Parents Request to school for early dismissal?

[Dr Maleficent]

We have peacocks, wild boar and funny birds called hoopoes. Occasional snakes but the ones I have seen aren't venomous. We have really icky millipedy things (can you tell I'm not a zoologist?) and sometimes enormous spiders but they don't leap at you (I saw a youtube video on Australian spiders and they do leap!).
Re school, the coach picks up ds and takes him to the gym with his fellow gymnasts - hooray!

 

[Iwannabemargo]

wow, that is big !

We have "large schools" and "small schools" here (split for sports really, you compete in either the small school or large school league), with a small school being less than 300 (P&F's is now 307 but still small)and the largest has about 450.

Secondarys are between 800 and 1500

I can now see why it takes so long with that many on role.

we don't have anything interesting really, lots of bunnies, hawks, sheep and cows in the fields, the occasional deer and many many gulls, oh we do have lots of slow worms in the garden if the chickens don't find them

 

[2G1B]

My niece's elementary school (in a neighboring county) has 1,700 kids!!!

The crazy thing to me is that there are soooo many elementary schools and they are still this big. Where I grew up, we had one elementary school for our town and there were I think 3 classes per grade in elementary. The next elementary school was about 20 miles away. Here, I'd guess that within 6 miles of my house there are 5 elementary schools (in different directions) and none of them have fewer than 600 kids, several are as big as our school and then everything in between. It blows my mind that there are so many kids around us!

 

[COz]

For the kangaroo thing... I always imagined that you saw them around like we (at least in the south east) see deer and turkey. Maybe not every day; but they are out there and you see them sometimes. I'm a little sad to hear that that is not the case.

Do you see deer and turkey in the suburbs though?

I live in one of Australia's biggest cities, in suburbs close to the city. Every so often there will be a kookaburra in the tree in the back. Cockatoos, parrots and galahs are around a fair bit. Fruit bats at night. It don't like huntsman (spiders) in the house. It's a fine art waiting until they are low enough down the wall to be within reach to pop a container over the top to get them outside and well down the street before releasing. Once they're big enough that this isn't possible I try to pretend that they're not there. Sending DH to extract the big ones don't normally end well. Kangaroos don't make it into the suburbs unless you are at the edge of suburbia as mentioned. Possums are about here, usually annoying people in a roof.

I used to live not in suburbia, out with dirt roads and water tanks, but not out 'in the country'. Once a neighbour found an echidna and took it in a box around the houses with kids before releasing it. I've seen a platypus in the wild, but only whilst bushwalking (hiking). I've seen kangaroos, wallabies, my friend recently saw a wild wombat but none of this is near areas where people live. You need lots of grass for kangaroos and they're not solitary, so it's not like they're going to hop between backyards they're more in bushland or pasture land. I've never seen a wild koala. Cockatoos are everywhere, snakes are around too. Emus aren't.

In the inner city suburb where I live, there are 5 um, elementary, schools within walking distance (up to 30 minutes walk for a child). The largest has 600 kids. The smallest 200 kids. 450 is a pretty common school size.

I can't imagine schools as large as you guys have. Suddenly all this talk about procedures for picking them up make sense! Does this mean you have no choice in school?

 

[ginnymac]

Yes. We see turkeys and deer in the suburbs. Way to many deer--they are a nuisance!

 

[Quadqueen]

My children's school is nowhere near that big! There are about 80 students per grade in their school, which has 4 grades.

 

[Canadian_gym_mom]

Wow

I haven't read through all the responses here, but lots. I know from being on other forums with American parents I am always shocked about things like parents going to classroom doors to pick up, having only the option of car pick up and drop off, etc.

Here, we bring the kids to the school yard about 20 minutes or so before the bell rings and say bye. They hang out in the yard and play, then when the bell rings they line up outside the door and go on. After school, there are bussed kids that have to go through a process of lining up in the gym, but the "walkers" which is everyone not on a bus are dismissed into the yard to go home.

If you have to drive to get your kid you need to park around the corner on another street and walk to pick up.

Car lines and such are just foreign to us.

We never go inside a school unless for a special reason then you have to sign in at the office, and no one is able to walk their child to or from their class.

That being said and back to the original question, I have also heard about this huge deal in the US about unexcused absences and this too blows my mind. If we want to have our kids out of school we do it. They can't say or do anything. Yes it will show on the report card as an absence or late, but so what? They get the work they missed and carry on.

Before my daughter started at the specialty school, she was out early one day a week and no one batted an eye. Kids who are of different religions take days off for celebrations or other holidays, kids get sick, whatever.

On the other hand, we have no moose, penguins or polar bears roaming the streets between our igloos we live in so....

Oh there are peacocks who roam in one of the parks in my city with a petting zoo, but no kangaroos...

 

[jessmomto2]

Some of these schools you all are talking about are huge! My sons elementary is about 200 students, there are two classes for each grade, the two high schools in town have about a 900 kids each. My daughter goes to preschool in an elementary school that is only for gt kids and the preschool so their are less than 100 kids. Everyone where I live is flipping out because the school board wants to condense the schools to gasp have around 400 kids in each elementary school. On to the animals nothing too interesting here but we have way too many deer just roaming the roads in the middle of town and they just laze around peoples yards they are way too tame.

