School Security, How far does yours go?

[Angeliz]

Hello all
well we have been given a few pages of new rules since Christmas about safeguarding children in our school.
We have to sign in and wear a badge, that was made clear.

Since then however it seems to be excessive.
Don't get me wrong, i'm all for security but now we aren't allowed in at all unless we sign in, put our car reg and are escorted to our destination and then stay there.
I was going to watch my 4 year old in an after school club when it became that clear.
There is a little lobby also where the Mums used to wait with younger children while we waitied for older children to come out. (There was always a teacher there), now we aren't allowed in at all.
I understand the need for security but i feel it has gone so far the other way most Parents feel so unwelcome. Also the children (as young as 4) were told to approach adults and ask where their badge was if they didn't have one, (which confused dd aged 4 as her teacher didn't have one) I don't want them wrapped in cotton wool but i also don't want them scared at school or paraniod about every adult!

So, is your school like this?

What? They are asking small children to approach adult strangers?

And what's your car reg got to do with it? (I haven't got a car, so would I even be allowed in?)

Has some incident in particular precipitated this? It's certainly a lot more than my dds' school does (sign in, badge, office staff have to let you properly 'in' with keyfob).

Yes, they were given an assembly where all the children were told if they see an adult in the corridor they should ask them where their badge was.

Angeliz- Yes our school has stepped up their safeguarding policies too.

The reason behind it is partly because of the backlash of the Vanessa George case, staff and visitors not allowed to have mobile phones on anywhere in the building and must have them locked away in their lockers. Visitors must hand them in to the office before being allowed into the building. In some cases, where visitors will be working closely with children, they will be asked to show they have a CRB and if they dont they will be escorted everywhere around the school.

The bigger reason is because there have apparently been a few schools of late, being placed in special measures by Ofsted due to their safeguarding policies, so schools are making sure that there are no holes in their own policies. We had somebody around our school reviewing the safeguarding policy last week.

The Head told me that apparently Ofsted inspectors will be looking particularly closely at school safety in visits taking place at the moment, and a school otherwise Outstanding could be downgraded if an inspector spots a safety failing.

Thus schools are running ragged trying to make sure every base is covered. Some measures are necessary, but some are OTT. There is a nice garden area in dd's school, fenced off with lock, with a very shallow pond in it, for nature study. The Head says the pond must go immediately.

dc's primary now has the badges for visitors which I think is fair enough and you have to go into the office and sign in (I don't drive and walk to school so the car registration is out!) ... (have also had to be CRB checked as I help out with literacy as a volunteer 2x a week)

The getting children to ask about badges is weird

All non staff have to go via reception (locked door with buzzer access then to get into the school you have to get through another (unlocked) door.

It doesn't seem that over the top to me (tbh its harder to get into dh's London office)

Our recent OFSTED did look closely at safeguarding, but they had no problem with our pond in the wild garden, or with staff carrying mobile phones - presumably this is to stop staff taking videos of the children, but seeing that creating multimedia presentations is an important part of the ICT curriculum, I would have thought they could easily use one of the many video cameras that are freely available in the school, should they be so inclined...

We do expect everyone to sign in (but we've done that for years anyway, it's necessary to know who's in the building in case of fire alarms) and give their car number if they have parked in the car park (which is also useful because we have a tiny car park & latecomers usually end up blocking in someone)

Everyone also wears a badge, including staff, though only staff are supposed to approach strangers without a badge, children should just tell a staff member.

Schools cannot get a satisfactory or higher now if their safeguarding policy fails OFTSED and this is VERY easy to do. So all schools are tightening up

It just feels so sad. All these measures are, i can SEE for safety but it feels like we are now the enemy.
I find it so sad that every adult is seen as a threat and that because of tiny threat from a minority of sickos, all Parents are seen as potential what? paedophiles, kidnappers?

The pendulum has now swung so far the other way that it feels like a prison. (and i know alot of the lovely teachers feel the same as they've told me they feel all their effort at building relationships with Parents are now being stopped by these measures)

at my dd's school the doors are locked at 8.55 sharp so if your late you have to buzz in at the main gate.

there are teachers/TA's at the entrance to the reception/Yr1.

You need to inform the school if anyone other than yourself is picking the kiddies up (which I can understand totally)

They have also now put 2-3 Community Police Officers at the main gate!! But this does have a good reason, as there have been a few near misses of late with cars and little kiddies so they are making sure that parents dont park on the yellow lines/hatchings and making sure that everyone behaves themselves!

Our school is having a crackdown on visitors wearing visitors' stickers (as I am in there twice a week I am doing my best to use up the supply).

AFAIK the children haven#t been asked/told to question adults without stickers, but teachers have checked I am wearing mine, and also sent someone without one back to the office.

We have keypad entry for staff and students. Visitors, which includes parents, have to sign in, wear a badge, and be escorted. Car reg is recorded in the visitors' book (not as much for safeguarding but in case they need to move their car).

