I don't think it is rude, but I think you would have a lot of parents using explitives & not sending their kids at all.

At our school, we have a rule that kids under a certain grade, I think it is 5th & under, have to be accompanied by an adult. Since you have just grades 5&6, that might not be reasonable for you. I would, however, encourage as many parents to come as possible by stressing this is a Family event. Even put the word Family in the name of your outing. I would let parent's know that since you are not holding this event at school, kids need to be picked up on time-that this is a place of business & extra kids hanging around after your event is finished is going to impeed their business flow-only say it nicely [img]smile.gif[/img] I don't think it is unreasonable to request that parents arrive 10-15 minutes before the event is finished, since it is such a LARGE GROUP of kids. (Also if you say 10-15 minutes early, than they MIGHT just be on time!!)

Hi Lucella... I'm not brave, I'm scared to death! I can't imagine all these kids in one place, either! In the past, we've always had fairly manageble(sp) groups.. now, YIKES! I'm really nervous..

Does anyone think it would be rude to tell parents that if they don't pick up their kids on time, the child can't attend the next outing???

I'm speachless. Our school is 175 kids, Pre-K -8. I have no idea what to do w/1000+ kids. You are brave.

I wouldn't worry about upsetting the parents. My last school routinely mentioned in event flyers that, "While this is a supervised school function, our staff members are not babysitters. Students must not be dropped off earlier than 15 minutes prior to the event or picked up any later than 10 minutes afterwards. We cannot guarantee that your child will be safe or supervised outside of these set times."

Thanks for the replies. I'd like to think I could add a line on flyers about parents not being able to drop off their kids and the run to the mall, but I've found from experience that the PTO doesn't want to upset the parents. Yikes, how ridiculous. I'm planning on bringing that up when we do put out flyers... "No curbside pickup" or something!
But I'd also like to find a place to go outside of the school building, but I'm guessing there would have to be planned activities and be in a "controlled" environment. We have the skate night right now, but to me we have to find something else to appeal to other children as well. I know my son wouldn't go to skate night. I'm just having trouble coming up with a good place to go.

If this is a school function there should be school personnel there to deal with crowd control. Yes your volunteers still need to watch but bottom line this is school related!