social distancing at pick up and drop off time

[Mountainbreeeze]

has anyone noticed no social distancing happening at the school gates. despite staggered drop off times parents gather early and chat for up to half an hour while waiting for their allocated drop off slot

It is a fucking mess, I can't believe we have gone from shielding ds for 5 months, to crowds of parents and kids piling onto the pavement.

same here and apparently happening at a lot of schools defeats the purpose of staggered times, school seems to be doing nothing about it

Part of the issue seems to be that some schools have decided to open doors at staggered times by year group, so obviously parents ar then going to be hanging around for 40 - 50 mins if they have dc in different age groups. To avoid it, you'd have to stagger the dc alphabetically or something (though I am aware you'd still have some families with the dc with different surnames). that then means all the classes are arriving / leaving in dribs and drabs and makes the start and end of the day very messy in terms of teaching.

Our primary have clear lines for parents to stand at and have sent email guidance as to which direction the queue should form once out the school gates.
They’ve also stated that with staggered drop offs, siblings can go in together.
It seems to be working fine, so I’d say it’s possible, although of course not every single person queuing keeps strictly to the 2metre gap.
I’d say there’s around 300 children at our school though, so I don't know if that’s small compared to other schools. We also have two entrances/ exits, so with half the children at two different drop off times, then split that between the two exits, that’s 75 children per quarter of an hour. We’re not inner city either.

I got abuse for asking someone to move a couple of steps further away on the first day back at primary school. That was nice...

it’s the same at my son’s school. crowds of parents clumped together chatting away - no masks, no distancing. i stand right at the side trying to avoid other people and i still get people coming over and peering into my pram (i had a baby during lockdown) and trying to strike up conversation. i literally just want to get in and out but i have to hang back whilst people dawdle along chatting.

This isn’t the schools issue to deal with. These are adults you’re talking about who will be very aware of the guidance.

Absolute chaos outside my local primary school. What a mess.

Ours hasn't been too bad. At drop off people are arriving, seeing their kids across the road and leaving, I haven't seen anyone stop and chat. I did on the first day but not since.
At pick up we are staggered based on surname so no one is really hanging around. There's not much space to wait so there were some early teething problems but now things seem to be running smoothly.

Staggered drop offs/pick ups isn't working at our school at all. The issue is they have two years finishing at each time with only 5 mins difference between each time. They need to up it to between 10-15 mins for each slot.

The staggered start times are making more people group together in a smaller area as people are waiting for their specific time than if we were just behaving normally before Covid. It's ridiculous it really is.

Ds is in a resource base in a mainstream school. We were told (2 friffing days in) to by pass the queue of parents, and go straight 5o school front door. This unfortunately means walking against the tide of parents walking back from dropping children at an earlier time. It also involves death stared from half the parents wondering why we're going the wrong way and going past them in the queue...which is fun.

We have no queues here. Pick ups are staggered by 15 minute slots, arranged by surname. Durung the first and last hour of the day, dc have individualised learning which they can do independently so that time isn't wasted. We have been asked to use the paths outside the school as a one way system, and the headteacher mans the gate in an effort to enforce. There are also teachers throughout the school trying to prevent any blockages on the route round.

Ours is going OK, not perfect social distancing but not like described above. It's quite a big school with four form entry. So there are staggered timings, with different gates a one way system and crucially imo waiting areas set (so if you pick up your Yr 2 child you then stand in a zone waiting for your year 3 child).

If you have several children you could send up walking round on circles a bit but keeping everyone moving seems to help with distancing.

That said we got an email yesterday asking us to wear masks for pick up and drop off now too. I have also had to move away from odd person who seems to have no spatial awareness.

Yes we also have school staff marshaling along all routes, massive time commitment for them, I'm sure at least twenty compared to normally about three just on gates.

We have no way to socially distance and pick up our dc.

There are two schools next to each other. One does allow you onto the school grounds, but if you have more than one dc you have to leave, loiter outside because there's no where else to go and not enough time between slots and wait to go back in.

Second school has more pupils and therefore more parents. They initially decided on not allowing you on the school grounds so you'd have to wait by one of two tiny largely unsighted entrances on the pavement. Those queueing have to mingle with those waiting for their next slot already with a dc, or those walking to their first slot in the other school and all those walking from their last slot at either school. Second school has now allowed some onto school grounds but there still far too many parents having nowhere else to stand than the pavement outside.

Both schools had better options available they could take.

Social distancing is everybody’s responsibility not just the school’s. School should plan, as best they possibly can, to use all their entrances and divide up the available space (this is a real challenge for some depending on age and location of the building) and staggered drop off and pick up. Parents should only have 1 adult collecting and shouldn’t remain on site once they have collected or dropped off children. If there are chunks of time between dropping off siblings they should move away from the site to wait. This isn’t ideal but would definitely help reduce numbers to allow for some SD.

The main problem at our school seems to be that you cannot enter the grounds until your 10min slot. So anyone arriving on foot slightly early has to wait on the narrow pavement. Then other people need to squeeze past them to get to other gates. Yr4/5/6 have (at different times) the massive playground as the drop off point. Parents don't need to wait with them. Yr2/3 have a very tight drop off point... And parents have to wait.

You are blaming schools for not controlling grown adults who know full well what social distancing is? Are you for real? FML

I think adults need to take responsibility for their own behaviour @Mountainbreeeze.
It sounds like your school does have systems in place.

Despite our school having 2 large playgrounds we drop our kids outside and groups of parents end up standing in the road just to make sure their child walks into school. I actually think there is more risk of being run over than from catching covid now....but at least it's not on school property hey?

We are sending out messages today to ask that from Monday we advise parents, wherever possible, to wear a mask at pick up and drop off as it's simply not possible to maintain a 2m social distance in the playground and when using the school gates. And to remind parents that only one adult should come into the playground with each child.

I know from a previous MN thread parents will be reluctant and many won't bother.

Guess all we can do is advise. We can't police it.

I've been back at work for a week. I already have a really sore throat and the beginnings of a cold - and that's with me trying to SD from young children and staff (I work across all classes due to my job.)

I can tell you from the perspective of working in a school that it is utterly depressing to have all the carefully thought through procedures ignored by a minority of selfish adults. These are probably the same type of adult who park on zigzags, mount the pavement and speed near the school gates. No amount of letters or requests from the Head changes things. Some people are just selfish. They will also be the first to complain to school when it needs to close if there is an outbreak of covid19. Headteachers need the patience of saints.

To me at my sons schools the staggered times are not long enough, 5 mins apart is not enough time. There is still children waiting to be picked up when the next class comes to the gate and so on. There is more parents in the same area,now compared to how is was before.

Our school have changed it so that in the morning you now have a 30 minutes window to drop your child off in the morning, with the idea that not everyone will arrive at the same time.