Parental rights

[Geronimus]

Hello, can anyone please help with this? We asked for an unauthorised absence for my daughters to attend my concert. It's really important to me that they are there. When my partner arrived at school to pick up our children the headteacher repeatedly denied him access, saying we didn't leave 48 hours' notice and that they would miss curriculum time. We are left shocked that my partner couldn't be given his own child and was denied access. I am pursuing a complaint but I wondered I'd my tone could shed any more light on this and what our rights are. Thank you.

What makes it worse was that my 6 year old had her bag packed and was sent down by the teacher only to be sent back to class and told she wasn't attending the concert.

I’m not sure I could ever leave my child in their care again without sorting this.
I would probably keep my children off until I had dealt with this in writing.

There is nothing specific in legislation. However, the head can point to the Education and Inspections Act 2006 Section 89 which gives her wide powers to regulate the behaviour of pupils, both in and out of school. Specifying that pupils cannot leave the school part way through a session (morning or afternoon) unless they have specific permission from the head would be a reasonable use of those powers.

That does sound quite unusual. What's the significance of the concerts?

That could be the key to the whole thing, TBH. The head reacting to something on campus that they consider irregular?

If you were taking them off campus for something unrelated to the school and your work, it might have gone differently.

Education and Inspections Act 2006 Section 89 which gives her wide powers to regulate the behaviour of pupils, both in and out of school.

Behaviour, not attendance. Plus the head must make any rules and regulations known to the parents,staff and children.

They can't just decide on the day that actually they don't want this to happen so it's not happening.

They don't actually have any powers to stop a child leaving the school with their parent unless there's a serious concern.

Even if they did, most schools would be sensible because of the damage that actions like these does to the school/parent relationship.

I think the key to this is the dc weren't leaving the school site, they were being taken out of class to go to another part of the campus to watching their parent take part in another school activity.

It can be compared to a teacher coming into the classroom and taking out her dc to watch her teacher another year group. The dc are missing curriculum time to support their parent.

Thank you for that.

It can't be something very often used as I've never heard of it happening outside of safeguarding concerns. It's been about 10 years since I left teaching but I think even if it were more widely known about it'd be creating more problems than Solving if used in such circumstances eg outside of serious safeguarding concerns.

Though I do wonder if the fact the OPs job, the event and the school all being on the same campus had some impact here.

Quite.

Imagine if all the parents with siblings at the other school on campus did the same thing, lots of children missing the afternoon/ attending performance and then that started happening everytime something was happening in the other school. I imagine it was not to set a precedent about children attending events at each others school.

Is this a state school in England?

Behaviour, not attendance

Saying that children cannot leave the premises without the head's permission other than at lunchtime or at the end of the day is regulating their behaviour. It is not regulating attendance.

To correct a later paragraph...

They do not have any powers to stop a child leaving the school with their parent at lunchtime or at the end of the day unless there is a serious concern. They do not have to hand over a child just because a parent turns up halfway through the afternoon demanding to be allowed to take their child home.

I would certainly recommend that a school should be careful about this for the reasons you state.

I've come across it happening a few times. However, I would personally recommend that schools should be cautious about refusing to release a child to a parent.

I personally would approach this from a different perspective and ask the head teacher to explain to you what legislation gives them the
legal right to deny you collection of your child. As far as I am aware there is none, though I know of legislation that would enable them in a safeguarding situation.

Did they delay your husband collecting or refuse for a long time?

My children have performed in professional productions requiring performance licences. Various heads over the years have had different opinions about whether this is acceptable or not. One repeatedly refused permission, but the local authority still licensed the performances.

When collecting the children in line with the licences, I was asked “do you have permission to take your child?” To which I responded that the school were aware, that the child was licensed to perform and so I was taking them.

Other heads have said they think the children benefit from the extra curricular activities.

This would really bother me too. I make decisions like this for my child. In the absence of safeguarding concerns how bloody well dare they withhold them.

I'm not defending the school here as they should have been accommodating but the issue here is dc of a member of staff / peri teacher of the school group (the boys school) asking her partner to take her dc out of curriculum time to watch her participate in the event on campus.

For the other dc in the class it's seeing their classmate being able to leave class to watch their parent etc.

It's complex and should have been better handled but I'm not sure it's a complaint.

A complaint about the headteacher automatically goes to the governors. You will need to think, and in fact you’ll be asked to state, what it is you want the outcome of the complaint to be. So, you’ll need to think carefully about why you’re complaining. Governors will investigate whether the head acted appropriately. They may make some recommendations if they think practice can be improved.

I agree. I think the fact it’s on campus is irrelevant. The child is still absent from class. It certainly shouldn’t be authorised, and maybe they felt more notice should be given so it could be properly discussed 🤷🏼‍♀️

If the OP is a member of staff then it's a staff grievance not a complaint. The partner could possibly make a complaint.

I'm.suprised the school withheld your child/ren. I wouldn't believe they had any rights to keep them from going with their father as there are no safeguarding concerns.

At our primary, if one child has an assembly/event on an afternoon and that finishes before hometime, many of us parents just go to the office and request the siblings to be sent out for collection also.

If you really are a teacher OP, why are you asking on MN? You should know the answers yourself.

Perhaps there are safeguarding concerns. It seems the most likely reason that the child wasn’t released.

@PurplePolkaDot1 if the safeguarding concerns were such that the children couldn't be released to their father, the school wouldn't have happily let them go at home time. It makes no sense actually.

This is not true. The school have no right to block a parent from their child without safeguarding reasons.

It is true. See my posts on the relevant law. The school absolutely has the right to block parents from removing their children from school at random times throughout the day. At lunchtime and at the end of the day it is different. The school must then allow the parent to take the child. But halfway through the afternoon the school has the right to refuse.