School gate problem

[Lisa0911]

At my kids school, we have 2 gates the main one and the back one so the back one is easier for us 10 mins walk only but the problem is they always forget to open the back door on time . School starts 8.45 and door have to be open at 8.30 but they always late and lots of parents complain but nothing changed and today we was standing outside for 15 mins waiting for someone to open the door and when we went inside the headteacher was there, we tried to complain and she was rude telling us if that door wss closed , we should have used the main gate which is another 15 mins walk from the back door to there and she wasnt even sorry but trying to put blame on us parents for being late and telling us is not her problem if the door was closed and she shouting at the parents to take the kids to the classroom . Is it anything else we can do or somewhere we can complain about it or we should just leave it and carry on as normal?

Have a similar problem here too, I'm passed caring. My kids in school if he's 2 mins late because if a gate then so be it. If the schools wants to take it further let them , its daft

I can see an issue if it is a teacher opening the gate - who locks it after the teacher has gone into class? Having a coded gate entrance is not a solution either , no school would want so many people knowing the code, and it would probably violate their insurance. The only solution would be an electronic gate with CCTV and auto closure that could be opened from the office . Expensive.

I think you will have to start leaving 15 minutes earlier OP, sorry.

Thanks everyone and everything is fine now after lots of parents send emails to the headteacher and the problem was solved , the doors is open at 8.30am now

Glad to see it is resolved for now.

I definitely agree with the PP who said make sure you have the school office number in your mobile so you can ring at 8:35 if for some reason the gate hasn't been opened.

That's why I suggested speaking to the Head on 19 Jan! We don't have any news yet on the outcome.

However, there is a misconception that LA's and Governors tell Heads what to do. They do not. Governors do hear complaints though and if there was a groundswell of discontent and lots of complaints to the Governors about the Head, they would have to deal with it.

You may find that the school stops opening the back gate altogether for security reasons. Our school used to open two gates now we only have one entry point.

If you protest too much what's to stop them keeping it locked all the time?

I have to agree, parents need to understand that there is a complaints procedure for any school.That is always to the school, normally the head teacher, who is responsible for carrying out an investigation and formally reporting back to whoever has made the complaint. Only when that has happened can you escalate the complaint to the governing board but that is not for a "re-hearing" of the complaint but that the complaint has been properly dealt with by the correct procedure. In theory there should be no complaint process to the LA, that was stopped a few years ago but I do know that some LAs have persisted with it for some reason.
It is also no good approaching any parent governors, they should if they are doing their job properly re-direct you to the complaints procedure and the head teacher. They are also not the parents representative on the governing board, they are representative parents and the two things are quite different.

A complaint about the Head normally goes to the Governors, for obvious reasons.

I think schools can safely have more than one gate open. If you have one gate open then that’s a security risk in its own right! A tiny one of course and a second gate open is exactly that. A tiny risk and not worth arguing about! Many things are not risk free, it’s what is reasonable that matters.

This is the kind of thing that the daily mail is actually good for. Especially the rude principal. They'll lap it up. And the head will be personally shamed into making sure that it gets opened.