Insecure playgrounds... do I pursue this?

[KimberleyS91]

TLDR: My 7yo absconded from school and home. School playground isn't locked. Shall I take it further with the council (again)?

I live in Scotland, where school playgrounds don’t have to be locked. It’s council-dependent, with the idea being that children can access outdoor areas more freely. In theory that sounds good, but I’m really struggling with it.

My 7-year-old (suspected ADHD/autism) left school last year during lunch. He walked back into the building, got his bag, then walked straight out through the playground and home. When I wasn’t there, he wandered back towards school, spoke to a stranger, and was eventually walked home by them. He was missing 20–40 minutes before anyone noticed. I was devastated and terrified to send him back, but I worked on my anxiety, raised a complaint to the council (upheld in parts), and pushed for change. Still, the gates remain unlocked.

There are several playground gates with simple bolts my son could easily open, as well as most of the other children, and these gates are frequently left open by adults. The main car park gates stay open outside drop-off/pick-up times. The playground is often used as a public cut-through—I’ve even walked in myself during break time with no challenge, with the children outdoors all playing. The buildings are locked, but that’s irrelevant if the children are outside.

Over summer, my son also ran away from home, which has heightened my fear again. He isn’t the only child at risk, and the open gates don’t keep intruders out either which is genuinely terrifying. Yes, the buildings themselves are secure, but the thought that anyone could enter the playground is extremely concerning. The school dismisses my request for locked gates, citing that there are many children who are coming/going at different times for various reasons, and access is required for delivery drivers, things like that. But I honestly feel like I’m the only one concerned. Should I restart my push for change? Is there any point? I feel like the only one who is panicking about all of this and I'm starting to think the school just view me as an anxious mum when things for my son could have easily been so very different - he could have been injured or worse. I can't even bear thinking about it, and yet it terrifies me every day I send him. I'm from England originally so this whole thing baffles me as school grounds are all secured there.

In general this is a matter of policy.

i have been in teaching long enough that I remember when schools had to enclose their spaces. Prior to that they were open in England as well.

you say he has also run away from home.

so it seems likely that he is what we used to called in my school a “runner”. He gets out of home and or school and runs away.

i’d suggest, particularly as he is doing this not just at school that you work on ways to help with this.

this would include working with him on alternative ways to behave (a common alternative is a private space being made available for him where he can go if he is overwhelmed) and also looking at maybe gps tracker on his person so he can be found easily.

if you get in touch with the autistic society they will have other ideas that might help.

i’d be surprised if the council changed it’s policy because of one child.

We're doing lots of work with him on safety etc. both at home and at school. We also have an AirTag in his bag (obviously wouldn't be much use if he left without his bag but it was the best I could do in a short amount of time). The school are trying to encourage him to wear a hi vis vest, which I'm not entirely comfortable with but they can't offer any 121 support at break times. They also can't enforce him wearing the vest.

I understand, and wouldn't expect, the council to change the policy for one child, but this certainly doesn't just affect my son. There have been other incidences of children leaving the school. Plus, also the very significant risk of people entering the grounds who shouldn't be.

His Early Help worker has said the school have a duty of care when he's there, the same as they do for all the other children who attend. In my mind, it just seems to make sense to secure the grounds to benefit and ensure the safety of all the children and staff, too. But that logic seems to be being dismissed for some reason by the school and the council?

The problem is playgrounds will never be truly secure, no matter what happens. Through my job I am aware of children who have climbed over the fence/gate, broken the fence to go under, etc. It isnt a prison.

You need to focus on the school putting in measures to keep your child safe - playground attendants etc rather than trying to change the whole of scottish culture.

Very true. But surely locked gates are somewhat of a protective factor ? Even in terms of keeping unwanted people out? I understand it's not a prison, but it's also not somewhere that I want my child to freely be able to come and go from when they are meant to be there (in my opinion). Plus, if many schools (some of which are in Scotland) do manage with locked grounds, why not just have the same for all schools? Why the need to keep them unlocked?

Genuine question - why/how is open access to school playgrounds, during school time, part of Scottish culture? As I mentioned, I'm not Scottish myself, so I don't understand this part, although I have had other people say the same about it being part of the culture here.

I agree about attendants. I've been told they keep an eye on gates, but that they have X number of children to watch and that it only takes a moment for one of those attendants to be distracted by a child needing help with something for another one to then try and leave the school (this is what the deputy head said to me last week). But again, it comes down to funding. In my opinion, locking the grounds would alleviate some of that need for attendants to keep eyes on everyone, all of the time. They're only human and they can only have as many attendants as funding allows.

