Given detention for lateness on tube strike day

But presumably they didnt set off from OPs house….

Cycling is often easier than walking, with a bad knee, and is much quicker. Given london has lots of bike lanes, i would have thought getting a bike would be a good option

The train that OH was on yesterday didn't let anyone on from 4 stops after his. The trains are every half hour. His train was at 06:30 so I imagine that the later trains were even worse - and we're only in zone 3! Making an 11 year old catch a 6am train to get to school for what, 08:45? That sounds a bit neglectful to me

Workers are often told to work from home during tube strikes. It can be absolute chaos - unless you live relatively close to work.

The teacher has been very unfair.

Guess they just have a blankets”no exceptions “ rule.

otherwise this week it’s a tube strike, next week it was a car accident, the week after it was a lengthy traffic jam. There will be late kids every day and all of them will swear blind it was due to reasons out of their control.

If school won't see sense, I'd consider signing him off with anxiety for the rest of the week. I don't have much patience with unfair systems, and he doesn't need an already overlong day due to the traffic situation made longer by detention.

And make sure they didn't lose out academically by giving some more advanced work at home than anything school were likely to set.

Might be worth messaging his form tutor this evening and explain the situation, if they are getting lots of complaints and lots of teachers were late too, maybe they will make special arrangements.

Very petty. There will be pupils in the same detention room that are there for bad behaviour that they can control, this was something difficult to avoid. Sometimes you can leave in plenty of time but if buses or tubes are late or don't turn up what can you do? Leave 2 hours earlier? 3? 5? Maybe the poor kid should camp outside the bloody school in case.

Also I find schools expect parents to cope when schools have problems with no complaints but it doesn't work the other way. My DD has had school closures for snow, strong wind, teacher strikes and a fire but god forbid a pupil arrive 2 minutes late.

I agree, that's so ridiculous. I'd either tell him he doesn't have to stay for detention (if it's after school) or reasssure him that school is being unreasonable and not to take it personally.

I agree with @SoftPillow that posters who don't live in London just don't understand how a strike on all the tube lines at once brings the city to its knees.

For lots if us there just ARE no other options but the tube. Even when there are, any alternative transport is packed and roads are a nightmare at the best of times. 'Leaving early' isn't really a solution, anyone who needs to get in by a specified time will be doing the same! Unless you live on the first few stops of a bus or alternative train routes, it's pot luck if you'll be getting on further down the line.

And if you do get into work, getting home will be a nightmare when coming out of central London, even if you can leave work earlier than normal. Even when one line goes down it creates chaos less alone all of hem at once. It took me over 2 hours just to get home from central London to Zone 2 a while ago when my tube line went down and so did the (not very convenient) back up option. Normally takes me 40 mins max.

With a painful knee?
Also a lot of London kids don't have bikes.

That’s unreasonable in my opinion. A transport strike is not the child’s fault.

Could he cycle?

But how?
He can't walk (too far, leg issues).
If the bus is packed and the driver isn't letting anyone else on - then he can't get on. Not his fault.
If train stations get too busy staff sometimes stop letting more people into the station/on the platform for safety reasons. So if he can't get into the station - he can't get into the station. Not his fault.
Taxi - taxis are expensive and the OP might not be able to afford one. Not his fault.
He could leave home at 5am and these issues could still apply.

I would expect the school to send out an email saying they expect best efforts, but that they understand how difficult it is on tube strike days. And to have a record of where children live, so they should be able to check if they are 5 minutes walk away and taking the piss, or a distance that requires tubes or buses.

Even the pavements are hard to navigate, so many people, many of them riding bikes…

It’s all very well people saying they should have left earlier but it can still be hard to judge how early you need to leave and there’s also got to be a limit! Seems common sense to me for the school not to issue penalties when they know there is a tube strike.

That’s really shitty and I don’t believe that anyone here that says it is ok wouldn’t be cross if it was their dc.

Presumably the one who stays overnight just abandons their children for the night and leaves them home alone?

Or possibly has no childcare commitments or is lucky enough to have other people to step in. Not everyone does, so not an reason to say 'everyone could be in on time if they try hard enough'.

I allowed 50% extra time yesterday and was still a few minutes late. As I am almost always on time my manager - like most reasonable people in the world of work - was understanding. Several other colleagues were late as well.

We were all on time this morning because we learnt from the situation - without having to be punished - and left earlier today (and then I was half an hour early! Which more than made up for yesterday's 10.minures).

Did you know in advance that there was going to be strikes? If so then you should have left earlier and been more prepared instead of blaming the school.

Use this as a lesson. “Sorry DS, things like this happen sometimes, you and I know it’s not fair and I know it’s stressful for you but life does that occasionally.”

I live in central London. My kids got to school on time. Me and DP got to work on time (admittedly I do wfh 😂)

Well if he can get to school on time every other day, he can get up earlier and get in on time allowing for the tube strike.

Like I said. I HATE lateness. And it sounds like the school does too!

I’m a teacher (secondary school) and I’m quite strict about punctuality, but there’s no way I’d give a child a detention when they’d been affected by the tube strike. Because I’m not a psychopath.

Some of the responses on here are bonkers!

OP, I would email the school, politely, to express your concerns.

My Dd had an appointment at the GP’s first one on Friday morning.
He was 40 minutes late but didn’t inform any of the office staff where he was, they were quite embarrassed as they didn’t know when he would be in.
So if it’s fine for NHS staff surely it’s ok for schoolchildren?

Err...she said he does have issues with his legs.

The strike has doubled the school journey time if he goes in by bus.
So tomorrow he's going to school by cab not leaving at 7am to catch the bus.