Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to just march into the classroom and take my kids ?

398 replies

princessparty · 02/02/2010 17:07

I am SO fed up of them being late out of school when we have to rush off to afterschool clubs.They are supposed to come out at 3.30 and we can just make the 4-6 yo gymnastics session if we leave at 3.30 on the dot.
So today i just walked into each of their classrooms and said 'excuse me Mr X I need to take Y now.' in a pleasant way.I think I'm going to do it every week now
I mean we get them to school on time,they should get them ou on time.

OP posts:
BlackJackScroggins · 04/02/2010 19:03

And just as an aside, I have always found the minutes waiting very useful, arranging playdates, catching up with folk....

Goblinchild · 04/02/2010 19:10

Odd that you should mention an umbrella, one parent was whinging this evening about there being no shelter for waiting parents. And how she was soaking wet.
So I suggested that she bring an umbrella, or at least a coat. As I stood there in my waterproof with my hood up.
Yes, the class were out on time, but some parents have fluff for brains.

sarah293 · 04/02/2010 19:11

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

BethNoireNewNameForPeachy · 04/02/2010 19:12

Ian't have an umbrella (no free hands) but yes,a waterproof coat and a hood does it every time for me

chocices · 04/02/2010 19:13

If you can't get to the 4-6yo class, wait until your child is old enough to go to the 6-8yo class, presuming this is later.

Problem solved. And your child may still earn her millions at being a gymnast (although haven't heard that this is a highly paid profession).

gorionine · 04/02/2010 19:23

Been picking children up after school for 8 years and I have another 8 to go surely it does not take 5 years f picking up children after school to realise that they are not usually out on the dot when the bell goes?

Goblinchild, I do complain there is no shelter for parents, even though I wear a raincoat, I simply hate standing still under the rain, really do hate it!

Original poster
princessparty · 04/02/2010 19:25

the planners won't let our school build a shelter

OP posts:
teamcullen · 04/02/2010 19:44

I went to pick up DS1 today at 3.15pm.

3.30pm he still hadnt come out so I went to the reception and asked if they knew where my DS was. They told me he had gone to a local sports centre and should already be back so maybe they were stuck in traffic.

3.45pm DS arrived back at school. He had actually be chosen to represent his school by going to meet and talk to the Minister of Sport. I was so proud of him to have been given the opertunity to be an ambassitor for his school.

And to think my little angel could have missed ballet

FrameyMcFrame · 04/02/2010 19:48

Don?t' get me started.

I wish my esteemed colleagues would get off their coffee drinking asses in the morning and get the kids in on time; they're not the only ones with work to do!
A few minutes here and there is ok, 10 minutes consistently is not polite.
Those few minutes in the morning can make the difference between getting to work on time or being late for some.
Most working parents live life on a very tight time schedule.

Why shouldn't the teachers get the kids out on time anyway? Are parents so unimportant that they deserve to be kept waiting for 10 minutes? Good time keeping is a life skill that should be taught in school, respect for others means not keeping people waiting.

gorionine · 04/02/2010 19:50

Did the school not tell you before the events that the children would not be in school, teamcullen? At ours we have to sign a permission slip for any activity that involves getting further away than the school playground.

gorionine · 04/02/2010 19:50

Well done on your DS by the way!!

Goblinchild · 04/02/2010 19:54

Back to the point that teaching time ends at 3.30pm in some schools, and coats, lunchboxes, bags and the rest happen after teaching time ends.
There is a prescribed time allocation for each subject in KS1 and KS2 and so taking 10 minutes off each day adds up to...counts on own fingers, toes, borrows DD's digits, adds DS's fingers....50 minutes a week.
So you can have them out at 3.30 if you can get dropping humanities or art from the curriculum past the government and Ofsted.

FrameyMcFrame · 04/02/2010 19:57

Back to the point that if teaching time ends at 3.30, why not say pick up time is 3.40?

Then parents don't have to wait every day.

Goblinchild · 04/02/2010 20:00

So that the parents that saunter in 30 mins late after finishing their important stuff are only 20 mins late.

gorionine · 04/02/2010 20:00

Goblin, I think a lot of the pro "out bang on time" do not realise that even it the theacher finished on the dot it does not mean that the children will be out on the dot.

