Lining up to go into classroom in the morning

[peanutbutterkid]

This system is new to DC school and every parent claims to hate it. Pupils used to be escorted to the door & then made their own way from there to their own classroom.

We're told it's usual system at most schools. Why? What's so great about it?

Not sure I should bother to explain this again, but what the heck :) ... we did not previously escort children to the door of the classroom, only to one of 5 exterior gates/doors. Not even that far, really, used to stand 10'-20' for further away and just watch until they went in (past a staff member). Plenty of children (even some in KS1) have no adult escort or dropped at the gate. So congestion not an obvious issue. Things feel much more crowded now.

Lining up to go in was adopted for the expressly stated purpose of getting teachers to spend more time talking to parents in the morning, not less. The pupils were more independent before than they are now. We now have more not less cotton wool.

I'm increasingly suspicious that the HT (relatively new, yes!) just didn't like the "look" of what we had been doing for years, so came up with this purely to be conventional, not because it actually works well in our setting.

(Sigh).

I can't wait to see what happens when it next pisses down. There'll be mutiny among the staff if they're expected to stand in the rain or very cold.

Staff supervision: I don't think there is any until the teachers come out & children queue up, about 5 min. before official start time, and more than 5 min. before they go in.

We have also had directives (widely ignored I think) that pupils & parents must not enter school yard more than ten minutes before school-start or home-time. Like most British schools, the waiting school yard is well fenced off from any access to pupils & classrooms.

PBK, what you are describing is exactly what happens in most schools. ALl the routines and rules are almost identical to most primary schools.

Perhaps there was a bit of chaos going into classrooms without supervision (obviously parents wouldn't see that)

Perhaps she felt the staff weren't communicating much with parents (though when they are lining up to go in isn't the best time anyway).

They should have a plan for really bad weather, though if it's anything like the one for DS's school, it seems to change ad hoc!

When it rains at our school you drop them at the gate and they go in without parents or teachers.

As a supply teacher, I've worked in schools that use both systems. Personally I prefer them to line up. It means I can finish what I need to finish before they come in - and I know what time they will come in, so I can organise myself accordingly. In schools where children just wander in (sometimes from as early as 8.35) they need to be supervised, which means as a teacher I'm unable to go to the photocopier/loo/staffroom once the children start to come in. Lining up makes for a calm and organised start to the day, surely you wouldn't want to start to learn any other way.

Ours is a small village school with class sizes of 20. Parents drop children off into the classroom, they can go in and most of us do although buggies must be left outside unless it is a very new baby. Drop off is from 8.30 and school officially starts at 8.50 with carpet time and registration.
There have never been any problems with this, you can have a brief word with the teacher before 8.40 if you need to but anything more then a 30 second chat an after school meeting will be set up. We also don't really have anywhere to line up unless you had everybody traipsing round to the back field and then having to pull the teaching staff from their work in the classroom to come out and fetch the children.
The children just get on with what ever in the classroom until it is time for register, the younger children will play, things are laid out on the tables for them to do that will also form part of the morning lessons, some children have classroom jobs to do, the weekly helpers will go fetch the register from the office. The older the children get the fewer parents go into the classroom and the children are encouraged to carry their own bags and sort them selves out from Y1, they don't have hard and fast rules about it but teacher expectations and the children respect the teachers enough to want to comply.
Our system works I think because it is a small school, there is no competition to speak to the teacher because you can sort out a same day meeting very easily should you need it, there is a true open door policy so people don't have to try and have important conversations with teachers before school. The other reason it works is due to the parents being on board with the system and self governing to ensure the class is ready to go at 8.50 and there are not parents getting in the way. I can see how this wouldn't work in a larger school though with 30 children in a class. I think it also has allot to do with the culture of the school weather this would work or not.