What would happen in your school?

[Corneliawildthing]

All our infants get free school lunch. After lunch they play in the playground. One parent, who claims other kids are hitting her child (they are not - in fact it's the other way round), now comes and stands in the playground, watching her daughter every lunchtime. There are always 2 playground supervisors in the area who "don't like to say anything to her" and the HT avoids confronting parents.

If this Mum is so concerned about her child and is obvioisly free at lunch times then could someone suggest thst tue child goes home for lunch?

And address the issue if the permanently open gate separately

Oops 'scuse the typos

Unbelievable this is able to happen in a school. It would not happen in my school or any other school I know.

I have never been into a school where you have not been required to report straight to reception and be given a visitor lanyard.

No one (even a parent) should be able to come and go throughout the day. How and why is this allowed to happen?

Do children who go home for lunch just 'walk out'?

Jeez I can't believe that the playground is basically open to the public for 'shortcuts ' and this parent stands in the playground at lunchtime.

Neither would be happening at my kids school- high fences, secure locked gates and no parent gets past the reception without a valid reason, visitor pass and being accompanied at all times by a staff member. There's a locked door in the way too.

The free access to the playground and this parent present at playtime are safeguarding/ safety issues and if the Head won't resolve them I'd take it further- governers, OFSTED.

My DCs ex nursery was closed after an OFSTED visit because it was deemed not secure enough and only allowed to reopen when it was sorted.

Call to local newspaper?

I am amazed that all the parents at this school are not up in arms about the lax security. Our parents wouldn’t stand for it and neither would staff.

Children who go home for lunch come back through this entrance
Reception is at the other side of the school. I suppose nobody says anything because it's always been like this. We don't have governors or OFSTED and I think you would be thought of as a troublemaker if you took it further.

After dunblane I thought everything had tightened right up! I'm shocked and appalled!

Exactly. And that was a long time ago now. And the ‘nah this is Scotland, different rules’ simply don’t apply with this.

If there is no one else to go to, (And their must be some kind of local government body that looks after schools), then go to the local paper.

(Why mention the free school meals in the opening posts btw?)

If you don't have governers or ofsted there must be some organisation that oversees schools in Scotland.

Find out who it is and report it to them.

I would be having a fit if I my child's school yard was so open

Unbelievable! Your local MP should be interested. Shocked that Scotland doesn’t do safeguarding of children! Surely they do?!

That is completely shocking. I’ve never heard of a school playground being accessible to the public. Nope. Nope. Nope. If the Head won’t change anything you need to go to the Chair of Governers. I assumed at first she had been DBS checked and taken on as an official volunteer (in which case I would want her supporting children other than her DD), it’s so beyond the realms of what’s normal within a school for her to just have wandered in.

I mentioned free school meals to show that the whole infant department apart from a few that go home are out playing when thus woman is there.
Why do you ask?

The school is responsible for the safety of all the pupils whilst they are in their care.How can they do that if anyone can wander in or out?

My experience is limited to London but I was of the understanding than after the Dunblane massacre in 1996, all school bulidings and playgrounds in the UK were secured.

You'd think, especially being in Scotland, that the school would be tight with security.

Tbh, I don't blame the parent. Dd has been subjected to some horrible bullying, and whilst the school have lied assured me that the perpetrator is constantly watched, things have still happened. I know it's not possible for lunch staff to watch all children, but if they are aware that an issue has been reported then they should be alert. If the parent is going in and watching then it's making their job easier!

Seeing as the head is in charge of safeguarding, could you take it further and complain to the education authority?

No one can get onto our playground, it is fenced off with locked gates. If someone were to stand st the fence looking in, the midday assistants would ask them to move on. If they refused, the HT or a member of SLT would come and speak to them.

Ofsted exists in scotland...

I mentioned free school meals to show that the whole infant department apart from a few that go home are out playing when thus woman is there.
Why do you ask?

I asked because I didn’t see the relevance. Surely all the children would be out playing regardless of what kind of lunch they had.

Let her get on with it but the moment she tries to speak to a child I'd get her thrown out.

MsMarvel
No Ofsted in Scotland.
They have something called Education Scotland I believe.

Scotland has Education Scotland rather than OFSTED. Different name, similar role.
education.gov.scot/education-scotland/inspection-reports/

We don't have OFSTED. We have HMIE who inspect schools once in a blue moon.

Flamingo if they didn't get free meals there would be a fraction of the amount of kids in the playground. The majority would go home

Unless a child has one to one supervision, it is impossible to watch them constantly. Yes, the midday supervisors will be alert where this child is concerned, but usually the child to adult ratio is often quite high at lunchtime and they could be dealing with any number of things.

This school has a serious safeguarding problem with regards to access to the playground. I would advise you to contact the local authority safeguarding unit asap.