Is your school allowing children to come in late on Monday because of the football?

[LegoTherapy]

I've had an email today saying that primary dc can go in late on Monday if they are staying up to watch the football on Sunday night. They are usually really strict on punctuality and how much they miss by being just 5 minutes late but they have said that being 90 minutes late won't cause them to miss any lesson time!
I recall this for something last year too.
Is your school doing this? Is your child sleeping in on Monday morning after the late night watching football?
I'm not into football at all so I might be biased against this.
Aibu to think that schools shouldn't adjust the school day timings to allow for late nights to watch sport?

Yep, registers are staying open til 9.30.

I think it's last week of term and they've run out of fucks!

Ours are all open as normal. Ones even got sports day all day.

It's a rare event. It's fine IMO.

He doesn’t have to sit in the pub getting drunk. It’s not compulsory! I have a clinic at 9 on Monday so my NHS colleagues and I will have to be sensible on Sunday night. We are not a special case. We are just working adults and have to get on with our important jobs. Just like your husband.

Many will come in late whether or not the school gives permission. We might as well get the brownie points by granting a late start.

Primary yes- they're leaving the register open till 10 (students who want to come in at usual time still can do). Secondary no.

Is this just something which happens for football or is it all major sporting events? The olympics?
Seems bizarre to me. It is not like it is the moon landings or similar.

Ds doesn't finish until the 24th, officially the 26th but the last two days are inset days so it's not the last week of term here. Our school is always the last one to finish.
I've just told ds about it and he thinks it's crazy too. The good news is his bully might not be in until 10.30am so he's happy about that. They will be going in straight to break time.

For those who think I am teacher bashing-you are wrong. I say regularly that they deserve a medal. Ds's school have wonderful staff who I have a lot of respect for. And yes, I do know how hard they work outside of the school day. I have worked in schools. This isn't about teachers but about football being used as a reason to miss 90 minutes of school when they are so hot on punctuality and we have had so many emails about it saying how being 5 minutes late over a number of days and weeks adds up to x amount of lost learning time. I'm autistic and struggle in particular with double standards.

Our registers are closing at 9:30. School will be open from normal time for those who choose/ need to come in at that time. Staff are expected to be in as usual and have been told to plan activities for the children who are here. Lessons will begin at 9:35. As a primary school, we rely on parents to get their children to school and our experience shows that they will keep a child off school rather than bring them late. By making it ok to arrive later on that day, more children will come to school. Apart from that one hour, we are on full, normal timetable until Tuesday week. We will relax on the Wednesday, which is the last day of term.

You're reaching now. He's not sitting in the pub getting drunk. He won't, because he knows he has to teach 30 kids on Monday morning. Nor did I say he was a special case either, so please do jog on.

Are you kidding! Any reason why football is more important to the kids than all the other sports we excel at? Are all us parents allowed to go in work late? (Not watching so I'll take a free lie in thanks) Please - save us, what a load of old tosh!

Some certainly are, yes. Lidl, for example, are opening an hour late. It's going to be happening quite a lot on Monday. Really isn't some niche thing.

I work in a school and no we are not starting late but there has been a message from the head saying that we would rather the children come in late than not at all because there will be parents who will just let their children have the day off because they are tired.

Ok, maybe it would help to think of both things as the school responding to pressure over attendance? As coming in late usually means they're marked absent for the whole session.

Government policy at the moment is very much to try and increase it, and there's an expectation that schools hassle parents a lot. Hence the emails about 5 minutes. But on Monday, schools are faced with a situation where lots of kids simply won't be there at the usual starting time whatever they do, and some wouldn't be brought in at all. It's out of their control.

So some of them have decided to try and manage this by allowing kids to come in late without being marked down, because otherwise their attendance stats for the day would be fucked.

It's absolutely ridiculous.
For a once in a lifetime event (eg. as PP mentioned, moon landing) perhaps. But this is just football. It's not even the World Cup.

Making such a big deal of it just hypes it up even more. Schools should be setting an example, not pandering to it and whipping up the idea it comes before everything else.

Given the strictness over attendance in general, it's even more shocking.

It was all that ‘spare a thought for the teachers’ nonsense which made me cringe!

Anyway, you are a very devoted wife advocating for your husband. I will give you that.

To be able to successfully set an example, there needs to be some chance of people following it. There isn't here. The lateness is going to happen anyway. Schools lack the influence and authority to prevent it. It is baked in.

The question therefore is simply about how they're going to manage it, especially for those schools who already have Ofsted breathing down their necks about attendance.

I see your point about Ofsted - the problem seems to be that (as with so many target setting things!) they completely miss the point. There should be a way to show the school have done their best and it's the parents fucking up. Especially if there's a massive dip in attendance on one particular day that's nothing to do with the school.

Schools should be able to set the example that football doesn't come before everything else in life, and not be punished for it.

The whole attendance system we have is very flawed, yep!

There isn't a way for schools to set an example that's going to be followed here, and there's nothing they can meaningfully do about that. The wider culture wins. But that would be all the more reason to do as you suggest and exclude occasions like this from attendance stats full stop, since we clearly aren't about to design a less stupid overarching system.

I know the double standards are unbelievable.

Lots of bleeting about attendance, punctuality then when the footballs on it’s a different story.

Only football

It's near the end of term, it's a Sunday night/Monday morning.

I'm sure a school could do a late start if something else like that happened.
Olympics is a longer term thing usually in the holidays.

I think it's a nice thing to do and I have little interest in football.

Our school says they can go in up to 11am on Monday morning.

Ours can start up until 10am without a late mark.

I Dont see anything wrong with it as a one off.

Ours can come in up to 9:30. We won't be watching the football so DS going in at normal time. I still have to be at work at normal time anyway