To think the school has unrealistic expectations?

[Anonandonandonandon]

An off-site activity has been pencilled in for 4 days in a row. The venue is about a 15 minute drive away from the school, more at peak times. Public transport exists but is not frequent and will add considerable time.

The children are to be split into 2 sessions. For one, the children need to be dropped at the venue every day by their parents. For the other, they need to be picked up from the venue every day.

We have to confirm and pay for the activity before they will tell us which group our child has been assigned to and what the actual pick up and drop off times are. There is no flex on this at all because it all depends on numbers apparently.

Add to this that some children have siblings attending another off site activity on the same day, again with parents required to collect from a (different) off site venue.

I am left with absolutely no idea whether we can accomodate this around work / the sibling and/or make arrangements with other parents who are equally in the dark. So I can either say no outright, leaving a very disappointed child, or say yes and potentially lose my money if it turns out we can’t do make it work.

I love that the school is trying to provide enrichment, but really feeling the parental guilt with this one!

State school.

AIBU?

What's the activity and I assume being outside school hours it's entirely optional?

Can you share the pick up/ drop off with another parent or two?

Sorry, should have said, all within school hours.

It’s something they definitelt can’t do on site.

No idea as we don’t know who is in what group.

YANBU. As a fairly basic principle I’d say that before people pay for something, they need to know the details to know if it’s something they can do

My children would usually be in wrap around care (provided at the school), but that goes completely out of the window with this!

Do you know what the times will be for each of the groups (even if you don't know which group your child would be in?). It does sound a bit unrealistic.

This is why my school stopped doing a lot of off site activities.

they were hugely beneficial to the students - but the amount of parental flak is untrue.

just say no if you can’t do it.

No! They won’t tell me even this!

Did you not read any of the OPs posts?

She would obviously like her child to take part and her questions are completely reasonable. As a teacher I would also want to know the timings before being able to agree.

Your situation may have been different but parents can, and do, lose their jobs if perceived as unreliable and keeping your house and putting food on the table is a tad more important than an optional activity!

At the very least parents are entitled to expect that education takes place at the school building and that wraparound if available, continues all year rather than being cancelled on a whim.

From the school's perspective, if they had planned more carefully or communicated more clearly then perhaps more parents would sign up - so it'd be win-win.

That's pretty unfair. As a lone parent working full time I can promise it's not always possible to drop out of our usual routines and schedules for a week - I have a job to get to. I plan school holidays months in advance to make sure I have the right childcare in place. It therefore feels quite frustrating when the school changes the goalposts and those privileged to have SAHPs or parents with flexible jobs can attend an enrichment activity and the rest of us can't.

Yanbu op.

I presume then there is an option for children unable to attend this activity.

The school should have sent out communications asking if parents preferred to drop up, pick up, or had no preference.

Then sort the children into groups accordingly.

Well they’ll have to do something with them, but it doesn’t say what. It won’t be as fun as the off site activity, which is completely extra curricular.

Yes, this is being made unnecessarily difficult by the school - and I tend to see things from a school’s perspective as a teacher!

At my kids’ primary, anything like this would include bringing children back to school if they would usually attend ASC (or vice versa for breakfast club). It would probably increase the cost, because of transport costs, but that would have to be factored in somehow. And failing that, as a PP says, they could ask for people to sign up giving a preference (and even an option to say ‘only if this session’) and then sort the groups accordingly.

emsil to the school.

tell them you can agree to something which you don’t have full details.

point out politely that this is a logistical nightmare and unless you have more information then you will have no option but to decline.

sometimes they just don’t think it through and forget it’s not still the 1950’s where mother is at home in her work coat - beating rugs and polishing the front step and able to come to the school at a minutes notice

point out politely that people who work or who have more than one child or don’t drive are really going to find it hard to commit to this vague arrangement.

copy in head and head of year and see what they say.

Have already e-mailed. Have had response that there is no flex.

Sounds like a pain in the arse. I would probably try and sort something out with another parent ie: I’ll do pick up if you do drop off even if our kids are in different groups.

Primary: totally unreasonable of school. They should be doing all the transport, but the increased costs will put some off

Secondary: school are being a pain, but given the age of the kids, plus possible public transport not totally unreasonable.

If I had to take 4 half days leave for collection of said child, thats 2 days I cant then have in the holidays. How would a teacher in another school (ie a job with no leave) manage this????

I was thinking this. The class whatsapp group respones to my mild panic have been supportive! I think most of us will struggle with afternoons though 😭

Primary!

We had this with a school event. They wanted to keep costs down by not taking coaches to an event on a school day at 9am on the far side of the city. Parents were asked to drop off for 9am and collect at 1.30pm. Doing this would have meant taking an entire day of annual leave for many of us.

Did the event go ahead?

Yes, with some comments about how disappointing it wasn’t better supported and what a shame the kids had to miss out on a great activity. A lot of kids went into school as normal instead.

Interesting they’re not doing it again this summer term though!