day 3 of reception and the school lost my child!

[STARRYSKY]

DS started prep/reception last week.
On Thursday afternoon just before pick up time, my father and I sat outside his class room waiting for the bell. The kids in his class came trooping along back from somewhere else, I looked and looked then said to Dad, " I can't see Jacob..." the kids were sent out in groups of 3 or 5 to grab their bags, still no Jacob, his bag was the only one left hanging outside.
By this point I'm looking at my dad saying "they've lost my kid" Dad was laughing, telling me not to be silly, how could they lose him??
Then a kid hangs his head out the classroom door and looks around before yelling "has anyone seen Jacob??"
Now Dad was as worried as me.
The bell went, kids all rushed out, Jacobs bag is still hanging all by itself outside the classroom.. I go grab it and wait for the kids to disperse, I see the teacher and another guy ( PE teacher) looking white faced and wringing their hands... "umm..wheres Jacob?" I ask, the PE teacher dashes out the room, Ms.A is white faced as she starts telling me that the kids all went to PE and she knows Jacob was there as she counted the kids herself...maybe he ducked off to the loo.. she dashes off too, My Dad is pretty livid, he goes off to search the playground, I'm just standing there holding Jacobs bag, going WTF??????????
I spot a mum I know from Kindy, whose child is in the next classroom, "they lost my kid!" I tell her, she is shocked and starts ranting "how could they??" when I spot Jacob
Ms. A has him by the hand and brings him out, he was in the middle classroom playing with a rocket, she explains, they had been in the other room earlier and she remembered that J loved the rocket, sure enough, thats where he was.
After telling him sternly that he needs to stay with his class, I echoed those sentiments and we went home....
On the way home, I start asking all the questions I should have asked the teacher right then and there..
How long was he gone for?
why didnt anyone notice?
the classroom he was in, is situated smack in the middle of 6 other classrooms, how did no one even notice a lone child playing in there?
and then theres the what if's.... I dont even want to go there...

From what I can gather, the last lesson of the day is PE. The class teacher does a head count before leaving the classroom and escorts the children to the hall, where the PE teacher is. He then brings them back to the classroom after the lesson.
So sometime after the teacher has done a head count, my child has disappeared... and no one knows how long he was gone for, or where he was.
Jacob tells me he never went to the hall, he played with the rocket the whole time. (this is debatable, Jacob likes telling stories)

DF and I went to the office the next afternoon to enquire about how to complain/talk to someone etc..
The office lady knew exactly who we were when we walked in and went and got the principal straight away.


The principal, while a seemingly nice lady, tried to put all accountability on Jacob, "He's a runner" "at least he was in a safe place and not at the beach"
we enquired as to what their policy is with the moving of children and accountability for them.

So basically, their roll call is only done once a day, in the mornings. the kids have different teachers for music/computing/languages/library/ PE/ etc, they are escorted by the class room teacher to the lesson and brought back by the other. no roll is called to ensure all children are present.
I'm shocked at this, especially being 5 year olds, why so many teachers and why no accounting for all those kids??
The principal agreed that maybe a change of policy needed to be looked at. but also pointed out that it was J's first PE lesson and his PE teacher had no idea who he was, but definitely would now... (in my mind the PE teacher is the accountable one here)

At this point the home time bell went, so I exited to get Jacob. leaving DF with the principal, who then told DF that kids need to be trained "like dogs" they need to be made to heel, if they run, stop and wait for them to come back.. etc..
She is lucky I never heard that.

Ok, so DF and I decided to leave it at that, we dont want our child being labelled as a "difficult child with difficult parents" etc, etc

but then today...

I'm dropping J at school this morning, his teacher starts telling me about how she is sure that Jacob went to PE and he must have just ducked back into that classroom when they came back.. (in essence, this is what was said, I was only half listening as J was clinging to my leg and talking to me at the same time) I didnt click to what she was saying until I walking back to the car..

I KNOW that J did not go to PE, I watched all those kids come back from PE, J was not with them. Why is she lying to me?? why continue to go on about it, is she just trying to cover her ass?

The more I think about it now, the angrier I get..

My parents don't seem to think that complaining to the education department will get us anywhere, what are they gonna do??
I'm very disappointed in the school policies and my choice to send him there...

[black_rose]

That would be terrifying! At our school they preps are not allowed to go anywhere alone, and the teacher takes them to the specialist classes and makes sure they are there. It sounds like they are making excuses. Not sure what I would do if it were me, sounds like they need to change their policies.

[feeb]

OMG that is terrible I would be livid and not happy at all, they need a change in policy then. Surely the PE teacher should have been told how many kids he had and he should regularly recount children.

Hugs hun I hope he is not to upset about it all and is happy to go to school.

[kateo]

I am teacher and whenever I have taught Kindy I have just assumed I would get NO breaks from face to face teaching for the first couple of weeks.
I have stayed with my class as they have gone to other activities and always stayed with them at recess.
At lunch I have usually arranged to supervise them while they eat (they often need lots of help) and then arranged with another Kindy teacher to supervise them in our own "special" area of the playground just while I pop off to the loo etc. This is not required bbut it makes the whole first term easier for everyone.
Yes they do need to be "trained" how the school works, what bells mean at the end of play/eating time; even what areas they are allowed in. This needs lots of repetition and modelling as it's a HUGE amount of information for such little overwhelmed people.
I have taught across the school and Kindy teachers should be paid extra (IMO). It's a huge responsibility and a tough job.
There is no excuse for what has happened to your poor LO, and the school is very lucky nothing serious came of it.
I reckon the teachers involved have probably had the "@#$T" scared out of them and probably this is enough.
I would never class a Kindy kid as a "runner". They are just a little person learning the ropes.

[No.5]

Wow! I could not even imagine!!

How did the other kids not notice him walking off? Do they not walk in 2 lines?

They definitely need to be looking at their policy, that's just not good enough! Then to blame it on the child.. Disgusting!

[~clover~]

And that's why we have an early childhood area. I've never been in a school with the same set up before, but I gotta say, I like it.
Our 4yo kindy's, preprimary's & year 1's are all in a fenced off area with in the school grounds. With their own classrooms. The pp's & year 1's are allowed into the big kids area on days that aren't kindy days, but on kindy days they need to stay in their area.

I've not had a child lost, but I've had one have rocks thrown at her in the playground of a school with 12 kids in total. I was disgusted that with 12 kids they didn't see it. Where the hell were they??