My 5yo was left alone outside the school

[EezyOozy]

Hi,

I’m going for a meeting with the headteacher of my daughters school later on today and wanted to be prepared. I have already written complaint via email which has triggered this meeting.

Last Friday. We had quite severe snow and ice and I couldn’t get my car out of my property for a few minutes… Long story short I was a few minutes late for pick up. I am never normally late, I don’t think I have ever been late before … need to make that very clear! This was a one off due to extreme weather.

When I arrived at the school, my five-year-old was standing outside on the pavement by herself, crying. There were other people around, but nobody that really knows my daughter, and certainly nobody had noticed her standing there, everybody was just leaving.

There is a different teacher on a Friday to who is there from the rest of the week.

It appears this teacher had led the children down the steps and out of the school, not bothered to check who had an adult there to collect them, and who didn’t.

She then went back up the steps, through the gate, through another gate, back into the playground towards the classroom (round the corner, and behind a wall), which is where I eventually found her standing chatting.

she hadn’t gone completely back into the classroom, but she may as well have done.

She was completely out of my daughters sight and through a gate that cannot be opened by a child from the other side. And was also behind a wall/around the corner.

nothing that bad happened, apart from my daughter, being quite shaken and upset… but it could have done. I did try and phone the office when I realised I was going to be slightly late, but nobody answered. What if I had been 20 minutes late, or had an accident and not turned up at all… these things happen. Not to mention the extreme weather and ice… What if my daughter had tried to walk home by herself or wondered off somewhere else.

My main issues are that the teacher did not check whether or not a parent or guardian was there to collect each child. And simply left her on the pavement outside of the school! The second issue is that she then removed herself … completely out of sight and earshot , and had no idea that my daughter was standing there… Surely they should wait close by?

I’m wondering what to say to the head and how seriously this should be taken.

Do I have a right to ask for the schools, written policies about pick up procedure / what should happen if a child is not collected on time?

I’m worried I’m going to be palmed off , but I simply don’t trust this teacher at all anymore! When I confronted the teacher she just said “oh sorry… I didn’t realise!”

yes of course you didn’t realise… You didn’t do any checks or bother supervise the children properly, so how could you possibly have realised!

This is a significant breach of safeguarding. The school will have a complaints procedure. Please use that (the meeting with the head will be the first step) because if you bypass that, you will just be directed to the complaints policy for the school. If you really want to ensure change, you have the right to speak to the governors who will hold the headteacher to account for ensuring that they have safe handovers to parents and all staff are trained properly to ensure that they do this correctly.

Hi OP. I just thought of this thread again - did you send her in last Friday in the end? Hope it has all calmed down now x

Hi, thank you for asking. I just popped on to provide an update. So after my meeting with the head who appeared to be taking it very seriously, I send a couple of emails (are there cctv cameras, is this teacher rostered to teach this Friday) which were ignored. Also, having known about the safeguarding breach on Monday morning, the school did not send around an email about pick up process (eg that all younger children must be collected from inside the playground) until Friday. Myself and another couple of mums aware of the incident with my daughter emailed on Thursday to chase this and only on Friday did it happen. I have been promised updates from the head (eg about her investigations into the fact that this class teacher has lied) by set times (E.g “before this weekend) and the updates never come. As a result, and after giving the school a good 10 days to provide me with reassurance, I have raised a level one frontline complaint with the council. Where I live they have to fully investigate and have a formal meeting with you within 5 working days, which takes us to next Wed. The schools closes on Thurs for Xmas. I didn’t want it getting to the Xmas hols without anybody fully addressing my concerns.

My complaint had three parts - the safeguarding breach itself, the schools failure to tell sound to me properly or tighten up pick-up processes for several days… and the fact that the teacher has blatantly lied (actually says none of it happened) and everything seems to be carrying on as normal.

The teacher on question has been in the last two Fridays, since it happened. Everything seems to be carrying on as if nothing happened! I did keep my daughter off each Friday but my 4yo has been unwell anyway so my 5yo kissing 3 hrs of school on a Friday hasn’t been a huge thing.

I did email the school and explain both Fridays that I was keeping my child off, because I was not happy to send her into a teacher who is unable to/unmotivated to keep her safe and is clearly dishonest, in the absence of any proper reassurance about either point. No idea what will happen next, but it’s been pretty horrible to navigate.

I got a pretty curt/sharp email from the headteacher saying that she had received my formal complaint… Even though I told her, I was going to send it… that wasn’t fun.

(Apologies for typos, I think it all makes sense)

I forgot to say - a level 1 frontline complaint is still dealt with by the headteacher. She just has to deal with it by a deadline. And I can escalate to level 2 if not happy. I really really don’t want to have to do that but I’ve a feeling that I’m never going to be told whether or not the teacher has admitted to the incident / has been disciplined / warned etc. Perhaps for confidentiality? If the school wont be completely clear with me on that point, I’m not sure what I will do because it’s galling and disturbing that she’s lied and appears to be carrying on Scot free!!

Wow!

How the school have failed to deal with this serious incident is VERY telling.

I’d 100% continue with the formal complaint however I’d also be moving schools. This lot are clowns.

The incident happened on 1/12 and it is now 17/12 and I am pretty much in the dark.

@JustAGirlScotland I have thought this. “Am I going to have to move schools?”. It’s taken my daughters ages to settle so this would be a disaster…. But if I am fobbed off next week, or they say she lied but they won’t do anything …. Or they never tell me if she admitted it or not… how can I carry on?!!

@EezyOozy I taught in primary schools for 20 years. The senior leadership team sets the tone and quality of the school.

