Should the school provide adult supervision here?

[SoLuckyToHaveYou]

DC is in Year 6. It is a private school and they now have subject teachers for everything and so go from room to room for their lessons. Their own form room is the science room and the children only return to it for Registration and form time. The children are expected to keep their backpacks in a locker area away from their form room and cloakroom and to transport their possessions from lesson to lesson in a smaller bag. So they need to return to the locker area at regular at break times and home time in order to deal with their possessions.

DC reports a lot of pushing and shoving in the locker area which is unsupervised. It is quite a cramped area when all children need to access their lockers at once and unsurprisingly many of the children just won’t wait. DC, feels very uncomfortable with this (I’m sure do other children do too) and has witnessed two children being knocked to the floor. We raised this with the school the other day. There was no reply, although DC reported that there had been a general telling off of the children line with what we had reported. But nothing has changed, in fact, another child got knocked over only yesterday.

As I said, this area is completely unsupervised. I have no idea if there is any official guidance about adult supervision here. Does anybody know?

By that age they should be able to retrieve things from a cloakroom unsupervised. A member of staff being there just adds to the crowd,

I get that they should be able to do this unsupervised. But currently it is unsafe!

A child literally gets knocked to the ground on a regular basis? 🤔
No, they shouldn't need to be supervised going to the cloakroom.

What am I missing here? Shouldn’t they be supervised if children are misbehaving and others getting shoved to the side or hurt?

Are they supervised in changing rooms? Is it not more appropriate to suggest repeated incidents mean certain children should be disciplined and the flow of children managed better.

Is the locker area where pe kit and coats are kept? I’m wondering what happens when it’s time for everyone to get their coats eg home time or or lessons ? Is it just a poorly designed space? Is there enough time for kids to return to the locker area in smaller groups or would the next subject teacher be angry that they are late?
What happens in year 7 and beyond ? How many lessons of books does the small bag fit?

The locker area is away from the changing rooms (changing is supervised). It is outside the hall, nowhere near the classroom and coathooks. There isn’t much room for access, especially at home time when the children all seem to arrive at once. It’s a poorly designated area, but I doubt there’s more room anywhere else.

My point about supervision is that I assume that the flow of children would be managed, rather than the free for all scrum that it is at the moment.

Why not volunteer?

Is there any potential for staggering the times that they need to use this room?

No - by Y6 they should not need to be supervised on a regular basis. The problem sounds to be a few kids misbehaving so I would expect the staff to watch and see who is causing the problems and sort it out.

Shouldn't need to be supervised, no. Not by that age.

The whole school is retrieving their stuff at the same time? So like any other home time in any other school.

If children are being hurt and there is a behaviour issue, then yes, the school probably does need to take steps to deal with it.

In a few months these kids will be on senior school, and they will then know what a really scrum is like. I'm not saying it's right, but that's how it is when you have loads of kids trying to get stuff from a small space at the same time.

That said, if kids are genuinely being knocked to the floor on a regular basis, intervention is needed.

Presumably because she is already paying a fortune to have her child privately educated at a school.
Quite probably, she is at work when the dc are at school
Plus, of course, people can't wander into schools and start making decisions about when they as parents volunteer, and then start directing other people's dc.

What a ridiculous comment

In terms of supervision, no, they shouldn't need it, but clearly there is an issue at the moment, and clearly they did respond to you raising the issue, as they spoke to the dc and reminded them of that.

If it is persisting, then it makes sense to thank them for raising it with the dc but suggest that it doesn't seem to have had an impact and ask if they can look at it again.

No general law about supervising children every minute at that age m but they do have a very important duty to keep all children safe whilst in their care.
I wonder if the incidents were reported to school staff or not.

It’s good learning for how to use the tube, or get to the bar when the pub is busy.

How many children are there?