Given detention for lateness on tube strike day

Your age doesnt matter on public transport

I don't know where you were walking, but I walked from Embankment tube station to New Street Square yesterday (having fortuitously discovered that the Northern Line was running!) and it was rammed on the road; I've never seen it so busy. I crossed the roads between stopped traffic, and this was after 9 a.m.

You are an adult im presuming not a 12 year old child.

Was this the only one available to the Op?

it isn’t local

Was this the only one available to the Op?

it isn’t local

We don't usually get a lot of choice. We are told that all state schools can cater for all kinds of SEN.

Well she sounds like she’s in an utterly inappropriate school setting op.

This is year 7, she’s just started?

Thank you. I have a child with neurodiversity causing anxiety. I mentioned this in the OP. Clearly, a lot of people are not aware of the reality of this.

Yes, maybe you’re right - over the years I’ve had everything thrown at me so nothing really phases me any more - there’s always a way! I once got booted off a train at Acton Town and trudged off in the snow to the next station, which was closed… all the way until Marble Arch where finally I could get back on a train. But that was back in the 90s where the mentality that you might simply not go into work didn’t exist.

I’m in south east London where there are pretty much no tubes so my journey isn’t impacted at all (obviously we get hit with train strikes instead), and my walk from the station in central London to the office didn’t seem any busier on the roads than usual.

Is all the gridlock outside of the centre?

She is off sick today, likely due to the anxiety caused by yesterday.

If you genuinely suspect your daughter suffered such acute anxiety regarding yesterday’s detention (of which you say lots others had too), that she needs the day after off school to recover - then you have more far serious issues to address OP

I think that some of the views on here are due to the London centric nature of how transport issues are seen across the country.

Not everyone has a good transport network to rely on.
So when shit like this goes down in London, I think that there is a "suck it up buttercup" attitude in play due to the responses that Londoners often give to others.

I wouldn’t bat an eyelid at an hour for a healthy, able bodied adult who is free to go direct from home to work location.

No, not everyone is dropping off kids but most commuters are not battling roads and transport for the lols - they do it because its the only practical means to get to work or get to work combined with other stops. In the current situation those who can walk already do so, even if they elect to drive/bus it other days.

The notion that the millions using the tube into or within London every day could simply walk to work or squeeze into the already maxed out buses and roads is just nonsense. As I said upthread - total closure of the tube network for a week is a safety issue in London.

Depends what you call “theoretical walking distance”. An hour seems fine to me, for example. DH used to occasional walk to work, took him an hour and 15 mins. Wouldn’t do it every day, by occasionally - why not? He’s perfectly capable.

Not everyone is dropping kids off at schools.

Obviously walking isn’t an option for everyone but I bet it is for quite a few who got in their cars

Based on what? I’m in London and I know precisely one person who lives within theoretical walking distance of work and they have children to drop off in two different locations on the way to work.

Its been insane, anybody lucky enough to be able to walk to work will have done so simply because of the traffic. Its been amongst the worst transport problems I’ve ever seen in London, including during the complete power outage (because that only lasted 24 hours). Walking and buses simply cannot absorb the millions of commuters.

There is a serious safety issue for Londoners at this level of travel disruption.

I think that all students have to accept that they will get detentions for things outwith their control several times during their school careers. My son got a detention in his first week of term because the level crossing in the village was stuck closed, so the bus couldn't get out. Everybody from his village got the detention.
He is aware that he could get a lift into town with me, but it would mean getting there for 7.30 and waiting outside the school until it opens at 8.
I have told him that if he chooses to get the school bus then he is choosing the consequences if the bus is cancelled. Whether he thinks arriving 1hr 15 minutes early is more hassle than a potential detention is up to him.

I think that all students have to accept that they will get detentions for things outwith their control several times during their school careers. My son got a detention in his first week of term because the level crossing in the village was stuck closed, so the bus couldn't get out. Everybody from his village got the detention.
He is aware that he could get a lift into town with me, but it would mean getting there for 7.30 and waiting outside the school until it opens at 8.
I have told him that if he chooses to get the school bus then he is choosing the consequences if the bus is cancelled. Whether he thinks arriving 1hr 15 minutes early is more hassle than a potential detention is up to him.

I think that all students have to accept that they will get detentions for things outwith their control several times during their school careers. My son got a detention in his first week of term because the level crossing in the village was stuck closed, so the bus couldn't get out. Everybody from his village got the detention.
He is aware that he could get a lift into town with me, but it would mean getting there for 7.30 and waiting outside the school until it opens at 8.
I have told him that if he chooses to get the school bus then he is choosing the consequences if the bus is cancelled. Whether he thinks arriving 1hr 15 minutes early is more hassle than a potential detention is up to him.

I’d be cross about this. My colleagues who work in our London office have been allowed to wfh during strike days. I would email school and let them know how your child left home early but they were late because of something that was beyond the their control. I’m sure there were school staff that were late too.

Well of course - but everyone is leaving an hour earlier/using alternative so it’s just chaos.

The reality is that if you live in London you need to know how to get to your destination via different routes and get creative, because things like this are not uncommon. And kids who live here need to realise this and also realise that there’s not always leeway for them to be late and if that means getting going at least an hour earlier, so be it.