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.

I'm a TA in Scotland and have worked in many schools with a similar setup to the OP. We have lots of Victorian school buildings with low fencing situated in small towns/large villages where most people know each other. Often there's a ROW across the playground.

Maybe it's cultural? Maybe Scots have fewer concerns about security than those in rUK? In many areas of Scotland, there are very few 'newcomers' and I suppose it's easy to be complacent about security.

The Dunblane tragedy didn't prompt our councils to fortify the playgrounds in any area I'm aware of, although it has changed the access into the buildings and made it more controlled. In many areas lots of children do go home for lunch as our catchment areas are tightly geographical.

For those who are confused, we don't have OFSTED in any capacity in Scotland.

On saying all that, I haven't come across a parent being permitted to stand in the playground during breaks. I have come across several who will stand outside the fence and watch their child. I'm fairly sure that most Headteachers would address the issue strongly with the parent.

@Chocolatedeficitdisorder The 6 foot fences thrown up round schools in central Scotland were a direct result of Dunblane.

In the town I lived in my school was the last to have a gate on the fence as the council had to go to court to try and remove the right of way

All of the schools I worked in locked the gates at 9.05 and only opened them to allow home kids to leave, none of them re-opened the gates until just before the bell. There’s no way a parent would be allowed to just wander into the playground. At one school I worked in parents weren’t even allowed in the playground in the morning after an incident

The lunch thing us a huge difference. I was really surprised by being looked at like I had two heads when I mentioned going home got lunch when my girls started school. They’re 16 now and their HT from when they were 5 (I worked there after they left) says she still thinks of me as the “Mum who randomly suggested kids go home at lunch”

Wouldn’t be allowed in any school I’ve worked in. She’d need a clean DBS check and clearance from SLT or a visitors pass and to be accompanied at all times to even get through the front door!

I’m really shocked by what I’m reading about the Scottish education system too. Very enlightening as to how things are done so differently!

Theoretically anyone could come in the gate when the kids are out playing.

That is horrifying! It certainly can’t happen anywhere I’ve worked or sent my DCs to!

@lyralalala

I'm in Fife and we have plenty of schools with low fences and unlocked gates.

If children come and go without being checked at lunchtime, what happens if there is a fire at lunch? Could you be 100% sure if all children were out of the building?

FWIW, I teach at a rural secondary school which wasn't fenced until this summer, when a few ex-pupils decided to drop by and say hello. There was nothing malicious about the incident, but it made people aware of how open the site actually was and how someone could get in with no-one being aware, so they fenced the school pretty damn quickly.

One incident of this kind should be enough to make the head take action- it shouldn't be happening daily!