 

[MILgymFAM]

Some of these schools you all are talking about are huge! My sons elementary is about 200 students, there are two classes for each grade, the two high schools in town have about a 900 kids each. My daughter goes to preschool in an elementary school that is only for gt kids and the preschool so their are less than 100 kids. Everyone where I live is flipping out because the school board wants to condense the schools to gasp have around 400 kids in each elementary school. On to the animals nothing too interesting here but we have way too many deer just roaming the roads in the middle of town and they just laze around peoples yards they are way too tame.

A school just for gt would be fantastic! I am jealous as our gt program was in name only. We did have wild parrots and wild peacocks at our last school though!

 

[raenndrops]

@leotardmakermum that is so cool - not seen them in our street!! We just have lot's of peacocks and the usual hundreds of killer possums.

I have peacocks in my back yard all the time.... or in the front yard... or the side yard... or on the street or in the driveway. (No, I do not own peacocks - I don't even like birds, although the males can be pretty when in full plume).

 

[2G1B]

really, there are areas of the US where peacocks just roam around free? I had no idea!

School size - I think our elementary schools tend towards big. Much larger than what I grew up going to; but it all seems to run well. ;-)

As for all of the possums, deer, turkeys, geese, raccoons, etc in the suburbs... yup. My mom lives in a metro area and I don't think that she deals with anything but possums and raccoons; but get the least bit out of the big cities and they are all there. I live in the suburbs; but it is populated enough that our elementary schools have 500 - 1,000+ kids, so definitely not rural.

If you get a little north (about an hour) you start running into bears in the yard; but not cute little koalas. My son was up in that area spending the night with a friend a few weeks ago and when they went to play on the kid's playground there was a bear cub there. They figured the mom likely wasn't far away, so opted not to play on the playground.

 

[jessmomto2]

We live a few blocks from the local fish wildlife and parks rehab center, and had a baby bear up a tree in our yard in the middle of town, that escaped. They had to come shoot it with a tranquilizer gun to get the poor thing.

 

[gymisforeveryone]

I would have gone nuts if I had to wait so long after school bell rang when I was kid! I bet that there have to be more rules when 2000 kids go to the same school thought, I went to an elementary school with just over 300 kids and that was considered a BIG school since it had more kids than any other school in the city : D When school bell rang we RAN out of building! No lines, no! Maybe one out of 20 kids had a parent waiting to pick them up and others either walked or biked home. Only kids with disabilities or those with longer than 5 km commute to school waited for a taxi.

It sounds really frustrating to me that even if you guys know your kid's school day is basically over you don't get them out in 30 minutes! What do the kids do that time? Must be frustrating for the kids also!

Even if I think school comes first I really hope you can work it out the way you can get your kid out of school when the studying actually ends.

 

[COz]

On to the animals nothing too interesting here but we have way too many deer just roaming the roads in the middle of town and they just laze around peoples yards they are way too tame.

Are you serious? No wonder people assume we have kangaroos just roaming the streets!

 

[2G1B]

Are you serious? No wonder people assume we have kangaroos just roaming the streets!

I'll never forget my dad complaining one year, "seriously? This is getting ridiculous with holiday decorations. It is bad enough that people decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving (end of November); but it isn't even Halloween and the neighbors already have reindeer decorations out!" Then one of the "reindeer" stood up and ran off. ;-)

 

[Gymmomto2]

ROTFL!

 

[skschlag]

just to combine the school/animals thread a bit, we had to go on lockout 2 times in the past 8 years. The first time was for a bear cub and her momma who were wandering our playground. The 2nd was for a herd of cattle who got out and were "roaming" the streets.

We get bears, elk, deer, the occassional mooe that make it into town following the river. Tons of eagles that winter here. Love seeing the wildlife

 

[Pea'sMom]

I'm loving the turn this thread has taken! We are in a suburb in a heavily populated area, we have deer and turkey's constantly, plus the standard squirrels, rabbits, raccoons etc. The deer look totally out of place and wreak havoc on your landscaping. Black bear up the tree during the morning commute cause quite a stir last year

Serious bummer that kangaroo's aren't common, but giant jumping spiders are!!! No thanks

Pea's school is smaller, 450 K-5, but we are one of six elementary schools in our 6 square mile town. And as for our 3:05 dismissal, if you more then 10 minutes late, they are on the phone calling you! No car pick-up though, walk or bus...

 

[raenndrops]

A few pics of peacocks roaming:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3448730339293&l=799409c723
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3448730059286&l=d2463ab464
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3464407451211&l=d345199bc2
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3482638426974&l=7c7c113e19
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3902422761320&l=c74c74013d
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3902426881423&l=73ad515c85
The one with the very bright white is a "half-breed"... a guinea fowl was feloniously released from the local fair a couple years back and got in with the peacocks... this is one of their offspring.

 

[Gymdancer]

I had no idea peacocks were so plentiful! The white one is fascinating. Deer roam through the area in back of us and eat from gardens regularly. And our dogs love it when the turkey's roam through our yard. Ick! They get a sudsy bath. We went on a family walk behind our house recently and dd was to meet a friend, but the friend had to turn back on her bike because she found herself rather close to a momma bear with a cub hanging out on the path in front of her. We cut our walk short, but the wild berries are abundant! Hence, momma bear!

Our school district has an early out program for middle school. Dd can miss pe if it can be scheduled at end of day. I suppose she could miss another class as long we submit in writing how we would cover the curriculum. Elementary was very difficult and would not work with her at all. Choices can be very difficult when the school is not accommodating. We are thrilled that the early out has worked out two years so far. High school will be going all day every day of the week due to block scheduling, meaning that a different class falls at the end of the day each day.