Incident at school

[bonvoyage23]

I'm looking for some advice on next steps with a school situation please.

DS is 5 and in Y1.

He has displayed ND behaviour since his Reception.

No huge issues but enough for his teacher/head to be aware of ND behaviours.

I've also had meetings with the SENCO lead and his is under assessment by the GP. Everyone is aware of this.

Today I had a call telling me DS had let himself out of the school building at home time and was only spotted by a parent in the playground, who then told his teacher.

Teacher, who is nice/kind and I'm really trying to work with, requested I speak with him to reinforce this isn't okay. Which I absolutely have.

However she was very put out when I asked how he was able to wander off unnoticed and let himself out of school.

I'm happy to acknowledge DS part in this but need the school to do the same. I did point out if highlighted this as an issue only this week and have done previously.

Any advice much appreciated

How did she drop the ball?

@StarlightLime one of the children in her care went AWOL and she didn't notice. That's a fundamental failure of her safeguarding practice. I'm a primary school teacher and if this happened to me I would be apologising and looking at my practice, not blaming a ND five year old.

It was a mistake. Imagine the chaos of trying to get 30 children ready for home at the end of the day. She did not take her eye off the ball, she was "just" single handedly supporting 30 children getting ready for hometime.
Yes it shouldn't have happened but what do you hope to gain from escalating this, other than another teacher leaving the profession? You have no idea what else was going on in class, a child could have been hurting someone else, wetting themselves, crying, needing support zipping up their coat because they can't and little Angelica's mum always complains if her little darling leaves the school with it open despite not teaching her to close her own coat.
Get a sense of proportion here, your child is fine.
This is not a major incident, and of course the school will already be changing their end of day procedures and responding to what has happened internally. You going in heavy handedly on Monday will not help.

He was in the toilet and then scarpered through a door instead of coming back.
It didn't exactly go unnoticed for hours. What practice would you put in place?
Presumably the fire door has to remain unlocked, and they don't have the manpower to accompany children to the loo to make sure they come back...

My son was an escapee he could unlock/open most doors I had a high chain on my front door due to his antics. Also nd
he ran away in the woods on a trip, went to see the dinosaurs on another school trip he really was hard work he’d leave as soon as he was ready at home time. In his mind it’s home time so time to go. Waiting for bell or for others wasn’t an option in his mind. And I tried I really did but it was so so hard.

you need to ask school what they will do to prevent another escape it’s important they are aware of where he is and what he’s doing. The janitor used to stay in which ever playground my son was in and watch in case he made a run for it. It’s scary being at work and wondering if you’re going to get a call about them. Feel for you op, I hope the school step up with support and strategies for you and him.

A school is not a prison there is no way to 100% stop a child wanting to leave or for teachers to have eyes everywhere every second of the day