This HT is clearly incompetent. They were not manning the gates (which is bad enough! I’ve NEVER seen that in all my years of teaching). Then, when a serious incident occurs she fails to take immediate action!

I appreciate it’s not an easy decision, however she is clueless. I’d be out.

@JustAGirlScotland thanks for your perspective, it really means a lot. I think because of the dishonesty, this has been completely bewildering and confusing. I totally get what you’re saying, and I have had the same thought to myself.

My two little girls have made some good friends and I’d feel so so sorry for them if they had to move. I know it sounds over the top, but I’ve honestly felt really quite tearful about all of this over the past few days. I shift from tearful, to livid, to just completely confused and baffled!

Re the head teacher’s reply to you, there are likely to be standard letters that are sent once a formal complaint is made. I’m in the middle of a complaint as a governor and the process is quite formal in terms of communication and process.
Make sure you know the complaints process fully and know exactly what you want to achieve from it.

I've followed your thread from the beginning and am so frustrated on your behalf with their lack of response.

I don't think you could have been more fair or reasonable in your approach or expectations and despite having ample opportunity to both communicate effectively and act decisively, they have done neither

If they take such serious breaches this flippantly, I would worry about what other things are going unchecked in this school

You did the right thing and I hope this puts a rocket up their behinds!

How is Scotland more relaxed and how do you know this? I'm in scotland and no it wouldn't be allowed at my kids school.

@MyNameIsErinQuin the first part of the heads reply seems neutral and formulaic.

The last bit wasn’t - it was a reference the fact that I had said “I’m aware of other parents having had similar issues”, and other parents then emailing in to query why the pick up policy had not been updated yet.

it went something like “I am very disappointed that you have chosen to discuss this with other parents rather than with me*. I will not have the reputation of my staff discussed within the school community”.

*after several unresponded to emails

I replied and said that , as previously advised , other people were witnesses so were already aware… that other parents had mentioned similar (although less serious) issues with the same teacher.
(I didn’t say this but just to be clear - I haven’t been going round telling every Tom dick and Harry and I certainly haven’t said anything not-factual!!)

Re what I would like to achieve. I have said I would like:

the school to reassure me that a similar safeguarding breach cannot / will not happen again,

that my child is in the care of teachers who are not only able/motivated to keep them safe, but crucially are a fully transparent and honest about any incidents that take place.

does that sound reasonable?

That person isn't fit to teach or have any responsibility towards children. This is extremely serious. You could have phoned police at that moment and she could have been charged with child neglect or something along those lines. If a parent left their child alone like that there would be serious consequences. With all the horrible things that happen to children, you'd think it would be taken more seriously.

That looks reasonable. They will say that staff are trained, safeguarding training requirements met etc etc etc.

OP - I would also ask them to confirm what improvements they’ve made to their handover procedures that will ensure this doesn’t happen again.

If I was being really arsey I would say that I would suggest she redirects her disappointment to the staff member responsible for this safeguarding breach and that you will discuss the risk posed to your child with whomever you so choose. I’d rein it in though until I saw how she planned to proceed, but the fact that she has attempted to deflect this is concerning.

@MyNameIsErinQuin thank you. Regarding the second point about needing to reassure me that staff are honest and transparent (when one of them has clearly lied) …are they likely to just “management speak” at me (and mention policies etc). ?

Because what I really need-and I hope I have made this clear to them - is a more exacting response about the fact that this teacher has definitely lied. I want to know if she has continued to lie or is now admitting what happened. In either case, it’s not great! The part I’m not sure about is how they could actually reassure me that the people teaching my children are honest, short of actually getting rid of this teacher (which, of course I haven’t requested, and I never anticipated things would actually get to this point…).

But given that she has lied - and they know she has - what can I really say to me? I’m not sure how they can resolve this part of my complaint if the teacher carries on like nothing has happened!

I’d rein it in though until I saw how she planned to proceed, but the fact that she has attempted to deflect this is concerning.

yes, I found it concerning for this reason. “Why on earth deflect on to me. Might there be more of this to come?!”

Have you escalated this to level 2 yet? If not, I think you should and get your local Councillor involved - this deflection and slow response is unacceptable.

@SirChenjins not yet as the deadline for the level 1 is either tues pm or wed am coming.

Is your local Councillor aware?

She then went back up the steps, through the gate, through another gate, back into the playground towards the classroom (round the corner, and behind a wall), which is where I eventually found her standing chatting.
She was completely out of my daughter’s sight and through a gate that cannot be opened by a child from the other side. And was also behind a wall/around the corner

there are a couple of people who clocked what was going on when I was standing at the bottom of the steps looking around , loudly saying “WHERE IS THE TEACHER ??!!!!” repeatedly. at one point another mum (child in different class) said “EezyOozy I think that could be her over there

These two posts rather contradict each other. First you say the teacher was completely out of sight up steps, through gates and round a corner, then you say another parent saw her whilst you were at the steps - so she wasn’t out of sight.
This could be why you're getting nowhere with the Head. If the teacher is being investigated, which of course she should be, then she will require Union support which takes time. I’m afraid that you will not be informed of the outcome of any investigation. It is confidential.

@SirChenjins no, not yet. I hadn’t thought about that to be honest. I’ve been on tenterhooks waiting to see what the outcome of this complaint is.

@Soontobe60 not contradictory
at all.

The other parent was standing up high in the playground. There is a retaining wall. I couldn’t see the teacher from where I was standing due to the layout / steps / fence / corner of a building involved . I could draw if for you if you like. Rest assured I made it very clear to the head where the teacher was standing and that she couldn’t be seen by me and certainly not a small child.