Teachers: what’s the protocol for you when you need to leave site in an emergency?

[darkskybrightday]

Difficult afternoon. Got a phone call from DD1’s primary school that she’d been sick Luckily it was my lunch time, so I could take the call. However, the kids were literally coming in from the playground / field at this point.

Our system is: go to HR office and get a form. Then get your LM to sign it then the HT or the DHT, then back to HR. Lots of frantic running about, couldn’t find HT, one of my colleagues on PPA went to find him for me when I taught. Finally got cover ten minutes before the end of the lesson and got to DD maybe fifteen minutes before the end of the school day. Don’t think they were impressed.

It’s such a stupid system. What do other teachers do?

I had alternative care planned. In a medical emergency my parents stepped in. Or my then dh would go. Leaving the classroom was the last resort.

That does seem unnecessarily protracted of your school.

Could you daughter’s dad not have got her?

I'd have explained the situation to DC school and told them either I'd find someone to collect or would be there as soon as I can. Then pulled in a favour from a neighbour.

Working school term time, I am often in a position to do favours for other parents and do it especially for this reason.

Why do you need to do a form? I’ve worked in a secondary (HR), we let the HOD know, we find someone to cover that lesson and the teacher gets to leave asap. Might expect the teacher to get online when they get home to send some lesson stuff.

Thanks all. @fridaynightzzz i don’t know tbh - just the procedure?

DH can’t actually drive at the moment (medical rather than banned or anything!) so can’t get her! It’s been a challenging day!

It varies by school. I worked in one that was horrible in that way. But tbh they were horrible in other ways too... All the others it's been "Oh no! Go get her!"

He could get a taxi

I had a dh and a dm who could do it. Regardless of the protocol (and yours sounds like a nightmare!) it’s always going to be an issue leaving during the school day when you are teaching. My school is much smaller so on the odd occasion that people have needed to leave we just juggle cover and they go.

I'm a teacher. I'd speak to the cover team and they'd let me know if any cover staff were free. If not, they'd email all staff and ask somebody to volunteer to step in. It has never taken more than 15 minutes to arrange emergency cover. Occasionally it's pretty instant. We are a team. We really around and the admin can wait.

Tbf if he would then have to take a vomiting child home in the taxi, I can see what that would be avoided!

Fair point

Knowing I was a teacher, the dcs' school would do their best not to call me.

In your case, your dh could have taken on the 'working out to get her whilst he can't drive' scenario. Obviously we don't know all the ins and outs of how far from school he was, who else lives close enough to be of help, etc., but schools know how difficult it is to release teachers (particularly in Primary schools) so I would be a very last resort in terms of them calling.

My teacher just left when there was a family emergency, and sent a kid to get another member of staff. But that was in the late 90s, and schools seemed far less chaotic. What you say sounds awful-filling out a form, and no staff available, when you need to leave urgently? But they need a better system than that-teachers are low paid, so not as likely as some other professions to have nannies/a house husband or wife available, and sometimes they will have emergencies.

We are a tiny school so procedure is verbally let the head/deputy know, sort cover ad hoc then grab my bag and go.

lessons wise there’s no pressure, just do whatever we can eg I always have a Christmas /easter/ Mother’s Day card activity printed and two stand alone English lesson Ls printed and trimmed that I can use, worst case scenario they get the laptops out and do TTRS for 40mins till someone sorts something

i think that’s easier in primary because I have them al day so can always catch up missed lessons later in term or combine page/computing in the past week etc

Your school’s system sounds mental

Depends on the school. We have a similar system to yours, except after HR have seen the form we have to take it to the cover supervisor. They make it as difficult aa possible to leave.

Luckily I have a DH who wfh so don’t have to do it but I feel sorry for the mums (and it is always the mums) that do.

This is how it would work in my school (not massive - about 800 students, very visible SLT).

My watch would be going mad with phonecalls (not allowed phones in sight).

I would grab the nearest passing person to stand with my class while I go and find out what’s happening.

If I need to leave, email reception asking for on call teacher to come to class and that I need to leave. Reception would find the person in charge of cover that day and get it sorted.

I would either be able to leave a note of cover, email it in or one of my colleagues would set it for me.

Sign out and leave.

At secondary you won't get that grace - office staff just call the number under "mother" even if "father" is the first on the list, and as the schools are much bigger they don't know or care what jobs the parents have. At least that's my experience.

I'm surprised so many posters have parents who'd go and get their children! Has everyone moved back to their childhood town after university and lived there ever since? I know we all live in bubbles to a degree (in the sense of knowing/ being aware of people similar to ourselves) but I don't know many people who went to university and moved back to teach, I thought that was a thing of the distant past! I suppose it's practical if you have that kind of parents...

When I worked in a school my chil being sick would not be considered an emergency I would have been expected to find someone else to collect her! I only left early due to my illness when another staff member contacted reception to arrange cover

This isn't the case at our school, numbers get called in priority order.
I know at least one pupil that has a message pop up not to ring Mum (she is a teacher).

Procedure is to see the head, deputy or head's pa to let them know what is going on. Try and get someone in the department to cover, let the cover manager know this, or ask her to get cover if that hasn't been possible.
It isn't a long process as SLT are all available on headsets.

In our school I directly contact the admin person who sorts the cover. She would tell me whether or not someone is free right now. If there isn’t she would try to get someone on slt to cover, or someone with a “blank” code (school policy is that they generally don’t ask people on ppa unless absolutely needed)

In this situation with the school calling, I actually could answer it and just tell the class it was an emergency, and take the call in the corridor. I once has it though when they kept calling as I was struggling to leave, and no one came to cover for almost an hour. The y9 class were like “go! We’ll be fine!!” - Erm, no! Problem is it also takes time to get to the car and then 30 min drive!

My parents would in this situation in theory if available but they live just over an hour away so not necessarily more helpful. DH could usually be of help but his job can be hard to leave in different ways. We do have some local friends I could ask but I know they would be worried about all their kids getting the bug so I would try to avoid that!

Luckily we have lots of TAs and HLTAs in my primary. So I would leave the TA in charge for 5 mins while I spoke to the head (or deputy). They would check the cover and send someone to my class. If no HLTAs available, a fellow teacher on PPA or management release would step in - they would get their time paid back. Otherwise, the deputy or head would take my class.
I could be out the building within 5-10 minutes in most cases.

Secondary school teacher - I tell HOD, nearest available teacher in staff room is sent to my class. I jot down lesson titles for remaining lessons of the day then leave immediately. Someone in my team will make sure textbooks are in the room. HOD deals with talking to cover.

No one gets funny about losing non-contact time to help out a colleague in an unexpected situation, we all help each other out in short term so we can leave immediately until cover steps in with a plan for next lessons.

Emergency absence at all the secondary schools I've worked at has involved ringing HR or the heads PA to say I need to leave. They arrange cover quickly and then I go. Depending on the year group I might ask a colleague to keep an eye on them so I can go. Also depending on the emergency I might hang around and write some cover out, e.g. Dd's school closed because the water was off less urgent Only need to do forms for planned absence.

Same here, though at times availability of anyone not teaching could make leaving tricky and it could mean combining two classes (which would just make a larger than ideal class rather than a class of 60!). I have two primary aged children and have never left during the teaching day though as my husband always has.