AIBU or is this a little heavy-handed for primary school?!

[RichSherl]

My DCs go to a school in the south west and this term the headmistress has started a bizarre new drop-off policy...

Every day the children are expected to enter their classrooms for 8.45. This is when teachers open their doors and let the kids in. The parents then need to leave immediately.

I've got no problem with any of this but the thing that's changed is for latecomers.

Over the past couple of weeks the groundsman has begun forcibly closing the main school gate at 8.50 and telling late arrivals to go in via reception. It all seems pretty weird and draconian because he has to keep opening the gate for parents that are still leaving!

Some kids walk by themselves to school (so it may be a safeguarding issue?) or have genuine reasons for being late that's not their fault.

I know schools love rules but it all seems a bit needless and trivial to have an unfamiliar man telling children off and making them feel bad/naughty at the start of their day. I know some of the other parents have got pissed off about it too.

So, AIBU?! Tell me what you think.

It’s not at all unusual.
Lateness is disruptive for the class and teacher and unsettling for the pupil.
Security is vital.
Its clear that morning routines have become lax and need adjustment.

I doubt it’s a stray groundsman. Much more likely to be the site manager, who the children will see on a daily basis, fixing things around school.

Well there’s your answer as to why they’ve had to implement this policy… they’ve got streams of kids coming in late 🤷🏻‍♀️. It’s so disruptive.
Anyone arriving at our school after 8.45am has to ring the buzzer and be let in via reception, where they sign the late register.

Ours is 08.45-9.00, any later you have to go in to the main office/reception. No one is standing manning a gate with that nonsense tho. You know if you're late because the classroom door is closed.

Apart from a slightly brusque manner, why shouldn’t the grounds man do it? SLT are probably covering classes, planning assemblies etc.

If it’s a new policy, dad, child and groundsman may all be a bit unsettled but once everyone learns, hopefully it will be a couple of kids a day, not a stream,

Describing the grounds man as an ‘unfamiliar man’ is a bit condescending. I bet he had to do safeguarding training and is well known to most kids and parents

Agreed.

In my experience, children know the caretaker/groundsman better than they do some of the teachers.

At our primary the kids line up at 8.50 and go in at 8.55. If you arrive after the line has gone in then you go in through reception.

The school clearly need to do this if there's a "steady stream" of kids being late. Hopefully once the policy has been embedded for a couple of weeks, this will stop.

I'm not sure what you think that kids who are late should be doing?

I suspect by groundsman you mean caretaker? All the kids at our school know (and adore) the caretaker because he potters around the school all day so they see him a lot, and he's the one who fixes everything!

The caretaker mans the gate at our school too (there's only one). SLT teach so wouldn't be able to - one teaches Reception and the other Year 6. Only the actual Head is non-teaching and sometimes he's around on the playground, sometimes he's dealing with a parent or something else in school that needs dealing with.

They are late, the embarrassment will hopefully mean they leave home earlier. I can honestly say my kids were only late for school once at primary, and that was due to oversleeping following a power cut. Mornings aren't easy when one is autistic so you start earlier so you aren't late

Our head teacher mans the gate for the 1-3s playground, it's open till the bell goes at 9 and then it's closed and once the kids have gone into the classrooms (they line up in playground and teacher takes them inside) you have to go via reception as the doors are locked.

If school starts at 9, seems a bit weird you have to be there at 8:45 or be treated as 'late' though?

Sounds normal to me. Punishing them would be unreasonable but they're not by the sounds of it! The gate closing system ensures that the class isn't being disturbed by latecomers and that persistent lateness is being identified including any safeguarding concerns that come with it. Our school states that they need to be at their classroom door between 08:45 and 08:55. What is annoying is that they then sometimes randomly close the door early, even at 08:52 one time, meaning I have to stress my dd out taking her round to reception due to their own error. It is what it is though.

Ours have always done that, if u r late u have to go in main entrance.

Similar happens at my DS's school, but once the gates are closed, that's it until pick up time at the end of the day. Children must be in the playground and lining up by 8:45. Parents are to drop them at the gate and leave, not mingle in the playground (parents of reception kids can walk their children into the playground and their class line). All latecomers must enter via reception.

It sounds like they haven't quite got the practicalities sorted at your child's school yet. Parents should drop at gate and go and the gates should be closed at the required time.

Some schools start at 8:45. Many of ours do and finish at lunch time on a Friday.

We lock our gates at 8:50.
Everyone else has to go through reception.
Can’t see the problem.

The OP didn’t say school starts at 9, did she? Apologies if I missed it. Ours starts at 8.45

It would be a safeguarding issue if they weren’t doing this. Before the bell, you’re responsible for your child. After the bell goes, staff are in charge and need to know exactly who is (or isn’t) on school site.

This is how all primary schools do it OP. It's absolutely for safeguarding reasons. If they are late, they enter via the school office so their presence can be noted and the register updated. Otherwise how would the school know which children were present that day?

There are two entrances at our school - one at the front and one at the back. Both are open from 7.30am for breakfast club (which opens at 7.45am).

Classroom doors open at 8.35am and close at 8.45am. Kids go straight into their class via the playground (reception & year 1) or particular doors by the stairs for the older year groups. You then have to report to reception to sign in as late if you miss that 10min window. Back gate closes at 8.45 too, front gate becomes the main point of access (buzzer to get in) until 3pm when both open back up for pick up.

If they turn up on time it’s not an issue.

This is normal, our school does it, presumably as others have said, it’s for safeguarding purposes and to try and instil good time keeping skills to minimise disruption.

Then surely you can see how important it is that children are on time? Can you imagine how much time is lost each day by a "stream" of children arriving late then having to walk 300m, take off their coats, and get settled?

Under the stricter school fines rules those 'lates' can result in absence fines. Sounds like the school are sick of parents taking the piss and are clamping down. Our school gates are open 8.40 till 8.50, anyone arriving after that has to go through the office and sign in with the reason they're late.

Bet he hates it, now not only has to wait for them to come out but has to send them the long way round

This is very standard. Our little school is very relaxed really, but even they shut the gate on time and all others go through reception.

Yep sorry, YABU! This is done in pretty much all schools - the doors open and then there is a specific time the gates are shut and latecomers will need to enter via the reception and receive a late mark.

The only thing I would say, it is quite tight giving 5 mins from opening the doors to locking the gates. One of our schools gives 15 mins and the other 20 mins from doors opening earlier to locking gates. I think 10 mins is reasonable.