Latest comment: What would you do?

would like to knowthe GTCS view on this scenario. I agree with Steve its a last option!

Firstly ,

Taking them in your car alone is the last thing to do. Phoning all the parents and getting through to someone would be the most sensible but if all else fails then possibly contacting another member of staff and asking him/her to sit beside you as you drive them home and drop ALL of them at the one place.

I agree with Steve. The teacher responsible has duty of care for these children and that starts when the teacher receives the children and does not end until they are returned to parent/carer. As long as you have made sure that every attempt has been made to contact either the parents/carers or someone related to the children then as long as a responsible person i.e. headteacher or a holder of a promoted post in school has been notified, put the children in the back seat of your car and take them home.An adult should not put themselves in the position of being alone with a child except in exceptional circumstances and these fall into category. Common sense should always prevail.

There is no one perfect answer, but some things to consider:

Emergency contacts are the next point of contact where we can't reach parents;
An agreed action with your line manager;
Business insurance to transport pupils;
If we simply can't contact parents, after a reasonable length of time- it may be useful to drive them home and establish contact- but consider the inevtiable crossing paths during the journey;
Speak to the local duty social worker is a final port of call if all else fails;

Think through your actions, speak to another member of staff, be clear about your decisions and the reasons, act in good faith and review with your boss the next day.

These kind of scenerios really get me going. We try to teach children (and parents)to trust us, build up relationships and encourage citizenship and then we get all PC on them. It's confusing for children. I know it's for our own protection in this day and age but i just feel we add to the moral panic culture. No longer can we just do what comes natural to assist and care for a child.
I would, of course, attempt to contact the parents but after no avail i would take the children to their homes, with another teacher where possible.

I'd like to think the pupils will have been in contact with the parents before the bus gets to the school and/or have given them a call before letting "further time elapse". If no joy at that, I would think nothing of giving the pupils a lift home. Common sense has to over-ride red tape at times! I had positive relationships at school with my teachers and a handful of us used to be given lifts quite frequently to exhibitions and open days. This culture of health and safety and fear has to be addressed!

Giving a lift home would be the last option after a few steps are taken first. Try and contact parents and see where they are. Find out how far parents live from school - if it's a rural area and is a one hour drive and the kids have only just phoned then they need to be given a bit of time to arrive. If all this is tried I would leave a message to say that you are giving the kids a lift home and contact Headteacher or Emergency contact to say this is happening. I think it would be a sad day when a Teacher had to think twice about giving a pupil a lift home in a situation that required it to happen - Local Authorities do not think twice about putting pupils in taxi's to send them home - what is the difference here? If you have a justifiable reason to give the lift and have exhausted other options and left messages, then do it. At the end of the day you are not going to stand at school all night waiting (it might not be safe for you all to do that) nor are you going to aboandon the kids and leave them not knowing what has happened to them.

The way the laws are set up I would have to say no way as the teacher here is in a no win situation. Take them in the car and be accused of something leave them behind and you would be viewed as negligent. Myself as a human being and putting all else aside, I would call the parents and see if it is alright to drop them off. Seems like we are alienating ourselves from the parents and the children and teachers are running scared. Back in the day a teacher wouldn't even hesitate to take the students home to keep them safe. Relationships were probably better back then and people were not looking to blame on every occasion.

Comment edited by an administrator on Fri 20 Aug 2010 at 09:50

The way the laws are set up I would have to say no way as the teacher here is in a no win situation. Take them in the car and be accused of something leave them behind and you would be viewed as negligent. Myself as a human being and putting all else aside, I would call the parents and see if it is alright to drop them off. Seems like we are alienating ourselves from the parents and the children and teachers are running scared. Back in the day a teacher would'nt even hesitate to take the students home to keep them safe. Relationships were probably better back then and people were not looking to blame on every occasion.

the teacher should have a lsit of contact numbers for every child and should be able to phone them to see what has happened. Not wise for the teacher to take them in his/her car, but I know if it was me and I knew the kids well, having been with them at camp all week, I might be tempted!!