People's opinion please...nicely!

[Hooplah]

Can I just ask if school should be considered as 'in loco parentis' (not sure I have that spelling right?). What I mean is that, during the school day when your child is in their care, does the school have a duty to look after them, academically and emotionally, as a parent would? We have a situation that I think this may be applicable to so would just like people's thoughts as to how they expect a school to 'look after' their children? Like I say, not inflammatory, just asking opinions? xx

Yes they have a duty of care, emotional, mental and physical.

There are things that they cannot do, e.g. apply suncream, as that would be inappropriate.

Depends what you mean. They should keep your child safe as well as educate them. Can you be a little bit more specific?

Not sure all schools have that opinion, I know a teacher who went to an academy meeting where the idiot man in charge of the academy told them all: "schools are factories for education, you're not there to like the children". This was a primary school!

Yes I think they so. Don't know what the official answer is though. I guess only within limits and it gets to a point where the responsibility is passed back to parent, but school is responsible for initiating the hand over (e.g. Unwell child or behaviour beyond our control). Do you have a specific example/scenario?

Yes. For instance if a child needed to go to the hospital before a parent could arrive or be reached they should make that decision and someone should accompany them until a parent or guardian is available. Is that what you mean?

Yes the school is in loco parentis but this means they have responsibility in the place of the parents but it doesn't mean they should look after them as a parent would, they would look after them as a school would. There are some things parents do with their kids that would be totally inappropriate for a teacher to do and vice versa. They dont try to be the same.

It depends entirely on the situation.

For example, if a child needs urgent medical attention, a member of staff will accompany them to hospital and make urgent decisions in loco parentis.

But if, for example, a child likes to watch Netflix while eating lunch - and mum lets them at home - school is not going to facilitate that.

You need to give more information or you will just get as 'long as a piece of string' type answers.

Thank you so far, I see it's a bit ambiguous! In a nutshell, school was pushing DS far too hard academically - he has a number of learning difficulties and struggles enormously. For 3 years we've asked them to back off...no academic pressure from us, just to do his best. End of last term, he virtually had a nervous breakdown and we withdrew him from the school and he is now somewhere where there is far less pressure to perform. However, he is really in a bad place mentally and I think this last 3 years of school have broken him - I think the school should have been taking care of him - 'in loco parentis'? Not hoping to achieve anything by this, it's done and hopefully DS will begin to restore his self-esteem now he's not in a hothouse but just interested to know if the school should have been taking this more seriously, as our concerns were dismissed.

That's an absolutely awful story - the school absolutely have a duty to take care of their students' mental (and physical) health. They are in the wrong. I only hope things get better for your DS now he's at a new school.

Thank you Rose0, it's been a 'journey'! 10 days in to new school and things are a lot more simple and less pressurised but he's been scarred, which will take time.

That's good to hear. It sounds like you're really supporting him so things should start to look up (slowly but surely).

No school should ask of more from their students than to do their best. How can they do more than their best? Nuts!