to wonder how my DC managed to wonder out of class across a playground and hide in another empty classroom....

[whonickedmynickname]

There seem to be plenty of teachers on here so here's one for you......
DC1 is 5. Today apparently managed to walk out of the classroom in the middle of a lesson, down a corridor, out of an external door, across a playground and into another (empty) classroom and hide under a table for quite some time....
AIBU to ponder why the teacher had a go at me about my child's behaviour when all I can wonder is how the hell my child was able to do all of that with noone noticing?????!!!!

What would you suggest then SheSells?

How should a teacher, who possibly may have an assistant with them some of the time, but will also be alone with up to 30 children a lot of the time, ensure that no child decides to walk off?

How do they do that, while ensuring that children are allowed to go to the toilet when they need to? (Because you can bet your life that the OP would be whinging if her child wanted the loo and wasn't allowed to go). And of course, Health and Safety regulations need to be adhered to, so all entrances and exits can't be locked? And as I said, the teacher's principal role is TEACHING, so that shouldnt be compromised either.

I'm genuinely interested to know what people think the teacher should have done.

Of course you can't watch each child every second. And no each door shouldn't be locked but each door easily accesible to the children should be locked, i.e. the one's near the toilets.

My dd's school has two teachers per class and one TA for the reception classes.

I wouldn't really be bothered about dd1 going missing inside the school but I don't think she should be able to get out of school. What if she decided to go and see the squirrels in the park and something bad happened to her? I'm sure @ 5 squirells are more appealing than maths to most children.

DD1's school now leave the playground gates locked at all times and AFAIK the only door left open is the main door at reception, which obv is monitored by the receptionists.

Two teachers per class - wow, that sounds unusual!

I agree that the school site needs to be secure, and certainly my kids' primary had locked gates out of the playground etc, so the only way a child could have got off the site would have been by scaling a fairly high fence or gate. And frankly, if they couldn't be trusted not to do that, it's the child or the parents problem. As long as the school has made all reasonable adjustments to accommodate the needs of the children, then they are in the clear.

I think the teacher should have taken the initiative in apologising to the parents whilst sitting everyone down and trying to find out exactly why this child felt the need to abscond so frequently.

Blaming the children is not the way forward here (although a gentle telling off about 'adults getting worried' might help).

I actually thought that myself and thought that maybe it was because one teacher must be leaving soon and they were introducing another one early, but no, each reception class has two teachers and one TA. Its only the reception classes that have two teachers btw.

She is free to go to the toilet but the doors to the playground from the cloakroom where the toilets are, are locked. Some classrooms have doors that lead into the playground and they are left open but have a chime on them that sounds if the door is opened.

I would wonder why the parents haven't taken the initiative in dealing with the question of why the child is unable/unwilling to follow basic rules about safety.

Agree with Boffin.
The teacher surely should have noticed a child missing for any length of time.

We have pupils in y2 who have scaled a 10 foot fence to abscond from the school.

This is a mainstream school. These pupils do not have statements.

If your child was in my class, would you be happy with me leaving the classroom everytime a child decided to walk out. Due to the challenging behaviour of some children in my class, this can happen up to 20 times a day on a bad day.

Again, this is a mainstream school and the children are 6 and 7.

I know my class is a fairly extreme case, but each school makes its decisions about child safety and welfare based on the children in each class. We have made a very definite decision that neither the teacher or TA will leave the classroom to follow an absconding child. We will check through the door to make sure that they are in the library next door, and then we go out to them at an appropriate moment.

Can you imagine what would be said on Mumsnet about a teacher who constantly left her class to focus on one child, to the detriment of others.

The issue at stake here is that the OP's little boy is unhappy about something. That defintely needs to be investigated. However, the OP has also said that there were difficulties at his last school too and so a certain amount of personal reflection needs to take place on what may be causing his behaviour.

If his current school has never had children before who have left the classroom before, then they would not be expecting to have to check constantly to make sure that all the children are there.

When we go out on school trips, we count the children constantly because it's an environment unknown to them, full of exciting distrations etc. However, in the classroom, I rely on the children in my care to know and understand the boundaries and expectations because we will have talked about them many times.

It is not unreasonable to expect a 5 yr old NT child to understand that it is wrong to leave a classroom or agreed area without telling someone. If a child is determined to leave, and hide, then they will find a way to do it.

Of course the OP needs to talk to the school about this, but the conversation should focus more on why the OP's dc is unhappy and choosing to opt out, than why the teacher didn't notice he was gone.

Excellent post OhLittleFish

quite - as I've said in other posts, the big issue for the OP is that her son is quite clearly very unhappy.

But as a parent of a child in Yr1, it has honestly never occurred to me that his teachers would let a 5yo or 6yo wander round the school unsupervised. I'm quite shocked that this is considered reasonable by teachers/people who know something about teaching.

Edam - you're obviously in the fortunate position of having your dc in a school where challenging behaviour is at a minimum. This sort of behaviour does not happen in every school, but it does happen in some.

Unsupervised - at times, yes. Un-noticed - very rarely. It would be impossible in a school like mine to provide a "minder" for every child who chose to opt out of the classroom/lesson. Classroom doors are left open, all classrooms lead out onto the shared library area, children are checked on whenever possible. If there is a spare Teaching Assistant, then they may stay in the library area, but not intervene.

Situations can actually escalate if we try and intervene too early. We use our professional judgement to decide when it is the right moment. It's also important in some schools to remember that staff may be putting themselves at risk of physical harm if they try and either stop a child leaving a classroom, or try and get them back into the classroom once they've left.

thanks for the extra detail, it does sound very sensible.

And yes, I know I'm very lucky ds is at a school where I don't have to worry about any of this.