To think what an load of bollocks? School related

[TickTackNo]

It's been made clear now that "if parent's are ever late to pick their DC up, then the DC will have to make the time up at playtime after lunch"

Wtf?! Why should a child miss out because of a parent being late. Makes no sense. Sometimes we genuinely can't help being late.

I don’t see how this is going to solve anything.

Is a parent who is habitually late at pick-up time really going to change their ways because their DC misses a bit of playtime? If they don’t already care enough to make arrangements to get the DC picked up on time then why would this make them do anything? It’s not directly affecting the parent, after all.

Plus it seems unfair to punish a child for their parent’s failings.

And yes, I know that even the best, most punctual parent can be late occasionally because of unforeseen circumstances out of their control. I’m presuming that this policy isn’t targeted at them, even if it does affect their DC on those rare occasions that the parent is late.

What about when the teacher sends them out late? Are they going to be giving them an extra long break to make up the time?

PMSL at never being late because you should be able to see the future (and probably never go more than 2 minutes away from the school just in case, right?)

Stuff happens. Sometimes stuff is outside of your control. Amusing to use a bus as an example. Let’s switch it round.

Car breaks down? You should have known it was going to happen and set off earlier. You’ll need to factor in 40 minutes waiting for the AA and an hour to be towed and arrive at school in a taxi into every journey from now on.

Set off to walk? You should anticipate that you’ll trip over and break your ankle on the way to school and add 30 minutes to each journey in case you need to drag yourself there.

You picked a really bad example. A bus breaking down is out of your control, so is the more likely scenario, traffic moving so incredibly slowly that you won’t arrive in time, but just fast enough that walking would not be faster, leaving you powerless and stewing with rage at stupid amounts of traffic doubling your journey time totally unexpectedly - car or bus. What can you actually do? Not much. Last time that happened to me it was a burst water main and all the buses had to be diverted. Mine was stuck on a narrow round and couldn’t turn. This is not a predictable event.

But yes OP your school is mad.

Absolutely ridiculous and unfair on the children. If it is that much of a problem and it's the same parents - send a warning that from next term a fee will need to be paid. £5 for up to half an hour £10 for any time over half hour to an hour. So even if 5 mins late, £5. 31 mins late £10. There has to be a better way than to punish the children.

I assume for the school to issue such a ridiculous policy there must be a significant issue with late parents. I imagine if parents were substantially late the school would call social services so it’s fair to assume this involves a number of parents. Poor kids. Punished twice.

"Sorry little Timmy, mommy and daddy are ten minutes late for pick up so no playtime for you tomorrow."

How bizaare. Surely a fine for parents who are consistantly late every day is more apt?

They're trying to get the kids to be fistressed enough about the prospect of missing playtime to make parents be more careful about it. It's a massive guilt trip.

YANBU. It's not fair on the children and I daresay a parent who is continously late might not care much anyway, and their already disadvantaged child will be punished for it.

It's a pretty stupid punishment.

Definitely NBU and maybe if enough parents, and actually especially the ones who aren’t late so won’t be personally affected, complain then they might rethink it.

What does that even mean??

So they are punishing the need for extra supervision for the picked up late child by needing extra supervisionwhen they’re kept in at break??

That makes zero sense unless you're talking about late drop off in the morning, so the child is late to school - then it makes sense that they would be made to "make up time" in break time.

And if you're consistently late to drop children off in the morning then why should they not make up time? They're missing out! If it's their fault then it will focus them better on getting ready for school in time, and if it's the parent's fault then hopefully it will get THEM to sort themselves out as well.

Typo? Did they mean late being dropped off in the morning?

That a little bit unfair punishment for the children rather than the parents, at our school it’s £2.50 per 15 your late, I think that’s much fairer and more likely to work if it’s hitting parents in the pocket.

One head I worked for took the DCs not collected in time to a room the other side of the school an made the parents walk all the way there, around the outside of the building (in all weathers) to collect them. That concentrated the minds of habitual offenders.

He did once contact social services because this was one more piece of evidence of the neglect of the DCs in one famiy.

Seems backwards.
Timmy has sat alone at the end of the day because his parents are late, so Timmy has to sit alone the next day at play... If his parents were bothered about him being sat alone they would be on time... Surely him waiting around isn't a priority for them.
Punish the child twice.

I always prefer the teachers that will tell the child it's all fine and someone will be here soon. Just look at a book with your stuff all ready and they will be here soon. Then manage to collar the parent without the child knowing. As a one-off most are forgiving, no? For multiple, the parent needs to know it's not on and that x, y or z will be happening. The child doesn't need to be aware, they haven't done anything wrong.

Those that charge a late fee, does that seem low cost to anyone else. £5 for 30 mins is not going to cover wages for the two staff that have to remain on site with that child. And it's pretty average in terms of babysitting fees too isn't it?

I don't remember any of this. When I was at primary school you would just play in the playground for 10 minutes if mum or equivalent was late. It was only a big deal if they were really late

Bibesia - I get your point on rural buses, but if that’s the case and people are entirely reliant on that bus being on time for them to pick up their kids, then why should the school have to deal with it?

These issues people mention like bus delays, not being able to get away from work, are all valid. But surely they are all so rare that you can at least ask a favour of someone on that day? We aren’t embedded in school life and don’t know many parents, but we know enough that we have a couple of options of people we could phone and say “can you grab DS after school and take him home, I’m running ten mins late, I’ll be there to get him at 335”

Can’t believe that people take the attitude of “sorry teacher, thems the breaks, I’ll get there when I can”

Usernumbers, rural buses are just one example. Going to the other extreme, there are the people who live in towns who may get held up totally unexpectedly by traffic delays and diversions, which is a rather less rare event. Sure, they could factor in that risk to an extent by leaving early, but that won't take into account the major snarl-ups, and for a lot of people leaving work early just isn't an option.

When my kids were that age, I had a network of around five different options to cater for childminding/school collection mess-ups, and there were still times when none of them worked. Then there was that time when DD was due to go home with a friend and be picked up by friend's mother, and I got a call at 4 pm. to say neither of them had been collected ...

It makes absolutely no sense and is just an arbitrary punishment. They need to target the parents who are consistently late, not take away children's playtime.

'Make up time?' Surely they should get a longer break to 'make up for' being in school longer in the afternoon? I would pull them up on this as it is incorrect and stupid.

Not fair at all! My DC go to different primaries, it's logistically impossible for me to get them both, DD has ASD so I pick her up and a taxi picks up DS, at least once a fortnight the taxi is about 10-15 minutes late for whatever reason. It would be completely U for DS to be penalised for it.

I don't understand how they need to make up time at playtime - the child hasn't lost any learning time, they have been in school longer than is necessary. i can see the reasoning if parents alate dropping child off in the morning. Otherwise it seems pointless - yes it has to be discouraged fro repeat offenders with no valid reason for being late. I would suggest of the school has an afterschool club that the children go there and the parent has to pay for a w hole session even if child is only there fifteen minutes.

A bus breaks down. Not a problem if you always get the earlier bus.

This is amusing - clearly you've never had to get rural buses anywhere. In my village the bus I got left at 2 o'clock (This still meant I got to school a bit early, the 'earlier bus' left at 10 am - I;d have been hanging round the school gates for over 3 hours - probably been arrested )and no there weren't any bijou little cafes where I could hang out and drink mochachino for 3 hours, on the off chance the later bus would break down. There was village and a school.

I don’t understand what time needs to be made up; a late pick-up surely means they are at school longer? A late arrival maybe?