Daughter got out of school

[Mumlou13]

My daughter has also walked out of school today and the school didn't even know until I phoned them, as she had rang me to pick her up. She has autism and is in secondary school. She had walked about 15 mins away from school before she rang me upset and scared. The school still haven't rang me back to discuss this I have been waiting all day, does anyone have the best advice on how I can deal with this as a massive complaint so that they know the seriousness of it because obviously they aren't bothered

Our secondary would have no idea if a student walked out. It's a completely open site with multiple buildings and public footpaths across school grounds. Register is only taken twice a day. So if you walk out after afternoon register no-one would even notice.

You're going to write a letter of complaint because your kid bunked off school??

Instead of calling, I’d email and request a meeting.

It’s absolutely great that your dd was able to ring you. That’s a positive thing in this whole situation. And I would emphasise with her that that was a good decision.

She probably needs some safer options for bolting off. What you don’t want is for her to feel afraid to ring you for help if she has a panic attack, comes to her senses in a strange place and doesn’t know what to do.

And for that reason, I wouldn’t go guns blazing at the school. They need to work with her needs, not come down on her like a ton of bricks.

Talk to them about creating a safe place for her to bolt to if she needs a break.

I forget the schools that think they are prisons.

Our secondary schools (rural) have no perimeter fence, limited cctv of the perimeter.

Without an 1:1 echp there is nothing we can do to contain a child.

Not all schools have closed gates.

The secondary school I work in it is very easy to escape. However, if you think your child is at risk of doing it again you can request she has a risk assessment. We have a list of a student names that we have to alert the safeguarding team about if they don't turn up within the first 5 mins of lessons etc, can't allow out to use the toilet without calling an adult to take them etc.

@swashbucklecheer that's quite worrying because it means anyone could just wander into the school.

In what way? How children are kept in or how they're treated when they're there? Because both of those things are questionable at the minute.

It is what it is, unless the government wants to cough up funding for security gates. Mind you our school is very much part of the community and the emphasis is not on keeping people outside the grounds.

@swashbucklecheer I am actually surprised because every school - primary and secondary -I see (and I am London so lots) has a fence around it and gates to be buzzed in and out of the grounds.
I mean some of the fences are pretty easy to climb over but I haven't seen a school that doesn't have a fence and locked gate for at least 15 years if not more.

@swashbucklecheer what do you mean by "part of the community" though? Surely any old random isn't allowed on site during the school day without permission and a reason.

We are not in London. We wouldn't have the problems that London has.

@Needmorelego our local primary only had completely closed perimeter about 6 years ago.

The secondaries I know, both state and private are completely accessible and one has a footpath through the school

@swashbucklecheer schools in my hometown and in-laws home town are the same. Fences and gates.
That's small town Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire.
I didn't know that random people who might want to hurt children was exclusive to London.

We have a driveway that goes through our site to 2 other schools. We have parents grandparents aunties uncles friends etc all moving through our site at various times for pick ups and drop offs. Very much our local community.

@Regulus yes thinking about it my old secondary in Oxfordshire only got full fences a few years ago. It was a very open campus and anyone could walk on and off.
To be honest I am not worried about kids who decide to skive getting out (as long as they aren't vulnerable in any way) - it's random people getting in I worry about.

I'm also surprised that schools in some parts of the country have no fences. I mean, it's mostly to keep people out, not to keep them in.

In terms of OP - your outrage may be reasonable or not, depending on your daughter's needs. If she has an echp or otherwise high needs, it is more worrying. But you don't need to kick up a stink about it. It happened. She's safe. What can be done to prevent it happening again, or to ensure she is safe if it does happen again? That's the focus of the meeting you need to have.

@swashbucklecheer drop off and pick up times are different though. That's when you expect access to the school. But once school is in session (so from 9am) gates are closed and only re open at pick up time. If you need to get into the school you'd buzz the gate.
Surely people can't just wander onto the grounds at say 11.25 in the morning?

Yes they can when there isn't gates. You can't lock what's not there

Many secondary schools are designed to keep people out rather than in, so push bar doors that open from the inside but not from the outside. You can't simply lock children in, what happens in case of fire? Primary schools around me tend to have high fences but, given a secondary student could shimmy up them in seconds, it is actually safer not to have high fences at secondary so children can't impale themselves or fall whilst climbing them!

I'm a secondary teacher. We had a perimeter fence fitted about 5 years ago, for safeguarding reasons. Pupils who want to leave school can do so only via reception (and one other shortcut but no one knows it seems). This would take them onto the car park. There is a manned gate that is locked as standard. If a kid has a legitimate reason to leave, reception will radio to the person on the gate to tell them. I thought this was standard now. Apart from all the other reasons, how can you do a reliable headcount in an emergency if you've no idea where a child is? I really wonder what Ofsted would have to say about non-secure sites that only take a register twice a day btw. We have it drummed into us that the register must be done asap at the start of every lesson and we are to email the pastoral team if a pupil fails to turn up when they were marked present earlier.

How old and to what degree does the autism impact in this situation?

my dd is in year 9. She is on the autism spectrum. The other day she followed the school’s proper procedure to check herself out of school to go to an appointment. No concerns at all.

@swashbucklecheer that's quite worrying.
Anyway.... derailing the thread somewhat.
If you are happy with that lack of security then fine. I wouldn't be personally.

You have my sympathy. I remember how terrifying it was to arrive at school pick up one day and find DS (ND and in second week at secondary) wasn't there. School had no idea where he was. They were also utterly disinterested - wouldn't go and look for him and wouldn't look let me go and search the site. I had no idea whether he had been missing for ten minutes or whether he had never made it to school after leaving home that morning in the dark. I found the lack of any sense of duty of care, especially to a vulnerable child, absolutely shocking. I expected better of them then and I still do now.

I think people are being very judgemental. OP hasn’t really given enough details. As a parent of a teen with ASD I know if this was my dd I wouldn’t be happy, luckily my dd went to a Sen secure school but has now been moved to a SEN unit at a local college where she managed to disappear and walk 2 miles (gone for almost a hour) before anyone noticed, my dd is severely autistic, almost non verbal and doesn’t carry a phone on her.

OP, does your dd have a EHCP? Does she have a TA pr1:1 support, are there things in place to keep her safe?

Autism is a huge spectrum so it’s not easy for us to know how capable your dd is, how safety aware she is or if she’s at risk from walking out of school? Does she understand what she has done is against school rules?