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?

QUOTE
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.

Fair enough if that is your school's policy. Ours however tells us that they provide supervision in the school hall from 8am or in the playground from 8.30am.

I do usually take ds1 into the playground (though not to his classroom, it isn't normal practice here for parents to go into the school in the morning). I have on occasion dropped him off at the school gate and - shock, horror - let him walk thorugh the playground on his own though!

Even that still seem overprotective to me - at 5 I was going to school on my own on the bus - and it wasn't a school bus either, just a service bus to the next village, so I had to walk through the village to get to school, stopping at the shop for an apple on the way.

I put DD on her school bus at 7.00 and return to the bus stop at 1.00pm to pick her up (Overseas!)All the children are supervised on the bus and when they get to school. She has gained an enormous amount of self-confidence from doing this and feels she is really grown up. Almost all the children in the school do this and I personally think it is really great and wonder why in the UK school buses are not used more often...probably comes down to cost, but then one bus is better for the environment than loads of cars.