To be clear: parents did NOT previously escort children to the door of actual classroom, only to one of the 5 doors to the school complex. So no congestion of buggies/people near the classrooms themselves, and children were just as independent previously about sorting out their stuff when they arrived at classroom.
New system was adopted, supposedly, because "some" (god knows who) parents wanted to talk to teachers before school each morning.
Everyone says they hate it because ...
Many feel obligated to wait until their child (typically KS1, but some insecure older children, too) actually enters the doors, so it detains many of us (some are now late to work as a result).
The children's day starts 10 minutes later (I know because I now find I have ten minutes extra before we 'need' to be at school). I benefit from the later start (although I presume it means 5-10 minutes off the children's school day each morning), but otherwise I dislike this system because:
The children get bored waiting so long and start kicking each other in line and otherwise messing about (in my observation). Teacher too busy chatting (sometimes with other teachers?) to get on top of the boisterousness.
Some parents stand right next to (mm away from) their child before they go in, so those of us who can't shove in close (because I have either buggy or wiggly 3yo to contend with) can't see either our child or what's going on in the line. So I only just realised how rampant the kicking and bored activity in line is.
It's now much harder to have anything like a private before-school chat with a staff member. Everybody is watching you, and it's too crowded.
If my child were kicking off (hasn't happened yet, but presumably will) there will be a more obvious audience for that, too.
I feel that Yr6s should have more independence than queueing up each morning.
Are that all just normally how it works?