Any adult working in school unsupervised has to have a CRB check from the school.

I concur that OFSTED have this as the #1 priority at the moment. Any lapse will send an outstanding school into special measures.

Interesting - the school I work out require everyone to bring in ID and they will only let you in if they know in advance you are coming and you have Id on you - not sure if this applies to parents as well as outside agencies - I think you can wait in reception without ID.

I visited an 'outstanding' school on Tues and was panicing because I only had my ID badge from school, had forgotton to bring a passport or anything. Got to reception, receptionist welcomed me and told me where the meeting room was - no signing in, no id, unaccompanied in school - I was stunned. Only had to sign in at meeting room for fire regs.

OP - the security at your school sounds exactly the sames as at my DC school, and to be honest, I don't have a problem with it. It's very similar to the security expected when visiting other offices for work, you have to sign in, give your reg number (if using their car park) and wear ID.

I think it's ok to encourage children to question why visitors are not wearing ID. Although, I think they should inform a teacher, not tackle the stanger!

thanks for replies.
looks like it's a pretty general sweep then, just feels sad that it used to feel like such a welcoming school and now it doesn't.
I agree with security, just feels a bit excessive.
I appreciate the replies

Was looking at local schools' Ofsted reports after posting on this thread and the one in the village next to us which was grade 2 in 2007 had an inspection at the end of last year and is now in special measures. A lot of it seems to be due to failures in the safeguarding children section (although not all).

I have thought Nypmhadora's post seemed a little over the top but now see it is not.

Agree with the others on this thread - I'm a governor and can confirm that Ofsted have put the wind up all schools, and badging looks likely to become standard practice for anyone who doesn't want to fail their inspection. We cannot afford to look like we aren't taking safeguarding seriously.

Just got these last few messages.
I do agree with badges, of course we can't let strangers wander round schools.
I just wonder if schools have a bit of leeway to interpret the rules. I think our school has took it to the extreme. No-one feels welcome anymore, it's not like Parents and teachers are working together anymore. I know that 'one rule for all' may be easier to control, it just feels sad that i've known most of these teachers for years and now they have an embarrassed feel when a Parent needs to enter the school.
I am also just pissed off tbh that my 4 year old has been told to challenge strangers.
I just want them to have a childhood, not feel it's their responsibility to safeguard the school and look out for strangers.

I work as a safeguarding trainer and consultant (I am also a Social Worker in Child Protection). Whilst it may seem excessive at times, we need to create a culture where all adults think about safety as part of their daily lives especially those responsible for other people's children. In the UK we do not have a fantastic record in comparison to other countries. Out of 21 industrialise countries assessed by Unicef, the UK ranked in the bottom third for child health & safety, the quality of children's relationships with their parents & peers, and several other indicators. You only neeed to look at the figures on teenage pregnancy to see evidence of this. Yes we have become bureacratic and it's about to get more so with the new Vetting & Barring Scheme. However, once we get used to working within this new culture, we will all adapt and hopefully avoid some of the tragic incidents that make front page news (Dunblane, Soham murders and too many more). I work in the London area and can be contacted on [email protected] if anyone is interested.

Thanks for that Rundle, it's not that i'm against 'taking care' around our kids, i myself have been vetted many times as i help out at swimming and trips and i am glad they did it. I expected them to.
My problem now though, is that as a Parent, i feel like the enemy. I am not the enemy, i'm not a paedophile, a murderer or indeed out to harm any children. Now i know people may come back and say, but how do WE know, we have to paotect the children first. Well i think that we are sending children a very bad message by getting them to assume EVERYONE is a danger and out to get them.
Would anyone not agree that the pendulum has swung too far the other way?
(If you look at any of my past posts btw, you'll see i would probably be classed as 'over-protective', so i suprize myself at these thoughts)
My children don't get left anywhere, don't do sleep-overs, i know where they are at ALL times. That's MY safegaurding them but not at the expense of their friends and happiness, i fit all that in.
So why can't schools come up with safegaurding policies that don't make Parents feel like murderers being escorted through schools.
I wonder what thje statistics were years ago when schools, i presume, were't so secure, were lots of children harmed and abducted then? Or was there more of a family, community feel, schools and Parents working together for the kids and not this Us and THEM attitude.

Maybe i'm just deluded!
Or maybe living in a different country for a long time has opened me up to a different way of life than this...

Also if you talk about the quality of children's relationships with their Parents being a problem in this country, shouldn't we be encouraging more contact and input between Parents and schools?

Only one entrance point for adults - be that parents or visitors - you have to ring a bell where the secretary checks cctv and buzzes you in.

Our school has recently spent £25k on an extra fence (inside the main fence) along with heavier,self-closing gates and intercoms. Its beginning to resemble Colditz and all this to satisfy OFSTED's safeguarding requirements. The parents don't want it and, reading between the lines, neither do the staff. Does anybody else think OFSTED has got too powerful? How do we make government understand that this has gone too far?