Junior school - collection arrangements

[Roisin]

A quick survey of your junior schools - yr3-6 (age 7-10) if I may?

1. Are the children 'handed over' to parents/carers at the end of the day? ie does the teacher come out with them and checks who each child is going home with?

No Yes, but only for yr3, yr4... Yes right up to yr6

1. Are the children allowed to walk home unaccompanied?

No Yes, from yr/age ...

1. Is it 'unusual' for a child in yr4 to be walking home unaccompanied at your school?

Many thanks.

1. No
2. No, I don't think they are keen on the younger ones walking long distances by themselves but I don't know how they would know if they are not taking the children out
3. No

A teacher is in the playground but children quite often meet their parents at the gate

1. No. Up to Yr 2 they are walked out to the playground and supervised until picked up, but not individually checked. It's a fairly small school though, so people tend to recognise everyone, and parents are generally pretty good about sending an email in the morning to say that someone different will pick up their child.

1. That's a parental decision, not a school decision.

1. We have a few that live within a few doors of the school, so they just walk home. Those that live further tend to walk with older siblings or siblings from the high school next door. Some parents will take turns with other parents to walk a group of kids home.

1. Right up to yr 6

2 no 3 not allowed

It was a right pain as in her last 2 years I had to leave work early to walk dd & her 2 friends from school round the corner to a ballet class (2 min walk at most)

If they are not collected by 3.45pm (school finishes 3.30pm) they are sent to the onside after school after school club & you get a bill.

Hi Roisin:

1. Are the children 'handed over' to parents/carers at the end of the day? ie does the teacher come out with them and checks who each child is going home with?

Yes. After school club (organised through local church) also arranges to collect children from school - collecting Year R from their class and KS1 and KS2 at arranged collection points. Teachers are aware of schedule. club checks with teachers regarding any missing children (i.e. ensuring they're missing because they're away for sporting event, party, illness, etc...)
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1. Are the children allowed to walk home unaccompanied?

Year 6 children can walk to and from school unaccompanied but the parent/ guardian has to notify the school in writing of this arrangement.
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1. Is it 'unusual' for a child in yr4 to be walking home unaccompanied at your school?

Yes. But school on very busy roads.

1. Teachers don't come out with children. One teacher will come out and watch children cross road (rural lane, but occasional fast cars)

1. Entirely up to parents. Mixed responses, although most allowed to come at least part of the way on their own after first couple of weeks.

1. Fairly normal for most children to walk home alone, including having to use pedestrian crossing to cross busy A Road. Because its the 'culture' here, everyone does it, and I'm not aware of any problems. There is no-one to assist them with the A road crossing.

This is a very different culture to a previous school my DC attended where children were collected from the playground through to year 6. In all honesty I prefer the new school as it really helps develop independence and confidence.

Primary that dd3 is at

1. Yes right up to yr6

2.No

1. Not possible to do if no adult shows for the children they get taken into the school office.

At Junior school dd1 was at (I know it is still the same as friend has son there still)

No

1. Are the children allowed to walk home unaccompanied?

Yes, from yr3

1. Is it 'unusual' for a child in yr4 to be walking home unaccompanied at your school?

No

Oh want to add

The primary dd3 is in is a village primary the child that lives the closest to the school is 1 mile from school ( only about 5 houses close to school - and a church , pub and castle) Most come from the near by town that is 2 .5 miles away the road is dangerous to bike it on.

The Junior school dd1 was in is in greater London. Many of the children could see their house from the school. off main road with only a small % children actually needing to get to the main road to get home.

in the primary DD3 is in they do some organised activities in Y6 to prepare them for being on their own on the travel to 2ndary (ALL children uses bus or train for this as closest 2ndary is 20 mins drive away - and not in same county closest in county and " catchment school" is 25 mins drive away)

After year 3 ours just get chucked out of a communal entrance, which gets locked pretty quickly as my DD found out when she forgot to go to an after school club last week!!
Fortunately one of the year 2 doors was still open.

No
Yes
Yes

Surely it depends on the area you live?

1. Are the children 'handed over' to parents/carers at the end of the day? ie does the teacher come out with them and checks who each child is going home with?
No
Yes, but only for yr3, yr4...
Yes right up to yr6

Um, the teacher comes out with them and hands them over unless they've been told that the child is allowed to walk home alone.

2. Are the children allowed to walk home unaccompanied?
No
Yes, from yr/age ...

Yes, from the start of Y3

3. Is it 'unusual' for a child in yr4 to be walking home unaccompanied at your school?

I don't know generally.

In DS's class not many were, in fact he may still have been the only one in his class in that year. Too many of the parents were collecting younger children anyway or they had too dangerous roads to cross.

Roisin, with respect to the discussion you are having within the Sunday school, I think the issue is that it needs to be clear at what moment the volunteers/staff cease to be responsible for the children and when their parents become responsible for them. If that is clear, the parents can decide for themselves whether they need to come upstairs to collect their children. If it isn't clear, then you could conceivably have some issue where, for example, a child gets bullied on the stairs and you get the blame for failing to supervise them.

I am a bit shocked that some schools seem to think they have the right to dictate how children make their way to and from school. (Some posters above have said that children of a certain age are "not allowed" to go home on their own.) Schools cannot do this. The school is only in loco parentis when children are there. Of course, the handover arrangements do need to be clear and it is quite OK for a school to say "we will not allow a Y4 child to leave unaccompanied unless parents have requested this in writing".

1. Are the children 'handed over' to parents/carers at the end of the day? ie does the teacher come out with them and checks who each child is going home with?

No. Parents wait at the gate or a meeting point 5-10 minutes walk away if they're meeting.

1. Are the children allowed to walk home unaccompanied?

Yes, all years

1. Is it 'unusual' for a child in yr4 to be walking home unaccompanied at your school?

No, probably about 50% of year 3/4 are met by a parent, although not necessarily their own. The rest walk in groups.

Once at Junior school (after the first week, when the Yr3 teachers tend to come round to where the parents wait, with them) then the dc leave the classrooms on their own, and find their own parent at the front of the school, which is not in sight of most of the classrooms, but is still on the school grounds.
Anyone can walk home on their own if that's what the parents want, tends to start happening more commonly from about Yr5, but there are those that do it before.

At our Sunday school, everyone but the creche (ie pre-schoolers) can manage to walk out of the room, and find their parents / carers in the foyer or in the worship area itself.

Thanks Saracen: I think that's spot on.

If you are a Sunday School teacher you are a volunteer. If it was me I would say that after the age of 7 years the parents are responsible and I was not going to hand them over like parcels, they would have to walk downstairs on their own. As a volunteer you have clout, they won't have people ready to step into your shoes! Tell them how you are doing it and they can take it or leave it!