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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Morning drop off arrangements

81 replies

rainsofcastersugar · 29/03/2015 16:07

Our school is changing the morning drop off arrangements after Easter. I'm not happy about how they are going to be doing this, so I just wanted to see how other schools manage 'the morning rush'. How does your school get children into the building before registration? Can you just bring them in or do they have to be led in by staff? How well does it work - or not? Thanks.

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

mrz · 29/03/2015 16:58

Teachers are on the playground at 8.45 and the doors are open for the children. The youngest children are taken in by parents.

TeenAndTween · 29/03/2015 16:58

Parents in playground.

8:45 doors open, a separate door per class, teacher or TA at door to greet pupils and receive quick messages.

Reception parents initially allowed in to corridor to help with coats but discouraged very quickly (within first couple of weeks for most).

Parents not allowed to otherwise wander in - makes it far to busy and stressful, and is to some extent a safeguarding issue too.

Parents staying to hear them read? Sounds daft to me. You can listen to your child read at home, and sad for the youngsters who use breakfast club or whose parents need to drop and run.

gaslamp · 29/03/2015 16:59

Infants - TA or teacher at classroom / school door for children to enter. No parents in classroom or school buildings unless signed in via school reception, with a pass, CRB check (or whatever it is called) up to date. Thought that was a safeguarding issue? Possible to speak to teacher v briefly at school drop off but they prefer you make an appt or catch them after school. Can email teacher via school secretary. Works well -can't see how having parents hanging around the cloakroom or classroom helps the class or teachers.

Juniors - yr 3 - first term, you can walk to classroom. But after that, encouraged to wait at the school gate or field. No hard and fast rules though. I drop DD off a short walk away and she walks the rest of the way. All teachers gave a direct email address so we Wd contact through that. Works brilliantly and you don't have to listen to any pushy parent dramas!

dementedpixie · 29/03/2015 17:00

we were only allowed into the playground in the first 2 weeks of the children starting school for the first time in Primary 1. After that they are let into the playground to fend for themselves. Seems to work ok and means there are no strange adults hanging around in the playground.

gaslamp · 29/03/2015 17:01

Oh - on reading in the classrooms. Parents / grandparents can volunteer to come in to do reading with the class (not necessarily their child) but is done at a regular weekly or fortnightly time - even monthly - and subject to all the checks.

OldRoan · 29/03/2015 17:01

A bit like Spanieleyes for us.

Gates open and children go straight into school - parents can come into playground but not the building unless escorted to the office by a member of staff. There are HLTAs positioned to check children are walking sensibly and to intercept any messages.

Teachers wait outside for a minute or two after the gates open and then go in, so parents can speak to the teacher quickly if needed.

Doyouthinktheysaurus · 29/03/2015 17:08

God I'd hated having to going in to the class every day.

First term of reception we could go in the them, then we wait outside for the rest of KS1 the teacher or a ta comes out at bell time and they line up and go in.

KS2 not parents in the playground, we leave them at the gate. Or they walk themselves as ds2 does.

I like the hands off approach. For starters its a nightmare if you have to work and are waiting to get in or out a classroom. Or like me, I work nights and wanted to get home to bed. Plus all those parents in a small cloak area is unnecessary and causes too much noise and chaos imo.

Original poster

rainsofcastersugar · 29/03/2015 17:08

Sounds weird but our parents have always been in. Sometimes we were still stuggling with parental stragglers at 9.10 - and they had been there since 8.30! We still have parents escorting their children to classes in Year 6! My OP says 'I'm not happy with this' but it should have read 'some parents are not happy with this'. Wish MN had an edit feature!

OP posts:

spanieleyes · 29/03/2015 17:12

If parents want to go tothe reception they have go go back out of the playground and round to the front entrance, they are NOT allowed to take a short cut through the classrooms. They used to be but we found one parent looking through another child's bookbag to find out which reading level they were on and another was found looking through some class maths books!

mrz · 29/03/2015 17:19

Our parents were always allowed in until some complained that it was a safeguarding issue.

leccybill · 29/03/2015 17:34

Tbh, I'm glad we can drop and run. A lot of parents have to get to work and I think it would be distracting to the kids to have parents in the classroom fussing.

