If you’ve ever stood on a school gate at 8:30 a.m. or 3:15 p.m., you know something no report can capture.
The subtle shifts in energy. The unfamiliar faces. The conversations you overhear that would never happen in a meeting room. The tiny changes in relationships between children that whisper to you that something’s different today.
Being on the gates isn’t just about supervision, it’s about presence. About noticing what others don’t. About connecting with parents in a way that isn’t “us and them,” when their vulnerabilities around education don’t feel under scrutiny because they’re being summoned to a meeting. About catching the pieces of the safeguarding puzzle that no paper trail could ever show.
Ten minutes at the start and ten at the end of every day. It doesn’t sound like much but it changes everything. Safeguarding. Community building. Trust. Relationships. Impact that can’t be quantified.
To my colleagues who get it, you are the real gatekeepers. Never underestimate the work that can’t be measured. It matters.
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