"Don't go past the staffroom on your own."

[Tolkienista]

I retired in July after a very long successful career as a primary teacher, loved my job and everything that went with it.
Called in to school this week on Tuesday having got permission off the headmaster to visit so that I could catch up with the staff and watch the school Nativity play.

Signed in using the automated system, picked up my lanyard as a visitor and then was promptly told by the office, that I couldn't go further than the staff room on my own, no interaction with pupils on my own....... "safeguarding."
I was shocked having worked at the school for close to 20 years, it was my first visit back since i left.

Anyway, cut a long story short. I needed the toilet ....(not far from the staff room) one of the children spotted me going in and by the time I came out there was a bunch of pupils waiting to greet me and catch up. They were so lovely and desperate to say hello, it was sad I just couldn't be myself and interact how i normally would in my natural environment.
I watched the Nativity and enjoyed catching up with everyone, but when I left the school, I wondered if I'll go back.

I'm retired and now an ex teacher so I guess my presence in school is different but AIBU to feel this is safeguarding off the scale, that I can't revisit my school and interact with children I've taught and know so well?

Any thoughts would be very welcome.

There's a lady in my school with a letter on her file for letting a teacher who had finished up 2 months earlier into a classroom to say hello.

She will now be doing "robotic responses" and lacking "common sense" as I expect she'd like to keep her job.

It's just the way things are now particularly in a MAT

But we ARE ruled by these things!

To deny the reality of that is stupid.

Kids are no safer in schools than they were 25 years ago. Most safeguarding rules are to protect staff not children. To go against these rules isn't putting children at least; it's putting your colleagues at risk.

Wow, I've just read all the posts from the last 24 hours and they make very interesting reading. I knew my post would be controversial, but I wanted to open a discussion on what it means in reality to almost have a tracker device put on you when you've spent many many years in that same building as safe as houses.

Just to clarify, that the lanyard was handed to me by a member of office staff I've known for years, taught all her children. She knows me really well.

As for my comment on having the same lanyard as the visiting plumber. I was not denigrating his job in any way. Just saying he's a complete stranger to the school, I've worked there for many years and have a very up to date DBS, but we're classed the same. I can see why safeguarding officers feel I'm in the wrong, that's fine.

Anyway I've said all I have to say, thank you to those who've understood my position and can put themselves in my shoes, I'm a good hardworking person, but my days of mixing freely with children in school are over.

I visited a previous school around 2 years after I left. I've just thought about it and realised I was accompanied only by 2 primary students for my tour around the school (they'd moved to a new site). It wasn't a MAT, though.

On the other side of this, I'm still a teacher and had my enhanced DBS renewed in the summer. I also have two other valid DBS from other jobs I've done in the past two years. I've just joined the PTA at my son's school but am still waiting for my volunteer DBS to come back (been 6 weeks). Until I have this, I have to be accompanied around the school site. The fact they've made the rules so I have to have a DBS that names the individual school is odd, to me. I can't believe I can't just give them the DBS number I have so they can look it up on the system. It seems the safeguarding thing has just gone too far in the other direction.

@KatherineofGaunt thank you for your contribution to my original post. As you say it really would make more sense to have just one DBS number to cover all places you visit.
I wasn't going to add anything else to my thread, but I bumped into a mother of one of the children I taught last year.
She said her daughter was really disappointed I hadn't come down to see the class when I was in last week.
That's the problem, the pupils I taught were used to seeing me all over the building before I left in July.

I don't have the heart to go in any more and have to be accompanied everywhere I go, it just won't be the same.

I'm guessing it's because you're not on the SCR anymore. I would talk to the head about becoming a volunteer so you can go on the SCR and wander around the place.

I am a Headteacher and to give perspective - the school was absolutely doing the right thing. I often get ex colleagues wanting to come back and visit the school - I request that they come out of school hours or if they do during the school day this is by exception and only for events - as indeed they do need to be supervised. It is all down to safeguarding.

If you really want to catch up with former colleagues can you not arrange to meet them outside of work?

@good96 not sure if you read my original post but this is what happened. I messaged the head at the weekend to say I'd like to come in and see the Nativity. Received a reply saying great, you'll be very welcome and we look forward to seeing you. So obviously I thought it would be fine. Also brought in treats for the staff and made sure I arrived around lunchtime to catch up with them in the staffroom, again arranged in advance.

Anyway as a result of what happened on the day, I cancelled a visit I was going to make this week and I won't be returning. I was clearly invited in by the head....... I now know better.

