland!

Generally there’s fences around schools that enclose buildings that children walk between. Gates have to be buzzed open from the outside so the school can see who’s going onto site (or the old one I sometimes visit, there’s an older reception you can get to from the street, gate around that to the main campus, so no adult without a DBS check is around the school unsupervised)

Doors open from the inside so kids can get out, but doors to the road etc are alarmed. Y12/13 come and go (the post GCSEs students aged 16-18), different schools do it differently but most have some sort of sign in/sign out system for those students - fobs on lanyards are very common. One school near us all the 6th form have id badges with a QR code the scan on a reader to get in/out. Others it’s just via reception in the day and they just sign in and out on an iPad thing on the wall.

I’ve worked with kids who do just walk out sometimes, they never stop them leaving in secondary school, but it’s logged that they’ve left, if a door alarm goes off the cctv is immediately checked to identify the child who’s gone out. Parents will be called.

FE colleges (just aged 16-18) are more open, but still have systems to log who is and is not in the building.

Another question! Schools in Scotland, do they not do lockdown drills/ don’t have any lockdown policy?

How do they manage fire drills if they have no log of who’s there beyond first registration?

This does sound nuts from an English school safeguarding POV. Having no control over who’s on site, kids being able to just come and go as they please. Does the Inspectorate not look at safeguarding like OFSTED does?

My son’s school have lockdown drills and we’re in Scotland.

Registration is taken every period in Scotland.

My specific question was end of term where lessons etc tail off. Yes generally the school isn't locked but as said by others registration is taken at each lesson and texts are sent if child not in class etc. primary schools are different to secondary.

I've never known them to have lock down drills I didnt think that was a thing in the UK.

It's obvious from this all schools are different though.

Well students can leave and go where they need to go (or obvs skive off whenever they please) but there’s a bit of the main building the public can’t get through. Nothing stopping anyone leaving though. And yes, the rest of the campus is open to whoever.