Dear Parents and Carers,

Firstly, we would like to acknowledge and thank the vast majority of parents/carers who always pick up their children on time.

The impact on a child of not being picked up from school on time cannot be underestimated. The child that has been left behind will feel an increasing level of anxiety and distress the longer that they are unsure of where their parents are. Clearly this is not a good thing to happen to any child.

The impact on the school of having a child left behind at the end of the day is also great as it requires two members of staff to supervise that child. This means that those staff will not be able to undertake their duties in preparation for children’s learning the following day, attend other meetings and this also incurs an additional staffing cost to the school.

Unfortunately, we are seeing an increasing number of occasions where children are being picked up late.

We are fully aware that there are frequently valid reasons or emergencies where carers have been delayed and, when the school is informed in advance of this, we will always take an understanding view.

However, some carers appear to be unwilling to acknowledge the impact that this has on both their child and the school and seem to think that the school is able to offer a free, out of hours’ childcare service. It is because of these few who regularly pick up their child late with no prior contact being made to the school that we are forced to take the following action.

From Monday, 18th November 2019, the following will apply:

· All parents/carers should be onsite and ready to pick up their children when school learning ends.

· Children who are not picked up on time will be taken to the front office where parents will be contacted by school staff. They will then be supervised by staff in the front office or taken to Mrs Cvijetic’s office.

· If it is the first occasion of late collection then no charge will be made for the supervision of the child.

· There will be a charge of £20 per hour per child applied to contribute to the cost to the school for supervision of children if one of the following applies:

1. A second occasion of late collection with no notification made by the Parent/Carer.

2. A third repeat occurrence of late collection by the Parent/Carer with a notification.

· The charge of £20 per hour per child will be added to your Parent Pay account. For example, if two children are collected late in the above circumstances, the parent would be charged a total of £40 for their supervision.

· In line with the school’s safeguarding policy, if a child is repeatedly uncollected, safeguarding processes will be started and a referral may be made to social services and to the police.

Yours sincerely

John Veall

Chair of Governors (on behalf of Berkeley Primary School Governors)