To think 1 minute isn't late?

[AnArrowToTheKnee]

DS1 starts school at 8.50, we got there at 8.51 and were told we had to sign in at the office. AIBU to think that we weren't actually late?

It's pedantic if the doors were just closing and the other children still filing into registration.

But - as a one off late does it really matter? (Other than impacting on your day).

Depending on how old they were, and why they were late (my fault or theirs) I'd have sent them to the office to late register themselves and not gone with them.
(Ds2 has been going to school alone since yr4, and dropped at school with ds1 without me leaving the car since yr2. I wouldn't even be there to register them as late if necessary).

I still find it really odd that the doors open AND close at 8.50. So the teacher has 59 seconds to get the children in because at 8.51 you are late. Do they stand there with a stopwatch?

God I imagine your one of the people who cause a fuss if the cashier does not give you your 1p change after a large purchase.

Time is time, you even stated yourself you arrived 1 min late. You are wrong

Of course they don't, Moonface. What gave you that idea??

Seems Otto to me. The kids are probably still going into the classroom not being registered.

Or the school could be the 1p change person, depending which side of the fence

You were late! Yawn!

Do they stand there with a stopwatch?

I suppose they open the doors at 8.50, a queue of children moves forward, door closes after last in queue crosses the threshold, with the door closer carefully averting their eyes to avoid seeing any children sprinting to try and reach the back of the queue before it vanishes into the building.

It's practice for the real world. I have to swipe in at work. If I swipe in at 0900 for a 9-5 day it says I'm late, I have to swipe before 0859!

I am sure the school would let a child in a few minutes early. Good timekeeping is a lesson for life, as it were.

Of course, if it was Southern trains, a minute late is a miracle.

That's the class start time not the time to rock up. You should be there a few minutes early.

I hear 'rock up' a lot. Is that a different kind of turning up? I always imagine the School of Rock when I hear that, with the person turning up with a guitar and greasy, heavy metal locks.

If you can't be on time, be early.

At my kids school they officially have to be in by 9am (you take them to class door no lining up) EVERYONE is in by 9am the real late heads stroll in about a minute to.
Tedious add on my teacher husband says you can always tell the kids who are early as they settle well to learning (I'm never early tbf but just in school policy defence !)

I always think rocking up is done with an element of ambivalence and 'tude.

Agree, you Rock Up to make an entrance as opposed to just go through the entrance on time like the polite folk

I always think of Rocking Up as arriving with a "Rock Star" attitude that the rules don't apply to you as you are so special.

Not only were you 1 minute late but (assuming the way our school doea it is the norm) the school will have marked you down as an "unauthorised absence" for the entire morning - the same mark whether you're 1 minute late or 3 hours.

I was hauled up in front if the local council's attendance officer for being a few minutes late with DS too many times. But on her notes it was marked as "unauthorised absence" for all of those mornings. Her first question to me was "why has DS been missing school" and I had to point out actually he had been attending school, despite what her notes might look like.

The other children had gone in, but only just. We literally got there as they closed the door, so hadn't even taken the register yet.

So your DS would be marked L (late before register) rather than U (late after register).

There are actually very legitimate reasons why someone who is late needs to go to the office. The second I hit 'submit' on my computer, it is sent to the office and I can make no more changes to it. Schools need a record of who is on site. So therefore the student needs to go to the office to be signed in.

The importance of this was driven home to us last year when there was a series of hoax bomb threats made to schools. Within a couple of minutes of school starting, we could be evacuating and leading students off site. We needed to be able to account for everyone. If you arrived late (even a few minutes) and we hadn't had a record of the child being on site, we wouldn't have been able to check they were safe.

It's not about being pedantic, there are very real safety reasons.

Threads like these always make me think I should probably appreciate DC's school more.

As I mentioned before, our school has a first bell at 8.25 and second at 8.30. Children line up at 8.25 and then go in. Teacher stands at door as they file past and then follows last child to classroom. Doors are self-closing so as the teacher walks away, the door closes behind. Doors cannot be opened from outside without a key card so no choice but to go through the office. Those thinking there should be some leeway, for how long should the teacher abandon the class to wait for stragglers?

Where would you put the cut of for an 8.50 start?

Touché Gandalf!

But it needs to be done for the office too, if the teacher has already completed the register at 8:50 and marked your child as absent, it needs to be amended at the office, also your child would have no school meal ordered for them, and I'm sure a whole other thread would be started, because poor little jimmy was not aloud his sausage roll and jelly today!

@ArcheryAnnie He took it pretty well - they relented and let him in very quickly so it was all quite good natured, and he wasn't quite so strict with that group after that!