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?

A minute or two leeway to make allowances for discrepancies in people's clocks/watches/phones is entirely normal, surely? But then I guess it could have been 8.51 by your watch, but 8.53 by theirs or something.

I always try and be early for everything for this very reason (I realise that is massively smug and unhelpful though...)

Late is late is late.

Most schools have a warning bell a couple of minutes before the official start so kids can get in line or start to get into their classrooms.

The secondary where my eldest goes has a zero tolerance approach like this, because of issues with persistent lateness.

Bell rings at 8.50? If kids were all lined up, organised in and indoors, it wasn't 8.51.

But OP, you got there after they'd closed the door. If they'd opened it for you, then another latecomer arrived just as they were closing it again, you can see how this sort of thing "creeps" and ends up encroaching on the school day.

You were late. Not by much, but late. So you have to follow the protocol for late admission to the class room.

Stop making excuses!

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.

The late book isn't to punish you, it's to acknowledge that the child is in the school when the child wasn't taken in from the playground with the other children by the teacher. It's a safeguarding measure.

When the school close the doors, they have to lock them as there will be no adults standing by them monitoring who is going in and out of the building. It's a safeguarding measure.

Once the door has been locked, the TA (usually a TA who supervises and then locks the door in my experience) won't open it to let anyone else is otherwise she'd be there for ages doing it and parents get into the habit of thinking they have an extra minute of two in the morning. They don't. The TA can't re open the door because they will be onto their next job of supervising the cloakrooms/children getting into class etc. It's a safeguarding measure.

Once the child is in the hands of the teacher, the school is responsible for them. If you have taken your child to school and they haven't been seen/taken in by the teacher from the playground, you need to sign them in so that if they don't make it into the classroom for some reason, the school know they should have done. It's a safeguarding measure.

Got it yet? It's to keep your child and all the other children in the school safe.

And if they'd closed the door, what else could you do but go to the office? Do you think they ought to change their security procedure because you were more than a minute late?

Late. One minute late.

The reason they make you sign in is to monitor lateness and to make sure the pupil is not left off the register - fire drills etc
The office with double check the pupil is marked in at school

Oh that's just ridiculous jobsworthiness. Yes okay. There has to be a limit, but a not a minute later.
Plus if we want to get petty. Not everyone's watch displays the exact same time does it. Your watch may have said 8.51, yet a person standing next to you could have said.8.48.

Oh and the polite thing to do is say "sorry we're late" rather than whinge about being made to go via the office when you're a minute late. Teachers and TAs have other stuff to do than make allowances for parents running late.

Just incase you did not get the memo.... you were late
Our school opens its doors at 8:45 and closes them at 8:55. The lovely teachers will wait if they see you running up, but other than that you have to drop the kids at the office. Reasonable policy I think.

YABU.

If school starts at 8.50, the idea is you get there before then, not at exactly 8.50. If you struggle with time-keeping then try aiming for 8.45 so you are still on time even when arriving a minute late.

If school starts at 8.50; I'd lay odds they're actually supposed to be at their desks by then, and are supposed to arrive a bit earlier. Our school has a first and second bell; first one is to go inside and get ready, second is the official start of the school day.
Your child will have been late starting by the time they faffed about in the cloakroom.

Awlook the school's clock is what counts.

Sorry, but as most other posters have pointed out - there does have to be a cut off. Closing the door at 8.50am sounds to be that cut-off for your school.

At DD's school, doors open at 8.45am and the day starts at 8.55am which is when the doors are closed. If you arrive at 8.56am and find the classroom door closed then, yes, you would have to go in via Reception and sign in. Even though you would probably be able to see the children sitting on the carpet about to start the register.

I understand why it's annoying but there definitely does need to be a cut off somewhere and the advertised start of the school day does seem to be a reasonable one.

I have got myself in to the habit of aiming at 8.45am when the doors open rather than 8.55am when they close. DD is in Year 1 and she hasn't missed the doors yet (not being smug, no doubt she will at some point in the future!)

You were late.

DCs school has installed a buzzer to eliminate any moans of, 'Well, it says 8.39 on my watch.'

Once the buzzer goes off at 8.40, the classroom doors are shut and latecomers need to go to the office. Everyone knows where they stand.

1 minute, 20 minutes, late is late!

YY to the poster who said the leeway will come before 8.50 - our school has a 10 minute window during which all classroom doors are open for the children to arrive at school and get settled. If your school has the same system it sounds very much like you arrived one minute after the "leeway period".

I was a few minutes late pretty much every day of my school career. Then when I reached the sixth form, some comedian amongst the staff appointed me to be the Late Monitor. I had to arrive five minutes early every day in order to collect the Late Book from the office and then go and sit by the door to write down the names of all pupils arriving after 9.

I hadn't the heart to write down all those names of the kids I'd been running up the lane alongside for years. Solidarity amongst the late! Very few names got entered into the book that term.

It did force me to be on time for a while though.

If all the kids had managed to line up and go in before you got there I would imagine that you are meant to be there before 8.50 and after this you are officially late.

Any point after I have hit 'enter' on the register is late. School starts at 9am, I am required to have the register marked and submitted as my first priority, and the second that the bell goes, I call it. If I am finished by 9:01 and you arrive at 9:02, yes, you are late, and you need to go to the office to get yourself registered and marked in.

Stop sulking about going to the office for being a minute or two late. You are still LATE! Get your arse to school before the bell goes and you won't have to go the office for a late note. It's not a difficult concept to grasp.

This the best thread in ages.

I'm betting the late apologists:

1. Eat pre-weighed grapes in the supermarket.
2. Think RSVPing is for sad gits an option.
3. Voted Brexit.

A minute or two leeway to make allowances for discrepancies in people's clocks/watches/phones is entirely normal, surely?

No, you have to go by the school's clocks the same as if you were catching a train, you go by the station's clocks, you can't roll up when you please.

Anyway surely you should aim to arrive a good 5 minutes early to teach your children good timekeeping - therefore you were really 6 minutes late

echt

Ds school opens doors at 8.50, gates get locked at 9 and only way into school is via the office. Gates are open from 8.40 so there is plenty of time to get into school before the gate is closed!