do you drop your reception aged child at the classroom door or do you just let them walk on their own from the carpark?

[icecreamsoda]

Our reception-year 2 children are supposed to be dropped at their classroom doors. And also they will only be released to someone coming to pick them up. Those classes are right around the other side of the school.

So today I was shocked to see a child in my dd's class walking up to school on her own. I asked her where her mummy was and she answered that she was in the car. So it seems she's parked the car, little girl has got out and walked through the carpark, through the school gates and around the school building on her own.

So I went into the office and reported it, and also told the teacher who said that it's not on and that it will be addressed.

Was I unreasonable?

I have no issue with drop and run. Parents aren't allowed into the classroom so the closest any of them get is the door, although I tend to just let dd go in on her own.

But I do have issue with just dropping in the carpark.

But obviously people should not be looking out for other people's children.

we don't even get to the playground - let alone the school door lol.

here you drop em in,put lunches on the trolley, pop book bags in cupboard and say hi to teacher, then take them outside to play until the whistle for line up goes. Most reception mums wait til they walk in as we get extra hugs and kisses.
there is one mum who works who drops her dd off early and teacher keeps an eye but generally it is expected you wait and supervise til 9am

I could leave DD (4, and in Nursery) to go into class by herself. By the time I've got out of the car and locked it she's usually a distant blur, following her brothers into school. However, I do think 4/5 is a bit too young to do that deliberately - it's just too easy for them to get distracted imo. I don't have a problem with 'drop and run' (lol) when they're a bit older though. before DD was in school I'd often kick the DSs out of the car and let them make their own way in - they felt independant, I didn't get wet in the rain

Oh, I have to say that we aren't allowed in the school either. The DCs line up in the playground and go in with the teacher, so once they're old enough to be trusted not to leave the playground you're mot missing out by not staying (apart from playground Mums chat, which I don't do anyway)

A mum down our road gets her friend to pick up her son aged 4yrs old from the school.
But she never goes up to the school gates she just waits for him in the carpark.
Last Monday, he was in tears in the carpark because he could not find the car.
It turned out that her husband was picking him up in a new car.
Poor child was so confused, offered to give him a lift back home but had to check with his sister in class 5 first, as they were late coming out.
In the end they went with the friend's husband.
In the mornings, lots of parents just drop their kids off in the carpark before the gates have even opened (all ages), this is at 8.30am, gates open by 8.35.
But that 5 mins does make all the difference as its really difficult to get OUT of the carpark when everyone is arriving!

should add, dd at small village school with 76 pupils!

piffle - ony one who works? Seriously?

"And it is mums - plenty of us dads do the school run but seem uncannily to have mastered the simple art of drop-and-go."

Yes - at the school I work at, many of the dads drop and go out of the car in the middle of the road, on a right-angled bend.....

I dropped my son at the road in front of school this morning - he has just turned 5 and is the 4th youngest child in the school. He did have to walk through the car park but in fairness that is only used by teachers and there are never any moving vehicles at that time of the morning. There was also a fairly steady stream of older children going in.

I wouldn't have done it if he was in any way upset or wanted me to walk in with him. But he is familiar with the layout of the school, and he knows where he is going, and he wants to be there. In any event parents drop off children in the playground and not at the classroom door at this school.

Personally I think that your reaction is a bit OTT as a) if the school policy is that the child is personally handed over at the classroom door then the teacher will have had the chance to spot it; and b) did you have to report it to everyone? The child's age is precise years and months is fairly irrelevant actually - there can be huge differences in terms of maturity despite physical age.

We arent allowed our school has a policy that reception age children have to be taken to the class room by an adult and picked up from the class room.

I am not sure I would have said anything to the school though as if it is school policy the school will be aware which children are accompanied or not.

yes only one works full time full hours. There are only 11 reception kids though! Small rural village school. Lots are farming families so work is life iyswim

we were told at dd1s school visit that parents are not allowed to enter the school building with thier dc's after week one as the cloakroom is too small. im fairly certain that dd will be fine with this as i often dont escort her all the way to nursery she sometimes just says goodbye at the gate and goes inside alone!

i would never leave her not knowing whether she had actually made it into the building though and i definately would not let her walk through the carpark alone!

I take mine to the playground and wait till he's in class. In yr 1 I will carry on doing this until he's happy for me to leave him. However whatever happens I will carry on taking him into the playground for a year or so. I didn't let the older 2 go through the school gates on their own until yr 2/3 iirc.

