Given detention for lateness on tube strike day

Busses were running , others made alternative arrangements. This is why discipline is so poor in schools. Back up the school, your child was late so gets a detention for his poor planning

Surely, OP was equally responsible for suggesting a suitable time for her daughter to leave to catch the bus. If she backs up the school for punishing her DD, she would be unfairly punishing her child for her own mistake!

since Monday, and then Tuesday off, how’s it been?

OP made alternative arrangement. Her DD took the bus and was only 5 minutes late which was pretty good going, given the circumstances. Not everyone would have been late, as many could be within walking distance from the school, even if they would normally take the tube, others could have used national rail, or they folks could have calculated just that bit better and left just in time. If this DD had left 10 to 15 minutes sooner, she could have been on time, but OP does not have a crystal ball, so she just got it very slightly wrong; we obviously can't all be as perfect as you!

Well exactly!

I spent the last half hour of my journey trying to work out whether to get out and walk, or whether the bus would be quicker once we were past the next pinch point!

Just as I would decide to get out and walk we would have a spirt of moving forward. I would congratulate myself on staying put, and we'd grind to a halt again!

Transport for London gave up.on providing live arrivals info as it was so unpredictable, so their website was no help.

I am buying a bike off a colleague this morning, as long as it isn't too small for me!

Indeed, its high time the ridiculous fad for “zero tolerance” control of arbitrary minutiae andr actively unhealthy rules went out of fashion.

I’ve never been in a workplace like this, even in my early career let alone in the 21st century. The whole mindset is modelled on a sit com parody of a 1950s workplace conjured up by people who have never spent any time in such a place.

But there would be no guarantee that the 124 wouldn't be similarly rammed and you've wasted 12 minutes, so would be 17 minutes late instead of 5!

I had a boss who decided that because she made it to work on time on a heavy snow day by leaving the house at 4:30 am and walking, no one else had an excuse to be late. Nevermind difference in distance, physical ability, that some people had young children that couldn’t be left alone or taken anywhere at 4 am and so on. Absolute nutter!

Agreed. Everyone I know was either late for work despite best endeavours or working from home. I don’t know anyone who was reprimanded. It really was exceptional circumstances.

I don't think you could have come up with a more ridiculous suggestion if you'd tried!

In effect, you are saying that OP's boss should have been tolerant of her being 3 hours late, but a school can't be tolerant of a pupil being 5 minutes late! Plus, who would have looked after and got her younger children to school. And OP would just have just been taking up a space on an already overcrowded bus. If you gross that up with all the other parents in a similar position across London, that would have things even more intolerable.

And it wouldn't have helped, they must have calculated a sensible time to leave, so the DD would still have been late! They weren't actually that far out - being only 5 minutes late amongst all that chaos was really pretty good going!

Also, the 'whole school' wasn't doing the journey from OP's house to the school.

Others would be within walking distance, others would be on a route less affected (DD's buses ended up getting there within her usual 10 minutes of contingency time). Some might be able to cycle, some live on routes completely unaffected - e.g. using an overground train route.

There's a worrying lack.of critical thinking in saying that because some people got there on time, EVERYONE could have got there on time. You are not comparing like for like, so you can't put the different outcomes down to making an effort/ not making an effort.

I left early and was late, DD left at her usual time and was on time. We had the same starting point, we both used buses, but had different end points and therefore different routes. Those routes were not affected in the same way.

It isn't rocket science...

If we accept the idea that school is preparation for work (which I don't actually because they are children and work is too diverse to be captured by school, see some schools insistence that blazers are preparing for work - where are all these blazer clad jobs?!) then I've been late to work for reasons beyond my control (weather, break down, transport issues, puking in pregnancy) and I don't get punished. Workplaces take the circumstances into account. I think this is unfair and petty actually, and it's not a lesson it's just an example of inflexibility

That's overly harsh. I'd talk to the school

Concerning you weee a teacher and yet you failed to actually read anything beyond… well page 1

You have “been” a teacher, therefore you “know” that the schools is right, everyone else arrived on time and any penalty is justified.

And yet you failed to learn how to use: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/amibeingunreasonable/5407545-given-detention-for-lateness-on-tube-strike-day?postsby=Longingdreamer

Or how to read an OP’s posts or how to avoid jumping to conclusions based on incomplete data and false assumptions.

I had a paper round once, obviously this makes me an expert on all aspects of the modern media industry.

You know what they say about assumptions. OP’s child wasn’t the only one late. Not sure about staff at that particular school but I know some staff at DD’s school were late because of the strike and that’s in a different county! Mass detentions also happen, to the point they have to be taken outside due to the number of children. Get off your soap box and use some critical thinking. Even without strikes, you’ll never have just one child (and no one else , including staff) being late on one particular day. Come on!

Because ive been a teacher. If that didn't happen they wouldn't be giving detention. It's not rocket science , do you think they have the capacity to give the whole school a collective detention
Come on !
Busses were running , others made alternative arrangements. This is why discipline is so poor in schools. Back up the school, your child was late so gets a detention for his poor planning

When my DD was at school in London and she had to take train / tube, if they produced evidence that trains were late / cx / delayed ie a pic of the dep board then they weren’t given a detention

Of course but @FullLondonEye os absolutely determined to see otherwise so brace yourself!

Sweet Jesus
Are you honestly saying that the possibility that different bus routes had differing levels of business is totally out of the question.

Computer sayes no

Not necessarily - some routes are not as busy as others so on a strike day those routes will be busier, of course, but still not as bad.

Not saying this is true of the OP, but Londoners can often stick to their own little world and not veer off that. If you’re not a seasoned commuter always having to swap journeys around because of this, that and the other, you may not realise that while most of the direct buses go from stop A on the main road, walk in a different direction to stop B which is more backstreet and less direct and it could be a lot better. If you use the tube, you may not even realise there’s a mainline station not that far away.

Not transport but I recently went for a drink in my area with the adult daughter of a friend who’s studying there. We were talking pubs and she didn’t know my local, in fact she clearly had never been to the area where it is which is less than a 10 minute walk from where she lived. She simply never went in that direction.

How do you know that? Did you read it in your magic ball?

This is what I used to do when I had a boss who insisted that everybody come into the office on strike days. I would drive to the start of the bus route and, as you haven’t mentioned driving as an option I’m guessing that isn’t for you, But certainly getting a bus in the opposite direction is one way of beating the ridiculous queues.

I really feel for your child, and for any child who is given a detention for something like this when the circumstances are exceptional. I don’t think this is preparing them for the real world as most employers are not this inflexible. I hope they are not too upset now it is the weekend and the strikes are over. For now anyway.

And the same problem is in effect on all the buses… It’s as if you think the tube strike effect was only in one part of the city.

What has happened to reading comprehension? No, everyone else did not get in on time. Children got detentions.