Leaving child alone after club

[Rachirooo]

Hi. I am hoping for some reassurance. My son is 7

I arrived at after school club to pick my son up about 5 mins early. The TA taking the club told me that a teacher wanted a word with me. The teacher invited me inside for a chat. A chat which wasn't appropriate in front of my son.

While I was in the meeting the TA must have just left my son outside on his own and went home. In addition, the head teacher interrupted our meeting to get her stuff, spoke to my son about how muddy he was, but also left him on his own in the playground. Neither of them brought him inside where they knew I was.

Is this a breach? Surely they should never leave a child alone whatever the circumstances. Both knew where I was and could have brought him inside.

Thanks

She couldn’t assume how long the meeting would be, it could be 2 minutes exchange.
I just couldn’t understand in what world it didn’t occur to TA just to put her head inside the room and say: I’m leaving, little Jack is sitting outside the door.
And that would be the end of the story. And I just can’t imagine in DD’s primary 7 y.o siting outside after school and Head!!!! passing and not asking why. Tbh any parents who knew his name would.
And my DD was in an average biggish city school, it wasn’t even outstanding.

I'm confused. Why is it my fault?

This seems like a miscommunication more than a failure of safeguarding. The TA saw you and at that point would presume you are now in charge of your child. You were pulled into a meeting and presumed your child was still at the after school program not having been officially handed off to your supervision.

It says in the first sentence of the OP.

I think talking to the school about it is a good idea. Even if just a miscommunication as mentioned by a previous poster, it should be flagged as a safeguarding risk so the school can take measures to ensure this doesn’t happen again - eg if a teacher needs more than a 2 minute conversation with a parent at the end of the day, an official meeting is scheduled that will allow for the child to be supervised.

Son went to after school club due to end at 5pm. When I arrived, they were playing outside. The TA who was supervising said that a teacher wanted a word. It was about a sensitive subject so he called me in. There were a lot of tears in the meeting ad it lasted about 30 mins.

While I was in the meeting the TA just left him a lone to go home. All gates unlocked and the door to the building locked.

Also while I was in the meeting, the head left too. As she passed my son, she joked with him about how muddy he was.

No, my meeting with his teacher wasn't about muddy trousers and I'd have quite happily left it if I knew that he wasn't supervised in an exposed playground in front of a school. It's their duty of care as a teacher. We trust them to think about the safety of our kids.

I didn't ask for this meeting, the TA and teacher surprised me with it.

He should absolutely have been brought into the building.

Yes this is not acceptable. TA should have brought him inside to let you know she was leaving. I am actually shocked she would just walk off an leave.

If you'd leave a child on their own without hesitation, then you have a problem, not me!

They could have very easily notified me that they had to leave. I was called in to an unplanned meeting and left my child with who I thought was a responsible adult.

mmm. I think you had to be there. She told me about the meeting and she was there when the teacher asked me to go in. She would still have been with him up until when she left him on his own. Also the head didn't resolve the issue.

No. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m not saying they were right, they weren’t.
im saying is this post a cry for help to talk about something different?

Same. Wouldn't it be an unnatural thing to do? Just leave a child on their own?
I couldn't do it.

That's why I can't believe some of the comments I've had.

At y3 he should be OK to wait outside in a playground when he knew you were inside.

Like what? Sorry I can't think of anything.
I don't think this is a minor issue.

Is that just your opinion? or do all legal duties go out of the window when a child is 7?

I'm not surprised that you're upset. The TA absolutely should not have just gone home and left him - at the very least, she should have brought him into the building and let you/the teacher know she was going. He could easily wandered off or hurt himself on play equipment. I would be very unimpressed indeed in this scenario.

Miscommunications are when the ball gets dropped and things can go wrong.

The school dropped the ball here. Every adult here made an assumption. TA assumed mum was in the building so fine to go home, teacher assumed TA was with the child, mum assumed someone was with her child (and probably distracted by the meeting). Head Teacher walked past child alone and did not bring him indoors - pretty clear they should have questions this and taken him inside to where the meeting was or sat with him.

Speak the to teachers, OP they need to have systems in place. The TA needs to know not to leave a child unattended to go home.

Absolutely no way the OP is in the wrong here.

I wasn't saying it was something you did wrong but I think as a starting point you should have refused to have an important, confidential meeting when you didn't have any childcare set up. The club was over, they were leaving, where were you assuming your child was for an entire 30 minutes?

Yes it's not great and now that you have given the whole story I would definitely get in touch with the school to say that you aren't happy that your son was left so if future meetings are needed please get in touch to set up an appropriate time. As you said - bringing your child inside would have meant the meeting had to be finished anyway as he couldn't be present.

There are often children in our school yard without a visible parent so it wouldn't necessarily have been obvious to me that there was an issue if neither you or your son raised it at the time.

Thank you.

I don't think there was any misunderstanding regarding the TA with my son though. There was still 5 mins left of club and the playground is only small. She would have left him knowing he was on his own. There's no way I could have seen him. I was being ushered in to the building without him and she knew it because she was the person who advised me that they wanted a meeting.

You've assumed a few things.
• I didn't know it was going to take 30 minutes
• I didn't have a clue what the meeting was going to be about and that it was confidential
• The meeting was their suggestion, not mine. I was just ushered in.

So instead of saying I should have refused to have a meeting that I didn't know ANYTHING about, perhaps you should be directing that comment at the school. They instigated the meeting knowing that my son was there and took me away from him. As far as I concerned, I left him with a TA who has a legal duty of care. They could have easily come in or even called me before leaving. The teacher knew if was likely going to take a while - in fact it was straight after their teacher's meeting so I expect it was part of the agenda.

You happily leave children in your front playground without supervision? Gulp.

They definitely should not have left him alone. I am also of the opinion that the teacher should not have asked for an impromptu meeting at pick up time without being sure that your child was being supervised.

I change my view if the playground was not secure. That said, I have never seen a primary school with open unlocked gates without a member of staff supervising. If a child is outside unsupervised and the playground is accessible to passers-by, then that is a safeguarding risk.

Thanks - yes that's what I think. The TA should have made sure they passed him on to me or another employee.

Thanks

Definitely a miscommunication and failure on behalf of the school, but maybe you also should have thought about where your child was.

TA assumed your child was signed out and now your responsibility but they should have ascertained that you were happy for your child to wait outside before leaving.

You should also have checked that someone was watching your child before going off to talk to the teacher.