One of my DCs for example, would need the teacher to let them out at 10 past to make sure they are out at 3.30 because they just chat and chat for England at the end of the school day. I actually think it is really nice because it means they enjoy school enough not to just want to get out ASAP!

Goblinchild · 04/02/2010 20:04

It is interesting that when you stand there saying 'Come on, hurry up, your parents are getting wet, it's raining very hard...'
how little effect it has on the chatting, fussing and social arrangements of the children. Maybe they know who will get the blame?

gorionine · 04/02/2010 20:10

Yep, I think you are right there, if anything, it might even slow them down a bit more, just because they can!

FrameyMcFrame · 04/02/2010 20:10

Gah!!!

If you have all the time in the world to hang about then that is great for you.

Others need to get to and from work and pick up other kids.

I dont mind a few minutes here and there but when it's 10 mins every day, why not change the school end time?

And Goblinchild, I agree that it is sad to see the children who are left after all the others have gone because their parents are not on time.
But this is no reason to make the rest of us late for what we have to do next.

gorionine · 04/02/2010 20:12

""why not change the school end time?"" because it won't make any difference, the children will still come out a few minutes after the new time!

FrameyMcFrame · 04/02/2010 20:21

Yes you're probably right gorionine, and at worst it is a mildly irritating problem we have to live with.
I would never march into a class and take my kids out, unless it was a dire emergency.

SpringHeeledJack · 04/02/2010 20:25

I think fair dos, sometimes it's bound to take kids longer to get ready, and teachers longer to rally them all. But then I reckon by the same token maybe schools should be a bit more understanding- eg about lateness with kids in the mornings- like maybe ask if they have a good reason to be late, rather than shoving a Late Card into their trembling little paws and giving them the Dead Eye?

I think parents and teachers should do their best to ensure school starts and finishes on time. This is an issue that- I'll admit- never much bothered me as I hung about in the chill, but the flaming the OP has got on here has rather got me back up. I know it's very ruuuude to march into a classroom, but I think some people are being a leetle bit precious about "extra" ten minuteses of learning here and there.

...not to mention the sad and inevitable fact that, the one time you think "ooh, I'm overrunning by 10 minutes because of the open heart surgery I just performed on that tiny baby/asylum seeker family I just sprung from Yarl's Wood/drowning kittens I just rescued from the Thames- but never mind, the teacher always finishes a bit late" you can bet your big fat arse that your kids will be sat in the office looking cowed and the Deputy Head will be glaring at you over her monocle

SpringHeeledJack · 04/02/2010 20:29

...actually what Framey said, about four posts up. Everyone should be nice and polite and punctual, and then teachers will stop fuming about ignorant parents and parents about snotty teachers.

MrsC2010 · 04/02/2010 20:33

Just nice and polite would be a starting request from this teacher! (That is directed at frustrating days and not at anyone on MN byt the way. )

Goblinchild · 04/02/2010 21:12

Now I really want a monocle...

StayingDavidTennantsGirl · 04/02/2010 22:39

Framey - you are making a good point and that what is needed is for the school to communicate effectively with the parents.

If it were made clear from the word 'Go' that the teaching time ends, for example, at 3.30pm, following which the children will have to get organised with coats, lunchboxes, bookbags, letters home etc, then parents will know that their children will be coming out closer to 3.40pm, and can make their after school arrangements accordingly.

But the way to achieve this communication is not by rudeness and arrogance as demonstrated by the OP, but by contacting the school and discussing the issue politely. Ask what time the teaching time finishes, and ask that it be made clear to the parents that this is the time the teaching finishes, not the time they can expect their children to arrive in the playground.

And if you have a specific issue, then discuss it with the teacher - princesspetty could have explained her timing problems to her dds' teachers, and asked if they could come out first, at 3.30pm on tuesdays - she's far more likely to get understanding and cooperation that way.

If I were the head of a school where a parent was regularly barging into their dcs' classes to get them out before the rest, to suit themselves, I would be banning said parent from the playground, and insisting that they waited in reception for their children to be brought to them. Now that would delay her!!