There is trouble brewing, my friends. Big trouble. This could get dirty. Brother against brother. Well, mother against mother or father against father more like.
The board of management of a primary school in the county has proposed bringing the opening time forward by half an hour from 9:20 to 8:50. 8:50 to 9:10 to be assembly time. At 9:10 formal instruction to commence. School to end a half an hour earlier at 2:30.
Why? Because a handful two handfuls of kids were being dropped off up to an hour before school-start. Far too long for small children to be left unsupervised in anybody’s book or in anybody’s school yard.
And so the uproar began. Pikes and bayonets were taken down from the rafters. The battle lines were drawn. And rightly so - after all, who wants to get up half an hour earlier than they have to? Who wants the kids coming home right smack in the middle of East Enders?
Assertions and questions were hastily prepared for throwing. Knees were limbered up for jerking. There were incidents and accidents. There were hints and allegations. A meeting was called and some roly-poly little bat-faced girl called Betty was pushed forward as an example.
Why, asked Al, her father, should Betty have to change her routine just because some parents are using the school as a play-pen? Somewhere to dump the kids on their way to work while they ducked back down the alley? The teachers are being used as babysitters.
An assembly time of 20 minutes? Al was aghast. So my Betty will lose 20 minutes out her daily education? Not good enough. You know, I don’t find this stuff amusing anymore.
It’s against the law to start school that early!
Now I don’t know much about Al. Maybe it’s his first time around. Maybe he’s got a short little span of attention. But what I do know, is that if you want to go jerking knees and throwing hints and allegations, then you do your research first. Sharpen your pike and bayonet.
If he’d bothered to ask Betty he’d know there has always been a 20 minute assembly time. Time to correct homework and so on.
If he’d bothered to check the department of eduction rules he’d know all schools are required to have a 20 minute assembly. That all pupils are expected to be in the school for the commencement of assembly time, not to ramble in any time during it. That the rules give the starting time as no later than 9.30 a.m. but do not specify a starting time.
He would know that the school’s responsibility of care applies only to school hours and a brief period before and after.
He would know the school insurance would not cover Betty if he were to drop her off too early or pick her up too late. He would know the management board have a duty to communicate this to parents engaging in the practice.
Al’s battle can be won. I for one would support him. The majority should not be imposed upon because a small minority are neglecting their offspring’s welfare. And let’s face it, leaving your child unaccompanied and unsupervised in a public place is neglect. If they were to do so in a supermarket or shopping mall for example, the children would be taken into care and the parents brought up on charges.
But Al, like Betty, needs to do his homework. Unsharpened bayonets don’t win wars. Jerking knees don’t win arguements.
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