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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

School children arriving late on Monday due to Footie

398 replies

Muncher75 · 09/07/2021 17:51

This was doing the rounds on my social media today, I am a teacher, so Is it just me or is this a bad idea? Children have hardly been in school this year anyway. More importantly, I feel that it’s teaching our children the wrong life lesson. Surely, if you choose to stay up late then suck it up on Monday! You can’t be swanning in late on a Monday to work after a weekend of partying.... interested to know if it’s just me. For the record, I enjoy watching football!

School children arriving late on Monday due to Footie
OP posts:
Pixxie7 · 09/07/2021 20:06

Would you feel the same if it was a different historic event eg during the first moon landing thousands of children watched it?

nanbread · 09/07/2021 20:07

[quote Muncher75]@Rosesareyellow yes, I’m still leaning towards your viewpoint.
I would rather have tired children in my class on Monday morning than half a class or less.
I get that it’s a ‘one off’ but what’s the problem with children being in school tired as a ‘one off’? Showing resilience, perseverance and understanding of the consequences of having a late night enjoying an historical event.[/quote]
Because loads of parents will call their kids in sick instead and the teachers would rather have them in for most of the day than none of it.

Plus tired children can be disruptive and aren't going to learn much.

BoredZelda · 09/07/2021 20:08

If the school is allowing it, it's no different to an adult being given permission to start work late the day after an event.

Maybe this generation of kids will remember this and be better employers in the future. They’ll realise sometimes a couple of hours off for this sort of thing is the right thing to do.

Muncher75 · 09/07/2021 20:09

@Pixxie7
If your question is for me then yes, I think on first thoughts I would feel the same. I’d want them to enjoy it but still be at school the following day...

OP posts:
Whinge · 09/07/2021 20:11

[quote Muncher75]@Pixxie7
If your question is for me then yes, I think on first thoughts I would feel the same. I’d want them to enjoy it but still be at school the following day...[/quote]
But they will be at school. Confused For some this will be slightly later than usual, but that's better than not attending at all.

MrsMariaReynolds · 09/07/2021 20:13

Our school is allowing for late registration (10:30 am, instead of 9) on Monday morning, too, and even as a football hater, I can understand the point.

It's 90 minutes later than the usual start time, in the last few days of term. What they'll miss for that hour and a half won't make or break their education, but the match itself may very well be a memory that will stay with them for life.

BungleandGeorge · 09/07/2021 20:13

I find it really bizarre given the general attitude of schools towards time off. The kids were still expected in school after a residential with 3 whole nights of very little sleep! When it’s a hot summer they don’t sleep until it gets cooler around midnight , I’m sure they can manage school for a few hours even if bedtime is 10/11 (some primary children quite regularly go at that time!)

romdowa · 09/07/2021 20:13

It's one morning, last week of term 🙄 what will they actually miss by coming in late? It's a bit of excitement for the kids and I think people deserve a bit of excitement after the last 18 months and I'm not even english! I remember one year a local woman was competing in the running for my country at the Olympics and we were allowed to watch it in school , it was amazing watching this woman win a gold medal for our country and was better than any old maths or English lesson that we might have missed. No doubt you'd have complained about that too

icecreamgirl94 · 09/07/2021 20:16

It’s the first final in 55 years so the first in a lot of people’s lifetimes, and after such an awful 18 months I think this is a lovely gesture. Sometimes it’s nice to just be able to have fun and the importance placed on school education above everything else has reached ridiculous levels and puts far too much pressure on kids. I only have a 5 month old but when he reaches school age I’ll have no problem with something like this, education doesn’t just happen in the classroom.

Drovememad · 09/07/2021 20:16

Goodness how damaging to children's education, they'll never catch up of the lost education.

Two hours and they expect to be able to catch that up!

🦁 🦁 🦁

Maryann1975 · 09/07/2021 20:19

One of my friends is a teacher - year 1. She has openly said she is dreading if her class have to isolate during the last week of term (which starts on Monday) as all that is planned is Twinkl packs and Disney plus and You can’t very well send that home as home learning.

I appreciate that won’t be all they do, but I bet there is quite a lot of that going on in primary schools this week, so I can’t see that going in late will have too much impact on learning.

The amount of dc who are isolating as class bubbles is at least a third Of pupils in our town, so I really don’t think a couple of hours of lost learning time is the end of the world for those who are in.

Muncher75 · 09/07/2021 20:25

@Pixxie7
I see your point regarding the parents that just won’t bother sending their children in at all. Unfortunately there will always be that small minority in any circumstance. From a planning and teaching perspective, in my opinion, it’s easier to have a complete class that are tired than half a class that you can’t teach what you had planned until the other half arrive!

OP posts:
Pixxie7 · 09/07/2021 20:32

A vast majority of children will be watching anyone surely it’s better that they are late with permission rather than go off sick.

Drovememad · 09/07/2021 20:35

@Muncher75 would your teaching be seriously disrupted by a delay of two hours the last week of term?

Or are you just being obtuse, because it's football?

My memories of the last week of term was watching old Disney films!

Whinge · 09/07/2021 20:36

From a planning and teaching perspective, in my opinion, it’s easier to have a complete class that are tired than half a class that you can’t teach what you had planned until the other half arrive!

Surely you'd just move the planning around? For most schools it's the last week of term. I would mix it up. Have a phonics session or practise the end of year play in the afternoon, and let the children who are in at normal time have some fun in the morning.

Drovememad · 09/07/2021 20:43

Actually @Muncher75 I now remember that my sons were given a day off school as they were selected by their sea scout group to attend the Queens Spit Head review.

Would that be acceptable to you?

GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 09/07/2021 20:49

Our school are doing the same but we don’t get the benefit as Ds is self isolating Confused

Muncher75 · 09/07/2021 20:50

@Drovememad @whinge it’s not the last week of term for us we have a full 2 weeks left. And yes, as I’ve already stated in last post or so, of course we will adapt with a smile! We have LOTS to fit in and very little time. I just wanted to see what the general feeling was. Which is obviously they don’t do anything and just watch films 😂

OP posts:
ButteringMyArse · 09/07/2021 20:50

A lot of your objections OP seem to be based on the wrong thing. You're saying you don't want the disruption of shitloads of kids missing the first couple of hours on Monday, and you think it would be better all round if they all came in at the normal time tired. That's understandable, but what you want is not one of the options here. Because loads of kids are going to come in late whatever schools say.

So the question isn't whether it would be better for Monday morning to happen as normal, because it won't. It's how best to manage the fact that a significant percentage of the students will be late. You do not have the option of a complete class for the whole day here, tired or otherwise.

Drovememad · 09/07/2021 20:51

@Muncher75 glad you agree about the films thing, I used to love that!

Muncher75 · 09/07/2021 20:55

@ButteringMyArse unfortunately not! I’ll let you know how we fair!

OP posts:
Sweettea1 · 09/07/2021 21:02

As a teacher would you rather teach grumpy sleepy children that probably aren't learning anything due to being tired or well rested children. It's one day they are children not working adults and it's not a full school day not even half a school day it's an hour an half.

HappyDays40 · 09/07/2021 21:02

@Muncher75 Does your child go to school in a place in Greater Manchester. This is exact same wording that we received today via Parent Pay.

HullIsWorseThanHell · 09/07/2021 21:08

Since when do kids lie in after a late night? This is totally so the teachers get a lie in!

SleepingStandingUp · 09/07/2021 21:11

My friends husband's company has given its staff all morning off so it's hardly like if they were adults they'd necessarily have to be in on 9.

However it does feel shitty for the kids who will be in 90 minutes doing phonics etc because they went to bed at bedtime