As mad as it seems (I agree, it is mad, and very disappointing for you), with safeguarding, the rules simply need following, it's too important. The lines get too blurred otherwise, I think DSLs need to hold a very hard line. If you're allowed to freely roam the school, despite no longer working there, I can see how others may well think "well Tolkeinista was fine to do that, my mate who I've known for 30 years and has come in to do a talk on fossils is fine too, I trust him with my own kids blah blah blah". As much as it appears like it's an affront to you, it's nothing personal, the safeguarding rules are the rules for very good reasons, and they should be followed, always, no exceptions.

@Hayliebells thanks for your informed addition to the debate I started.
Almost two weeks on from my visit I'm much more up to speed with safeguarding and your explanation makes so much sense.......I honestly hadn't considered for one moment that my visit would be a problem, but I do now.

Having taught for over 40 years and had free rein in every school I've worked in, this has all come as a bit of a shock to me..
However, I'm now much more informed and realise how serious the consequences to the school would be if I didn't follow the guidance put in place.

Thanks to everyone who's contributed to my original post, your comments have really put everything into perspective.
Merry Christmas to you all.

Not sure how your former school works, but we have to read KCSIE every September, ideally before the kids come back, then sign a form stating we have read it and that we have no new convictions to declare since our last DBS. We can then wear our staff lanyard. Staff whose DBS status is known wear green lanyards and can walk around school unaccompanied (eg our local Music Hub people). Everyone else must wear a red lanyard. Students know what the different lanyards mean.

If you retired in July and aren't now working in a school, you wouldn't have read the latest KCSIE or signed anything to say you had no new convictions, therefore, the school has no choice. I know it seems crazy, but those are the rules.

Malbec that reminds me of before we had Ofsted. It was decided by SLT we should brush up the kids on what the lanyards mean (special school, so some comprehension and retention issues you might not see so much of in mainstream)

One small class filtered in and the amazing form tutor (true gent, retired now, well missed!) asked his glass what the different lanyards might mean. Red was thought of to be some kind of dangerous predator, like "the guy who cleaned the stage lights and the bloke with the strimmer" and green was declared by one lad as "not a nonce, like" 😆

We managed to get through OFSTED somehow!

@Malbecfan gosh I'm learning more every time I log on & read the latest comment to my post and for goodness sake it's Christmas night!
Thank you for clarifying matters re: lanyards, very useful.

Should the school risk getting an inadequate OFSTED over this? Because having unaccompanied visitors of any kind could be seen as a safeguarding failure, and could lead to an inadequate on safeguarding, which is inadequate for the whole school.

I agree common sense ought to apply, but it's not the school themselves making these rules.

Personally I think it's got a bit ridiculous, mums can't have a PTA meeting at school or listen to readers unless they have a DBS - but these are the times we live in I guess.

Try to remember that the school are just following the rules and it isn't personal.

Our PTA people are DBS checked by school as they are technically volunteers and when I also worked in our local primary school, the volunteers who listened to people read all had a DBS check. Not only that, but the reading volunteers also had to do level 2 safeguarding training. It was a pain for me as I had already done level 3 for an external organisation where I was safeguarding lead, but my usual school made me do level 2 then the primary also made me do level 2. I sat with a lovely lady in the primary training who was a recently retired judge that had just moved to the area and was looking to help out. She was absolutely appalled by some of the content we had to cover; as a judge, she thought she had seen it all, but then as a result of the training, realised she hadn't.

100% understand that it's not personal,
didn't think so either on the day I visited the school, when i was told not to go past ths staff room
I understand the issues around safeguarding so much better.

Hi Tolkienista,

I'm really sorry that your visit back as a volunteer felt like that. I totally get how hard that must have been. I wondered if you had considered signing up as a volunteer? That would get you DBS checked and fully integrated and then I think you could go back to being able to visit and have a good time there.

@KeepTrying0 thanks for your comment.
Just to clarify exactly what happened. My visit back to the school was not as a volunteer it was as a visitor to attend a Christmas event in the school which I'd cleared with the headteacher a few days before, she said I'd be warmly welcomed.

After I'd signed in at the entrance, I was met by a member of office staff who'd just returned to work & informed me I couldn't go beyond the staffroom on my own.

I don't want to become a volunteer. I've had an extremely long career in teaching & I've no intention of returning as a volunteer. Hope that clarifies my position.