Should I raise a safeguarding concern after a mix-up at collection time?

[PurpleFuschia4]

At pickup today, I went to collect my DD (she's nearly 8) and the teachers didn't know where she was. They went looking but she turned up on her own. The whole thing lasted no more than 5 minutes, I think.

I let the teacher on the door know who I was collecting, and she couldn't see DD. She asked the other teacher, who was in the room, who replied "she's been collected by her mum" - but obviously she hadn't as I'm her mum... that teacher then went on to say something about there being "two of them" (my daughters name) but this isn't the case anyway, as there is another child who has a similar name, but it's not the same name. That teacher didn't do anything to look for my daughter, she just carried on doing what she was doing (it looked like she was tidying something away), and the other teacher who was on the door went to look for her.

I spoke to my DD and she said she had gone to the toilet (she has told me she asked the teacher, the one who seemed to think my daughter had been collected, who said yes) but then decided to go get her coat from outside her classroom (she didn't ask a teacher to do this), which meant going to a different part of the school. I have spoken to DD about the importance of telling teachers where you're going and not to go anywhere without telling a teacher where she is going.

Am I right to send an email to the head/safeguarding lead about it? Or am I overreacting?

I think you are overreacting. She hasn’t actually been allowed to leave, they just misremembered who had gone and who hadn’t. At 7 years old she doesn’t need escorting around the building (but obviously shouldn’t be permitted to leave on her own).

Have you ever hosted a whole-class party? Did you remember exactly which child was in the toilet/bouncy castle/activity table at any given time or would you need to look to check?

As long as there are procedures in place to stop children leaving the school building (your DD was still inside the school), it's not a safeguarding concern. It's a normal human capability to not remember with 100% accuracy the exact position of 30 children when they departing in varying arrangements.

Yes you should raise it, luckily she was fine but the fact they didn't know who she was, whether she'd been collected or where she was is shocking. My 7 year old wanderered out of school himself last year and made it halfway home before another mum questioned why he was alone and brought him back to the school, by which time we were in lockdown trying to find him. They need to know where the kids are under their responsibility at all times, it's unacceptable.

You are completely overreacting. She hadn't been given to anyone else and tbh at 8 yrs old she should be able to say "that's not my mum" and wouldn't just walk off with a stranger.

She wasn't allowed to go, teacher mis remembered. They are human.

She wasn’t lost she’d gone to the loo and to get her coat

I don't accept 'they are humans' when the welfare of my child is at stake, they can bloody well do their job and do it well or feel the consequences.

Perhaps a pick up register would be an idea if staff can’t remember who is who

Child went to toilet and to get her coat is a safeguarding concern now? She will end up frightened to move out of her seat! Yes I get that the teacher didn't know she had gone to get her coat but it's not as if she wandered out of school on her own!

They should be reporting themselves if they’ve lost a child. It’s Ofsted notifiable.

How did he get past you at the gate?

Lost a child in the toilet?

Feel the consequences 😂

What a ridiculous post.

do teachers always know where children are? I wouldn’t have thought so. Her child had asked to go to the toilet and then also went to get her coat. Even if the teacher had remembered where the child said she was going, she may not have been there (ie not in the toilets but getting her coat).

your situation is obviously very different - letting a child leave without an adult is terrifying.

Total mn wrath raising!! @JHITRM77 what consequences threats do you mean?

OP you're over-reacting. By junior school age they are allowed to move around the school building (to the toilet/to get their coat/to run an errand) without constant supervision. If they'd sent her home with a different adult or let her out of the school grounds then that's a different issue, but a seven year old popping to get her coat from her classroom is not a safeguarding concern. Calm down.

She wasn’t lost. She hadn’t left. Nothing happened.

overreacting.

they don’t even do this stuff at that age at our schools. Once they get to P4 (age 8) the kids just leave and make their own way home e

Fair enough! I will keep calm and carry on, thanks all!

Yeah by that age I wouldn’t be concerned. We had a v similar scenario with my 7yo a couple of weeks ago. Her class came out and she wasn’t there and the teacher was a bit baffled, turned out she’d been at the end of line, remembered something was left in her tray and went back to get it and then decided to for a wee. It was clear she was still on the premises somewhere so I wasn’t worried about it, just reminded her to tell the teacher next time!

Jesus, seen it all now. Safeguarding concern for a toilet trip. What have I just read?

Unclench OP

Nothing happened?
What is the mix up you want to report?

Welfare of a child who had gone to the toilet?

Feel what consequences exactly? Likelihood would be a supply teacher for the rest of the year.

Coming soon to @JHITRM77

ROBOT TEACHERS because humans weren't good enough.

Tomorrow’s thread

My child isn’t allowed to go to the toilet.