Children Unsupervised Before and After School

What do you do about students who are at school too early or too long after school?


It's probably their fervent desire for knowledge that brings these little people to school at 8 am, and keeps them there until 3:30 or later. Probably - but possibly it's that their parents drop them off early and fail to collect them at 3 because of work or other commitments. These parents might assume that the school will provide supervision for the child while they are on the school grounds.

As I understand it, school boards are not responsible for supervising students outside school hours and most schools expect students to be at school no earlier than 8:30 am and no later than 3:15 – 3:30 pm.  How should a school deal with the issue of the early arrivers/late leavers?

What happens at YOUR school? Is it even a problem? Was it a big problem and you solved it with a Breakfast Club or similar programme? Do you have a rule that students are not allowed on the grounds before a certain time and must be off them by a certain time? Do you provide, or encourage the parents of regularly “overtime” students to use, before and after school programmes? Do you add a note to your website and print it in your newsletter about safety issues of unsupervised students before and after school? Has anything happened to students at your school when they’ve been there unsupervised? Should SchoolDocs write a topic about it that your school could use?

Please tell us your experiences and your ideas about this issue. 

Access to School Grounds After Hours

What happens at your school when you're not there? Do the locals spend much time there? Walking dogs, playing on the swings, defacing the buildings, keeping an eye on the place, climbing the trees?


Some schools are quite hidden from the road where others are very open. Many schools have a lot of traffic through after hours through community hiring of the buildings, after school care programmes, school pool hire, etc.


At SchoolDocs we were asked some time ago about guidelines for closed circuit surveillance cameras. These guidelines are available - see them on the Demo site. Obviously, some schools have a serious problem with vandalism or illegal activities on the grounds.


We like to think that most schools DON"T have a problem and are happy to host the odd extended family cricket match on a Sunday. What's your school's tolerance for people on the grounds after hours?


Have you had any serious issues? How did you manage them?

Review Summary: Students with Special Needs

This section was reviewed by staff, board, and parents in term 3 this year and it was great to see so many responses from parents.

Most of the review comments were very positive, both about the content and about their school’s implementation of it. Principals and boards – please check your Implementation feedback, many reviewers had very school specific comments or issues.

We have made a number of small changes which you can see on the Draft topics (links are on the Upcoming Changes page on the Demo site).

The biggest changes have been made to Reading Recovery (including a new topic) and English Language Learners (Non English Speaking Backgrounds, as was).

Note: Many schools have school specific topics in the Special Needs section. If you do, check your version against our draft versions and advise us which, if any, of our proposed changes you want incorporated.

Please note that we are developing a Dyslexia topic at the moment.  We hope to have that available as a draft for you to consider early next year.

Note: The Perceptual Motor Programme (PMP) topic is optional. If you no longer run the programme, let us know and we’ll remove it from your site. Or, if you want it now, please send us the details and we’ll put it on your site. Likewise Reading Recovery.