Taking ds to school late

[Ces6]

DS has respiratory problems and about twice a year wakes up really wheezy and needs to do a half hour treatment to help him breathe more easily. When this happens I take him into school an hour late which has never been a problem. This morning though he was refused entry until 10.30 - new rule which was sent out yesterday and which I subsequentlyfound in the bottom of ds's bag. I had no one to leave ds with and had to take him into work. I work at university and we had exams which couldn't go ahead without me as we were already at our minimum limit of invigilators. Aibu to find the school's new rule a right pita? Do other schools do this? I can understand penalizing recurrent lateness but this just seems to be designed to make life harder for parents with children with medical needs.

@HopeClearwater - OP says clearly that he wakes up with it twice a year. So she's supposed to get up half an hour earlier every day of the year because on two days he'll need treatment?

Being late is really disruptive. There's a lot more to it than just signing in and walking to the classroom. It means office staff have extra admin to mark the lateness, kitchen staff probably have to amend lunch orders and the teacher may have to go over stuff again. The child will miss the start of the day explaining what is planned for the day so they will be unsettled. This I imagine is why your school has now said late children have to wait until 10.30am, to make it as difficult as possible for the repeat offenders. Obviously your situation is different, being a medical one so I would have a word with Office staff to see if they can make an exception for your child in the future (if it is a medical reason, not just that you are late!).

What the fuck? How can a school say being late disrupts education and remedy that by making them later?? Utter nonsense and I’d be taking advice from the LEA as to how they can be allowed to do this.

Have you actually asked the school if this applies in this instance (medical treatment that you have let them know about). I hope you would find that it doesn't. If they say it does still apply (and the receptionist may not actually know) then let the head know that you would like to complain to them/the governors about disability discrimination. A common sense approach would not penalise children for medical appointments either.

i see it as discrimination, it is not morning laziness when you have a severe medical need .Some schools are beyond belief

Hmm...I got a letter from our school because the number of minutes dd2 has been late this year is over allowed like MIT. So, based on that, how/why would a school want to increase the amount of school time which is missed??

Seems really bizarre/stupid

Being late is really disruptive. There's a lot more to it than just signing in and walking to the classroom. It means office staff have extra admin to mark the lateness, kitchen staff probably have to amend lunch orders and the teacher may have to go over stuff again

Part of the office staff duties is to sign people in and out. They are paid to do it! All the schools I am aware of take food orders in advance.Teachers don't have to go over things again for latecomers ( although I accept they might choose to)

However the Ops child has a medical reason for lateness and should be treated differently. Its is discrimination. I would write an email to the head saying that.

Being late isn’t ideal but sometimes there are circumstances when it is the only option. Being late is better than being absent for the whole day.

It is discriminatory. Under the the Equality Act 2010, it would be a 'reasonable adjustment' to disapply this rule (although the rule is stupid and should be binned altogether)

Thanks everyone for comments. @Hopeclearwater not sure why you think it would be more disruptive to his education to go in an hour late twice a year. The alternative would be to keep him at home the whole day (which unfortunately sometimes happens if we can't get it under control) or send him in and wait and see if the school calls an ambulance (has also happened when we misjudged it).

He is 9 so it is primary school and he is quite capable of finding the classroom on his own.

@Youllneverguesswhat - they have also said that no kids can walk to school on their own! They have recently decided to make everyone's lives more difficult in a number of ways come to think of it!

We actually live abroad but there must be some sort of discrimination laws here too so I am going to look into it. I have already spoken to another mum whose son has to have monthly blood tests first thing in the morning so he will also be affected.

Yes, I agree that it is daft that they don't get a proper break on Fridays but it seems that they decided they couldn't fit one in as they finish early (1pm).

Thanks all.

Tyrionsbitch, if you work in schools, you need to learn how to spell practice ( noun)!

Oh and re: school lunches. We pay for them in advance and I couldn't cancel today's anyway so he was already marked as present for lunch (something we have to do via an app, not the admin staff).

I expect it's to discourage the parents like the one i had whose child was always late. When I spoke to the parent she said , " oh I always come late, it's easier to park when everyone else has gone" . No mobility issues btw, except for that lazy bone in both her legs.......

Meant to say she was very upset when her child's persistent lateness was recorded on his otherwise glowing annual report ( he was a lovely little boy, shame about his choice of parent!) We speculated that she wouldn't be showing that bit around the family or Facebook!

Yea my kids school has banned kids under year 5 (9/10years old) walking in/out of school by themselves.
That makes sense if your 7/8 year old lives a mile or 2 from school, but would be maddening if your child lives round the corner or a just a few streets away.

Yes it is discriminatory, asthma is very serious and can be disabling.
Write to the Head and SEND governor if you have one.

@viques
We speculated that she wouldn't be showing that bit around the family or Facebook!

You're just feeding into the notion that some school staff are massive power tripping bitches 🤷‍♀️ Surely you can do better and encourage your fellow school staff to be more professional.

myDHhasahobbyanditsnotcycling yes it is .My DC has a condition that causes them to only be able to half days sometimes.Their secondary are fully supportive if she doesn't get there till say 10.30am because how they are on the day .A good school will be supportive and understand and if it is medical condition then there are legal rules regarding education they have to abide by so yes i think you will find it is discrimination.

Hopeclearwater do you realise some children who do have medical conditions can become ill very quickly ie asthma attack or in my DC's case they can be fine when they get up but within that "getting up half hour early " can suddenly feel and become ill .How does getting up half hour early help then does it suddenly cure them .As for affecting education no parent of a child who suffers an illness want their education to suffer that's why we do our best to try and keep a status quo.

hellomonday what a ridiculous statement.

I'd say ok, kiss him goodbye and leave him in the office to wait out out. Bet a fiver he's in the class in under ten minutes

Thanks @quizqueen im fully aware of the spelling of practise/practice and the difference between them. Apparently my phone does not! But as it is not relevant to the thread.... 🙄

viques I entirely agree with hellomonday

Im intrigued how they can refuse entry. Id be inclined to ask for my fixed term exclusion letter and then challenge the exclusion with the governors.