To think that queueing outside the school gates is weird

[winterwonder1]

I may be totally out of kilter here (I only have experience of dropping off at one primary school), but is it normal to have to queue outside school for 15 minutes every morning?
We were allocated a different primary for youngest (a PITA in itself, but hey ho) and the new school has a system where parents have to queue outside the gates, which then open at 8.45am.
Everyone then walks their kids through narrow walkways to their building inside the site (a fair walk to reception block) for an 8.50am start. It's a big school and a bunfight of parents, kids and scooters all trying to get in to the site at once, in a really small window of time.
If you're not in the queue by 8.30am (so one of the first ones on site) it's a real scramble to get to the classrooms on time.
In elder kids' school, gates open at 8.30am, giving 20 minutes to get everyone where they need to be and meaning there's not so many people jostling to get in at once.
AIBU to think this could be done a lot better? Or were we just lucky with the other school and this is normal?

I wish we had a breakfast club. Primaries and secondaries should swap start times!

Why would your child find it stressful to be at the back of the queue?
If you are relaxed about it then they will be.
If the staff say anything then point out that its their system not yours and you won't be stressing out about it.

This. Someone's got to be last in, so arrive at the time the last person gets in and let it be you.
No sense getting ahead of a queue for anything, unless there's limited capacity and its first come first served.

Our primary school has a 5 minute drop off window where the playground gates are open, and separate playground gates for KS2, KS1 and EYFS children. Each gate is manned by a teacher.

Parents aren’t allowed through the gate into the playground, so the kids are waved off at the gate and find their own way to their classrooms. Which I guess cuts down on the number of people and also means it’s all one way traffic through the playground in the morning!

It used to be a 10 minute drop off window but they changed that after some timetable changes a couple of years ago. That’s made it trickier for parents who drive, as there’s more pressure on parking, but there’s not been much noticeable difference at the playground gates themselves.

Will your DC really be marked as late if they’re not in the classroom for 8:50?
Surely the school must be aware that the bottleneck of people at this gate can make it challenging for the kids at the back of the queue to get into their classrooms in that 5 minute window?

Our school just opens the gates at 8.45 and the kids go in the playground, they line up when the bell goes at 9am.... no queueing

That's still how it is in my country, except usually the kids make their own way there instead of parents dropping off. DS usually gets to school about half an hour early because he likes to play in the playground and he doesn't want to risk being late (was late once)

This is three form entry, so fairly large and very chaotic!

They can't just have people wandering all over the school grounds. Anyone could sneak in.

I agree about keeping the site secure, but opening five minutes earlier wouldn’t be an issue?

If you have SLT on the gate they can't...that's a perfectly normal school routine that happens in mine and many schools.

Not if people are just walking in early to wait. Its easy for people to sneak past. At my child's school even parents don't enter the playground in a morning, we have to wait outside and staff open the gatesand let just thechildren in, who then make their own way straight to their classroom.