Schools fining for late pick up

[FredrikaPeri]

Our kid's school has instigated a fine of £1 a minute for late pick up.

Does your school do this?
How do you feel about that?

What do you do when two schools kick out at the same time?
Presumably pay a childminder to do one of the pickups, rather than assume it's ok to have a teacher stay behind to look after one of them.

I was late to pick up my DD once, due to getting a flat tyre on the way home from work. I called a cab to take me to the school, and also phoned the school. I ran from the cab but was 5 mins late at the door. I apologised profusely and was almost in tears (DD was in Reception and I was new to all this!)

The teacher couldn't have been nicer to me, but as we were heading away, another parent arrived, and the teacher just ushered their child toward them, without a word. Clearly a regular offender...

I wouldn't have any problem with late attendance fines, but suspect that it would be abused by some parents who would see it as a valid option, rather than a punishment.

Our after-school club was also heavily subscribed, and staffing ratios have to be met, so just sending all latecomers there wouldn't be a solution.

I'm not late ever as I work from home & don't commute. But I know, for example some parents who do come via a train after work for example may have unavoidable delays.

I'm not sure how bad the problem is across the school. It just seems a little inflexible to fine people £1 a minute for something which could be unavoidable.

The building doesn't close immediately after 3pm. Perhaps they could have an area for kids to wait a few minutes?

I just wondered if all schools have this policy now 🤷🏼‍♀️

It's not nursery it's a primary school.

The building doesn't close immediately after 3pm. Perhaps they could have an area for kids to wait a few minutes?

No but somebody needs to supervise those children.

I'm sure they'll make exceptions for emergencies.

So you get 14 minutes grace?

Lateness is very annoying in all walks of life but sometimes unavoidable.

@listsandbudgets exactly!

Doubt very much they are fining teachers who are late to work.

I appreciate that.
It just seems draconian.

I work in child care rather than a school and have late fees but it does feel like people see it as an extra service sometimes. I don't care about the money I get for them being late, I want to be able to spend the time with my family.

I've never been late so personally I think it's fair enough to charge for late pick up. Unless extenuating circumstances.

Who is to judge this?

DC's puts them in after school club ( with associated cost) if more than 10 minutes, this seems reasonable.
I assume they allow the 10 minutes because each year dismisses from a different door and parents can't be in two places at once, plus sometimes the teacher wants to speak to me.

It's very silly of them because money removes morality. Parents with money will be late with impunity and now it's a service they pay for.

www.nytimes.com/2005/05/15/books/chapters/freakonomics.html

I can see how some people will just see it as a fee they are happy to pay too.

A bit like when people are fined for taking their kids out of school outside of holidays. Not a problem if you make the money back by getting cheaper flights is it?

If it's like the nurseries my kids have been to, non of them have applied the fee for a one off, like the car breaking down, if you are otherwise usually on time. They just have the policy so they have a way of tackling the piss takers who are very late, very often.

Just how often do you think teachers are late to work ?

My son's nursery took that view, they didn't fine because they didn't want people just turning up 29 minutes late and putting the £10 or whatever the fine was on the table - it was a chain and they'd had it happen at other branches in the chain.

I think this happens quite frequently in my area because we have different infant and junior schools and kids get allocated to different sites. A friend of mine appealed and managed to move one of her kids so they were at the same site but if you don't have that option it's all a bit of a nightmare. It's why I agree with sibling priority, though it doesn't help if a school is massive and you have to go round different classrooms picking up different dc!

I would imagine it’s aimed at those parents who habitually turn up late for no reason except that they CBA to be on time, not at the occasional one. But now everyone will be fined.

I dare say someone will now tell me that the ‘habitually late’ probably have ‘issues’ that mean they can’t help it.
Yes they bloody well can - in 99.9% of cases anyway.

Good. Those poor kids being last one there must feel awful and the teachers who then may need to collect t their own dc from for example a nursey. What if that teacher gets a fine for collecting their dc late from nursery because parents couldn't be arsed to get their dc from school in time.
And im not talking one offs for traffic or anything.

I have been doing school runs for 12 years i have been late twice. Once because there was a fatal RTA where the road was closed. I was there 3 hours. I just got his friends mum to collect
Other was the car park barrier wouldn't lift after work and had to wait for maintenance. I was 15 min late but called office in advance so he was taken there

I'm school office. It's always the same parents who are 20, 25 minutes late and saunter in with all the time in the world and can't see the fuss. And we stick children in after school club if we need to, it's not their fault they've been left.

For the poster above who said she has 3 children in the same school and it takes time to collect them all, we're not daft. You wouldn't get a fine for having to run round a large site to collect all your children. We know exactly who we'd charge.

We get 10 minutes grace then it's straight to after school club, which is £5 until 5 and £8.50 until 6. That's in an independent school.