It’s a question of benefits.

having unlocked school playgrounds has a number of benefits:
children can access play equipment outside school time and therefore promotes physical activity

children playing on school playgrounds outside of school time promotes the idea that the schools are there to serve the community and are a community resource

saves on building separate playgrounds for children to use outside of school time (why build two when you can just build one? Sort of idea)

it actually costs quite a lot to fence off and make the outside space in schools secure. I remember when it came in in English schools and it really as quite a lot of money.

disabled access is generally better if the school is not completely enclosed and you have to go through one secure access.

so these community benefits have to be set against the risks of children running off and being injured.

most children are not runners. Those children who are, some go straight to a known space for them (eg a kid I knew used to go to a little copse of trees at the end of the school field).

kids who run out of school entirely are actually pretty rare. Or used to be. There’s probably more now.

so from the council point of view, they are balancing benefits to one group of children to risks to another.

they will have had to write this down as some kind of risk assessment.

they are very unlikely to change it because a completely foreseen circumstance happens.

the school sound like they are working on it - HiVis is a good idea (he’s less likely to be hit by anything).

I worked in a very small school and if we had locked the gates it would have been a huge safety risk in the event of a large fire or other major threat if we couldn't get children out quickly to our assembly point across the road as the janitor couldn't have run around to all of the exit gates. What they did do was put bolts high up to make it pretty tough for children to open them but that adults could reach. Im trying to think of solutions, but even coded doors have some bright spark sneakily watching an adult and then telling the others! Hmmm. Im not sure what the solution is, but I understand your fears. The reason for our bolts was only in p1 but he's older now and I wonder if they've come up with a solution now because the bolts wont cut it anymore. The problem is, like them not being able to fund a 1:1, they also cant fund someone in the office to be constantly available to let in deliveries or parents for meetings or children coming back from appointments, or people coming in for after school clubs, specialists from other areas of the council. I commend you for looking for a solution though and I hope youre able to find something that works.

Thank you for taking the time to explain 🙂

I can absolutely see why having that open access is beneficial and I wholly respect where you're coming from. I understand my experience is not the "norm" but I'm certainly not the only parent who is facing this. I would argue, personally, that safeguarding for all children - whether that's in terms of keeping children safely inside school ground or keeping unwanted people on the grounds - outweighs that benefit. If it's a matter of having an outdoor space, why not just keep the grounds unlocked outside of the school hours?

The HivIS is good in that it keeps him more "visible" to staff, but it also means he stands out amongst his peers, something which he is becoming conscious of. Even without the HiVis, he's having to navigate school as an ND child which is tough enough as it is. Again, I see the positives, but I don't want him to feel even more triggered by feeling forced to wear the vest which then makes him likely to act more impulsively.

I just feel no matter what I do I'm hitting my head against the wall 😅

Locking the gates during school hours doesn’t negate any of the above though? That’s what happens in my locks (English) area. School fields are accessible outside of school hours, but the gates are locked 9:15 to 3:05

Even signage on the gates to remind people to shut them isn't full proof but I guess it could be a start?

During the day, our primary school has locked gates with a buzzer. Secretary answers the buzzer and can see who it is via camera and speak to them. She then unlocks the gate.

Not rocket science - why cannot your son's school do this?

The gates are on a spring system and swing back and lock automatically after the person has walked through.

Tbh I’m amazed this doesn’t happen more often OP.

DC’s primary school (London) is definitely shut securely during school hours. Adults can exit by pressing one of those green door release buttons - but those are up high out of reach of all kids bar the taller year 5/6s. Visitors or deliveries need to ring a bell and be let in, the gate release can be activated remotely so not too big a time suck for school staff.

Having a school playground shut securely during the school day has nothing to do with leaving it accessible out of school hours.

I don’t think you’re remotely unreasonable for wanting and expecting the school gates shut and locked during school time! I am really shocked by the responses you are getting! There are really really simple and effective methods of securing gates which don’t cause a fire risk or inconvenience to anyone.
locked gates has been standard at all the schools I have ever been in!
gates with coded keypads to allow entry to those with the code and doorbell intercoms connections with the office to unlock gates when other people need access. If you wish to leave playgrounds open outside of school hours that surely should just involve leaving the gates open. It’s hardly rocket science!

