AIBU or is the school.

[Flirtbertandgert]

School has always had an open door policy in the mornings you can go in and sit with your dc at breakfast club or sit with your child reading outside the classrooms you can also use this time to chat with the teacher of you have any problems (This is how school has always done it since I started taking my dc there almost 8 years ago).Reception also ask that parents help lo's into pe kit one morning a week.

However since going back the head has decided to ban parents from anywhere apart from breakfast club and has also banned prams from anywhere in the school you are not allowed to use the main entrance to come into school and now there is a very unwelcome atmosphere on at the school it is like trying to gain entry to a vip nightclub not your childs school.

The pram issue is very unhelpful as apart from the main entrance everywhere else has steps she is also asking parents to leave the prams outside if you do come into school so imagine if you need to speak to a teacher you have to remove your baby from a warm pram carry it across a wet/cold playground possibly carrying numerous lunchboxes /homework folders because the little buggers children have run on ahead then get up numerous sometimes slippy steps with loads of children barging past you and your baby when before teachers would be around and you could have a quick word in the breakfast club .
Now if you do want to see the teacher as a lot of parents do at the beginning of terms you have to go in to the class when the bell goes and stand with other parents to talk about possibly private stuff and also disrupting the start of the school day.
The HT is refusing to consider that her new rules are a bit daft she is the type who always wants to win a battle and won't back down.
From what I can see most of the staff think it is mad and don't know whats going on .
It hasn't been thought through .
I am not a helicopter parent in fact dp takes them to school most mornings I just do not like the unwelcome atmosphere and been barked orders at by members of staff who when asked to go through the new rules with me haven't got a clue what to say .
Lots of parents are not very happy with it all it just seems very silly.

BTW (am trying to give all info so not doing it by stealth) the breakfast club was started by the head for in her words "parents teachers and children to have a good start to the day" and has often mentioned to parents in passing about joining us at breakfast club tomorrow .Oh and before anyone says it is awful to have parets milling about the school in the morning there is a system (her idea again) breakfast club starts at 8.30 am at 8.50 am a bell goes this was a signal for anyone who wants to have a chat with a teacher or children who needed to get ready for pe 9.00am another bell goes this signals start of school day all chldren to assembly/pe and parents OUT always worked so if it ain't broke why fix it?.

OP, please can you learn how to use the comma?

Everything that you have described is completely normal in our school, if you want catch the teacher she is in the playground for 10 minutes before school and brings them out after school, anything else - make an appointment. No prams indoors except in special circumstances cos of the wet and the crowding. Things are slightly more casual in reception but not re prams and buggies.
It makes sense, things inside the school are calm and well ordered.

Don't fight it, save your energy for something else.

If you have an incident the day before why don't you put a note in the contact book?

We can catch teachers at collection time for a quick message , anything else requires making an appointment.
And parents don't go into the school am or pm. The girls are brought in class groups to the playground and we meet them there.

DD is dropped in the playground between 8.00 and 8.20 and taken to her classroom by prefects.

I love our system as I can walk her to school, frop her with her friends and be home to put DS2 on his transport. I would be screwed ifthey started later.

The unresonable bit is that they expect the parents in to help with PE, but won't accomodate the stuff that goes with it (like siblings).

The school really should take responsibility for the PE thing themselves and ban parents from the premises. At the DC's school you are allowed to accompany the reception children in until the first half term then that is usually it (they make exceptions on a case-by-case basis if necc). The teachers sort out the PE and you are able to speak to your teachers at the end of the day when they bring the childrne out for collection (and if you can't be there for afternoon pick-up then you telephone or text, and they call back during the day).

TBH I would be more concerned about the old system that the OP describes than the new one - I have visions not so much of paedos walking in, but of unaccompanied children walking out.

...Pagwatch....your DC's school sounds suspiciously like my DC's school....

Yes lovesdogs I shall put it on my to do list if you promise me to think of a less boring name .

This is my last post IABU I am over tired and got caught up in the mass hysteria of playground gossip .

I don't get out much anymore .

I can understand the OP being upset because it is a change, and parents get used to behaving in a certain way, and may even have chosen the school for its involvement of parents. It is annoying if a school changes rules with no explanation.

But I do not think parents should be in school. If you need to see a teacher, you should wait by a school office or other area that children are not using. If you arrive early with your child, the same should apply.

I do not agree with:

1. Parents in the breakfast club. If parents are leaving children at a breakfast club and going off to work or wherever then this must be OFSTED registered childcare. My DD uses this and it is expensive. I do not expect random parents to be in the same room for no reason, when I am not there and it is meant to be proper, inspected childcare. We have had problems at our school of parents coming in and making inappropriate remarks in front of children. As a result, parents are not allowed to enter the breakfast club even to drop off. They drop off at the door.

1. Parents in an area where children change for PE. This is clearly not on. I have never heard of this in any school. The school should make arrangements for children who have any difficulty getting ready for PE.

1. If the breakfast club finishes at 8.50 then the school day starts at 8.50. If my child was at your school she would have to leave the breakfast cub and go to a cloakroom/her classroom. There shouldn't be other adults milling about anywhere other than an adult area like the school office foyer.

At our school, adults arriving early with children wait in the foyer if the weather is bad (we didn't used to be even allowed that, but now are, thanks to a new Head). Unaccompanied children go to breakfast club. When the bell goes all the children outside line up at the right door (even the 3 year olds in Nursery) and go in without a parent. I can't imagine how disruptive it must be for unaccompanied children to have adults distracting the teacher and taking up space outside the classrooms.

There is no way I would send my child to a school as chaotic as yours sounds. It does sound more like a social club for parents than a school. I can still sympathise with you, as I can see sudden, inexplicable change is annoying. Ultimately though, primary schools are a VIP club; you have to be under 12 to be a member.

Thinking about it having parents helping change their kid whilst other kids around are getting changed does sound like a child protection nightmare. I wouldn't have wanted non Disclosure checked adults observing my kids getting changed.
It's unlikely that a paedophile would use this as a way to get their kicks, but it seems an unnecessary risk for a school to take when you need a disclosure certificate for so much stuff involving fully clothed children. I had to get a Disclosure form for just accompanying kids on the walking bus.

I don't think parents should be helping 4 yr olds to take their school clothes off and shorts and T shirt on.Why isn't the school encouraging them to di it themselves.Otherwise I would send him in PE kit.
Never seen people take prams into school.they either leave them outside and get another mum to keep an eye out.Or they unstrap the baby.
I don't think the 10 mins before school time is the right time to be talking to the teacher when she is trying to meet and greet 29 others.I was so annoyed the other day when I took DD and wanted to tell the teacher about some antibiotic she had to take at lunchtime and some other daft mare of a mother was yapping on for 10 minutes about how her DS should form letters.jRing the secretary to make an after school appointment.

Go on Flirt, I'll give you that one

Hahahahaha. Yes, definately out of focus - I fuzzed it up until it came out at just about enough of a resemblance to allow me to be found by strangers in busy bars

(apologies for hijack BTW)

and [phew]