WipsGlitter · 29/03/2015 17:42

It's interesting. In DSs class a lot of the parents are overprotective hang around until the kids go in.

Ragwort · 29/03/2015 17:52

Never heard of parents going into the classroom at any of the three primary schools my DS attended - but from age 4 he went to his first school on the bus (rural area) - he loved it, we did take him the first day but left him in the playground.

mrz · 29/03/2015 18:02

We have a few parents who hang around and peer in through windows but most parents just want to drop off kids and get on with their day.

Shedding · 29/03/2015 18:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

AnneElliott · 29/03/2015 18:48

Juniors are dropped off at the gate from 8:15. No parents allowed in junior playground.

Infants play in playground until 8.50 and parents have to wait behind a line. Whistle goes and kids line up in their classes and are taken in by the teacher.

Hulababy · 29/03/2015 18:55

balletgirlmum - parents would be called to find out why. There is no where to park by the playground entrance - all double lines and railing. So they would have to walk further than just the gates on their own, and also the playground is not secure. The school wouldn't know they were there and there are no staff in the playground or on the gate. We have had it happen but parents are contacted about it if it occurs.

Hulababy · 29/03/2015 19:01

Definitely not a safeguarding issue here - never been flagged up by OFSTED or other LA advisers at all, and infact has been noted as a positive feature at our school when we had the most recent advisers in. Doesn't cause us any issues tbh. Most parents only stay in the room for a short while and all leave by 8:50am when the bell goes.

mrz · 29/03/2015 19:04

It has definitely been raised as an issue in some of my local schools by Ofsted ... Mentioned in reports.

TheOldestCat · 29/03/2015 19:22

Our school has a 15-minute window for this - gates open at 8:40 and shut at 8:55.

KS1 - parents tend to take the children either to or into their classrooms. KS2 - we're encouraged to drop them off at the gates. I take DD (yr3) into the playground as I'm taking DS to his class.

I do miss going into her classroom to see what they're up to and to say hi to other parents. DS (reception) likes to show me how he writes his name to sign in, plus I have to remind him to fill his water bottle and change his reading book (things he never does on breakfast-club days).

2cats2many · 29/03/2015 19:25

We drop off at the school gate and don't go in to the playground at all. If I need to give a message to the teacher, I write a little note and ask my children to pass it on. I've never had a problem.

RueDeWakening · 29/03/2015 19:26

Drop in the playground between 8.40-8.55 (playground supervised), kids get themselves into school with the help of their class teacher for the younger ones. Parents not allowed into playground, there's a drop point between the outer and inner gates.

redskybynight · 29/03/2015 19:28

Reception parents were allowed in.

in Y1 and Y2 hand child over to TA on the door.

At their current junior school most parents don't even come as far as the playground. I am slightly incredulous that Y6 children still have parents escorting them into the classroom - sounds like the school is making a stand to foster some independence.

Hulababy · 29/03/2015 19:55

Mrz - guess it must be how some schools do it. Our last advisor were in just last week - a current OFSTED inspector - was more than happy with our arrangements. But our safeguarding policies are very stringent and were considered outstanding

drspouse · 29/03/2015 19:57

Our nearest school, where our DCs will probably go, has wording similar to the following on their website:

School starts at (time). Children in Key Stage 2 may go into their classrooms from (time 10 minutes beforehand).

It doesn't say anything about leaving children in the playground, or not, or parents being allowed in the classrooms (though there is no parking outside the school and I see parents parking briefly in a council car park nearby - I assume not paying for the 10 minutes it takes to drop off).

I am curious as to whether this policy means you cannot leave children in the playground earlier (it doesn't say) or whether parents must/cannot bring children into the classroom.

(I am partly curious as if the DCs do go there drop off at the KS2 time in the playground will be just about manageable without paying for breakfast club but the ability to leave them with teacher/TA outside just 10 mins before that time would be a lot easier. They do have a breakfast club but it's advertised as "from" 7.30).

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