However if the child is OK with being left to her own devices I don't think it was up to you to report it. Presumably the reception teacher would have noticed this was happening. She would have done in our school as it we are 'encouraged' to take the children in ourselves.

the children don't have to be physically handed to an adult, although an adult has to collect them so they will not be allowed out if someone is not there to collect them.

But the TA stands at the door and lets them in, but she doesn't necessarily see the parents as a lot of them just let the children go in while they wait at the window to wave at them.

The teacher was not aware this child had come into school grounds and into class by herself.

As I said, if for any reason she became distracted and wandered off no-one would know until pick-up time.

Another mum has also seen this child getting out of her mum's car to go to school and apparently her mum drives off as soon as she gets out of the car. She doesn't even stay to watch her across the carpark.

Now maybe I am overreacting and maybe I shouldn't have reported it. But if anything happened to that child I would hate to think that I knew she was allowed to do that and hadn't looked out for her. She is a 4 year old.

i dont think you were over reacting if she had to walk through a carpark alone! my dd often runs off as soon as we pass all the roads off around the corner where i cant see and has dissapeared by the time me and dd2 in the buggy have caught up but i always check with the teacher at the door that she has gone into the nursery! i couldnt just leave not knowing for certain that she was in the nursery! anything could happen to her!

I'm the same, micci25. I say goodbye to my daughter at the gate but watch her until she has reached and gone in the classroom.

The car park bit would worry me. I am pleased to say that neither of dc's school has had a car park. In car parks I would even watch my 8yo. I trust him to cross the road but not necessarily to know when a driver is suddenly going to pull out of the bay. Car parks scare me.

Leaving him in the playground wouldn't seem such a bad thing even when he was 4- though I have to admit I always hung around because I enjoyed watching them play.

At dd's school (she is Yr 1 now but ds starts reception in September) for the first 3 days you take them into the classroom. After that you leave them in the playground. You can leave them from 8.30am onwards, the whistle goes at 8.4am and they all line up and troop in.

If you get there before 8.30am you can leave them in before school club (school hall). The club then all troop out to the playground at 8.30am. I sometimes stay til the whistle and sometimes go straight off depending on what time I have to get to work.

I did once this year drop dd off on the pavement outside the main entrance to the school and gave her instructions to run in and ask for help. Ds had just been horribly sick in the car.

"As I said, if for any reason she became distracted and wandered off no-one would know until pick-up time."

Presumably this is a risk even if she is dropped in the playground rather than in the car park. And at ours parents are not encouraged to wait until the bell goes - the place would be heaving with parents and siblings. If the school policy is not to contact non-attendees then you should probably raise the question with the school as to whether this policy is a good one for younger children. We have to phone in re illness by 9 or else we get a call.

At our school a child couldn't just wander off from the playground. They are supervised by at least 2 members of staff from 8.30am onwards, just the same as at break time.

My eldest is in year 2 - I see him to his queue and leave him but queue with my 5 year old until his teacher arrives.

icreamsoda you should know this is 2008 - the only person we are supposed to care about is ourselves im with you though I would be concerned for her too!

My view is that the school are not responsible for my child until 8.55 when the teacher comes out to collect the children so until 8.55 they are my responsibility.

You can bet that the cut & run brigade will be the ones shouting loudest if their precious DC goes astray between drop off and pick up.

I went to a school meeting recently where a parent said "I watch my child cross the road into school in my rear view mirror as I drive off in the morning - YOU are responsible for calling if he does not show at register time"

As the headmaster pointed out if they called regarding every child who doesnt show in the morning - that would take some time as some parents dont notify the school if a child is sick!!

Surely she should be looking to see who is crossing the road in front of her tank 4x4 instead of looking in the rear view

My DD (Reception) goes to school by taxi, so I have no idea where she's dropped or what she does . She always seems to get there fine though! Surely once they're at school, if they really wanted to escape there are a millionandone ways they could do it - at playtime, while going to the loo, at the end of school when parents are chatting the playground etc. But hopefully most kids have got over the escaping thing once they are rising 5? No?

The policy at the school my DD goes to is that they will start phoning round at 10 am if any children havent appeared. I think that is sensible.
I have seen children in P1 doing as you describe, walking across the car park and into the school on thier own, the layout at the school my DD goes to is OK for that I think.
I think YABU to report this. And telling the teacher and the office.