There is no justifiable reason for any members of the public to be able to get into school premises without consent during school hours. And it absolutely it’s the responsibility of the school to ensure your child is present and safe during their school day. And if the do abscond to know they are missing and act accordingly!

not commenting on the specific situation, but

i I have worked in English schools that did not have a playground and used the nearest park (obviously the park was open to the public at the same time as it is a public space)

one of the schools I used to visit in England had fencing but the fencing and gates were only half height so even if you bolted the gates any one over the age of about 6 could climb over them

I have personally held a full height gate shut against a nine year old trying to seriously physically injure me so that he could get out

(because even if schools are fenced in, if you are going to have only one access point open then the kid will go for that, if you lock that you need to have staff on call for deliveries, midday assistants arriving etc and many primaries cannot afford a full time office staff.)

I did that about weekly actually, for three or four weeks until he realised he wasn’t getting out.

what’s the actual situation at your child’s school? Is it completely open? If so affording fencing will be a major issue. If not and they have full height then bolts might be a possible solution (although ime the kids work out pretty quickly the ways out)

School playgrounds in Scotland are usually far more secure than in England

Post Dunblane there was a huge building programme with fences and generally you can only access the main school entrance post the bell.

That's certainly still the case in the Scottish schools just over the border from us (the difference in the very open English school in my street really stands out)

In fact one of my old primary schools in Scotland was one of the last to be fenced because there was a public right of way through the playground and they had to go to court to have it removed before they could start locking the gates

The compromise there was gates locked during school hours and when they were unlocked at home time they stayed unlocked

I’m worried that they are not supervising your child well enough for them to be trustworthy carers. I’d be focusing on that rather than fences and gates. Schools aren’t prisons and are busy places with extensive grounds where lots of people need to come and go. There’s no way of shutting school grounds so nobody could get in or out, even if they built a fence around the whole thing! And it probably wouldn’t be wise to do that even if they could.

It sounds really stressful for you I’m sorry.

I understand the notion that the playground is a community asset, but surely during school hours the majority of users of that asset are in school so the gates could be locked? I am in England and work with a MAT, all of our schools have fences and gates which are locked during school hours.

Surely (unless it’s a really tiny school) under Martyn’s Law the school should have a secure perimeter, otherwise they won’t be able to have a safe lockdown protocol?

I’ve lived in several places in Scotland and never heard of school playgrounds being available to kids outside of school hours!

I do find it bizarre in the country where Dunblane happened there is so little campus safety.

so here is what has happened with our Scottish school OP. Last year a five year old boy escaped through a gate that was out of sight of any staff member. He walked home crossing several roads, and was found by pure chance by a neighbour as no one was at home. Following that the school put a kind of heavy latch that comes over the top of the tall gates - an adult can reach but not children.

Then there has been pressure from the parent council. Every month a parent put forward site security to the council who then put it to the head (they have to put forward all questions I believe). After about 18 months of this the school recently changed to locking all gates during school hours except one. I haven’t had to go to school during the day yet so don’t know if it is remotely unlocked by someone in the office with sight of the gate. That’s how it worked when my kids were at school down south. There was an intercom and camera and you had to state your business.

Yoi could also consider a tracker watch for your son. Mine has one he can make calls on and we haven’t used the facility but I believe you can set up a boundary (eg school site) and if they leave it it alerts tou.

I’ve visited a lot of primary schools in the course of my work and every single one has had locked gates with a buzzer and sign in system. I’m surprised it is not considered necessary in Scotland.

I thought all schools locked their gates during the school day in Scotland. Ours is incredibly secure.

I have no experience of the Scottish Education system. I’ve read that there are Parent Councils not Governing Boards.
In England you would complain to the Chair of Governors that school are failing to safeguard your child.
Have you spoken to the SENCO about this? I’d be asking for a risk assessment setting out risks posed and what measures are in place to safeguard your child.
I’m not a fan of high vis either though it is often used in schools.
From an SEN perspective could they train up a group of volunteers from the top 2 years ( Y5/6 here) as a Buddy system/ circle of friends for break and lunch times on a rota? If he doesn’t want to engage they could at least observe. Ideally it should be an adult but this system can work well.
For typically developing children leaving the school premises is treated very seriously but under the Equality act adjustments must be made for ND children ( I appreciate no diagnosis yet)

I've never heard of a primary school having all gates locked during the school day.

IMO you need to focus on what can be done to prevent your DC running off. Short of putting in prison-style security, there will always be a risk there.