lost at school

[spottydog]

DS at large primary and fell asleep in playground at lunchtime. other kids went back to class and no-one knew he was missing for at least 1/2hr. DS woke up in panic and eventually was found by a TA who says DS was 'the most upset he's ever been'. I'm fuming that needs are still not being met by school and that he could potentially have been in danger. TA says all lunch supervisors made aware. any suggestions about where I go with this?

[spottydog]

I do apologise, computor on go slow - so I pressed refresh, but ended up posting twice!!!

[Kazzen161]

Surely the register was called immediately after lunch break??

 

Why did the teacher not know? Why did no other children say he was asleep outside? How come he could go to sleep in a place where no staff could see him?

 

I think lunch time staff need to check he is in line to go in after lunch and the teacher or TA should certainly be checking he is in class after break. We have a few children we have to do this with. Usually other children tell us if one of them goes and hides.

 

If it is a primary, they should be used to checking for children, as some of them will only be 4 years old.

[spottydog]

ds is in large junior school approx 500 pupils. apparantly different teacher than usual and usual TA not in classroom. it appears register was not taken straight away, and as DS doesn't really have any close friends (and often prefers to be left alone at break) I guess the other kids in his class were unaware of where he was.

[cmuir]

Hi

 

Just wondering how much support is allocated to your son (is a proportion of that time allocated to cover break/lunchtime)? Irrespective of that his absence should have been noted quickly. I think it's key to put things in writing (both from you and the school), that way the matter is recorded and doesn't just disappear. The school need to provide reassurances that this won't happen again and advise what measures they'll put in place to do that. Sorry, not sure what else to suggest, but I would be displeased if this were to happen to my son too.

 

Caroline.

[Kazzen161]

I would start by going to ask why the register was not taken straight away, and how they are going to ensure your son does not get "lost" again. If no-one saw him go to the place, or noticed he was asleep there - he could have been there ill or hurt or bullied and no-one would have known.

[Kathryn]

Ask for school complaints procedure and follow it - this would normally mean writing to the head as a first step. This would also give you good evidence to use in your quest for a statutory assessment/statement.

 

It's worrying that a child can be alone and unmissed in a school for half an hour: the school seriously need to look at their procedures. What if he had been injured, or a fire had broken out in the school during the time that he was missing?

 

K x

[lucyemma]

My son, who was 5 at the time managed to get lost when the school didn't repair a broken fence on the playing field. Apparently the previous week another child had got out of school but they didn't fix it. It was a simple repair - just needed a bit of wire as someone had cut through it. Ds had no-one to play with and could see people on the other side (fields where a lot of teenagers hang out) so decided to see if someone would talk to him. He went through and at the end of lunch another child told a dinner lady that ds had gone through the gap and they had to send people to try and find him. It was another 5(!!!!) weeks before school fixed it. In this time we expressed concern to his teacher, caretaker, playground staff but were made to feel as if we were making a fuss about nothing. In the end we wrote a complaint letter to headteacher who never even acknoweldged the letter. He did acknowledge my husband storming into his office mind you it was only then that he assured us it would be fixed within a week.

 

After this I lost all faith in the school. If they couldn't ensure my son's (or anyone elses childs) safety in the school environment then how could I even begin to consider school trips etc (that's another story!!). We changed schools a few months after this.

 

Make sure that the school put something in place to ensure this does not happen again and make a complaint to the headteacher about it. It will certainly speak volumes about the school as to how they handle the situation. I would be extremely concerned if they try and brush it under the carpet as my son's school did.

[Sally44]

I would get it in writing. Send in a letter to the Head and ask for a response and details on what school will do to ensure this does not happen again.

 

Once, I was late getting to school due to traffic. I was about 7 mins late. I found my son crying behind a bush. He had followed the other children out of the classroom door. Everyone had gone home. The school was locked. We live very near the school, but you have to cross a major road. My son could have attempted to get home. I complained in writing. I received a reply that "all children are taught in reception year that they should not leave the school building until they can see their parent outside." Needless to say I included that as evidence that this school had no understanding of my son's needs was not appropriate and could not ensure his safety. We also had issues with school trips. They either allowed him to go and did not consider his SEN needs at all, or they refused to allow him to go.

[coolblue]

Oh, goodness. I think this happens a lot. My son's large infant school had two identical classroom blocks. He once went into the wrong one and was found by another teacher wandering around alone, crying in the corridor.

 

A friend of mine arrived to pick up her son on his first day at school to find him missing. A few minutes later, someone in the village rang to say she'd found him on her doorstep.

 

We once arrived late at his junior school, just after the start of the school year. The children bussed in from a neighbouring village had just arrived. All the school doors were locked and the playground was full of new year 3s (who had their own entrance) wandering around aimlessly, wondering how to get in. The school is on a busy main road, and all the gates were open. I shepherded them round to the school office and complained. After that they had a TA on bus duty.

 

I think a big factor is the open-plan classroom. I'm not advocating children sitting in rows at desks, but it's very easy for a child to slip out unnoticed. In my primary school, the big Victorian doors were so heavy, you'd notice if anyone was entering or leaving.

 

Not much help to you, of course, but the school does have a duty of care, and if I was a teacher I would want to know where all my children were all the time.

Edited March 11, 2010 by coolblue

[noogsy]

my littlie didnt cope at lunchtimes,

he used to stay in the building at lunch time,

or he was a home lunch,

noogsy x