School lateness due to buses

[Mol1628]

My son was late to school this morning. He’s in Y7. He gets a public bus as there is no school bus and it’s too far to walk.
Buses are frequent but he always gets the one a few buses earlier so he’s in school in time for breakfast club. He’s had perfect attendance so far.
Today no buses turned up. He was at the bus stop for 30 minutes. A bus finally did show up and he managed to get to school just 5 minutes late with about 20 other students who also use the same bus route.
Thankfully he wasn’t given a detention (as is standard for lates that are your own fault) but they’ve knocked 2% off his attendance score so now sitting at 98%.
They get ‘points’ at the end of the week for 100% attendance which they can spend in the school shop.
So through no fault of his own he won’t be getting his reward.

AIBU to call the school tomorrow and complain? I don’t see how this is helpful to a student when it clearly wasn’t his fault. There was nothing he could have done to get to school on time. He already leaves earlier than he needs to and gets the earlier bus.

YANBU but don’t expect them to care or change it.

I think it would be unreasonable.
He needs to learn that sometimes you don't get rewards through no fault.
They didn't get cross with him for being late, which is good. Other schools would give detentions even if not his fault.

I feel like this might be one of those life isn’t fair lessons.
I wouldn’t personally be bothering school - they will have bigger things to worry about. Maybe give him 50p for the shop instead 🤷‍♀️

My dd has to catch the local public bus and it’s been late twice so far. She just rings them and let them know and because so many kids catch the same bus, they all get to go in without a late mark.

Most lateness and absence isn't the kid's fault.

You were quite happy with the system when it benefitted your son, why do you want to complain now?

He was late so he got marked as late, same as if you drove him to school and there was heavy traffic he'd be classed as late then.

My daughter was off school last week as she had an asthma attack so has lost her 100% attendance- it's not her fault but that doesn't change the fact she didn't attend.

This is life and he'll just have to suck it up.

you are absolutely right - but Op what I think is - if you choose to 'believe' in this bullshit attendance and encourage your child to care about it - you can'[t complain when it's demonstrably unfair to your child!

its a total bullshit system to ALL the children particularly those with health problems/ neurodiversity/ living in chaotic homes

just tell your child the system is bullshit then stop worrying about it

He's been lucky not to have been ill so far.

Now he's unlucky the bus was late.

It's a luck based system, it's not supposed to be fair.

so. true. it's a pointless system based on many different forms of luck. Luck that you have good health, luck that you are organised and capable as a person, luck you have parents who are focused and help you get ready each day - luck that you aren't experiencing trauma at home and are stressed.

Better to stop thinking about 100 per cent attendance now as you will drive yourself nuts.

You’re all right. He’s not that bothered himself. A bit annoyed. But yeah. I should let it go I guess.
He didn’t miss any of his lessons either so yeah, it is bullshit!

i don’t think you should get involved complain to the school. The thing is, although the bus being late was not his fault, it remains his responsibility to get to school on time. It may have just been a one off issue with the bus and if so it’s no huge problem. If the bus proves to be unreliable going forward, he may need to consider leaving earlier.

This nails it. I’m a teacher who is asked every single year by students why I don’t reward attendance and my reply is always that their reward is good health. It means nothing. I have an adult child and preteen, none of them ever had 100% attendance. The adult is a year away from being a qualified doctor and the preteen is doing very well at school.

its only 2 % as it’s quite early in the school year. By the end of the year, it would be much less than 2%.

Sorry but YABU.

I syart work at 9. I leave my house at 750. It is a 20 minute drive. I like to be early. But if traffic is bad and I am late then I am expected to make up the time.

I also leave more than ample time, traffic jams due to other cars breaking down on my route, accide ts etc are also not my fault. But that doesn't alter the fact I was late.

Don't phone the school

They have a policy. Respect it and move on.

The only thing the school have control over is how they respond to it in terms of punishment which they did correct

the rest is very strict government attendance rules and how it gets registered

Yanbu.

100% attendance rewards are just wrong full stop.

They actively discriminate against kids who have disabilities and long term medical conditions and have appointments to attend.

But no one's ever given a shit about them.

I would be very surprised if they agreed to change it - no one has ever gotten it changed for others who have no choice and through no fault of their own.

Instead just focus on helping your son build resilience against an unfair world. That's far more beneficial to him in the long term.

If the school has a attendance rewards that a pupil would miss out on in other circumstances when it's not the fault of them or their parents (eg. illness, chronic conditions that require lots of medical appointments etc) then it's no more unreasonable for your son to miss out than for any pupils who is ill etc. You would not be unreasonable giving the school feedback that you feel these awards are unfair in general but I doubt they would take much notice.

Most schools seem to have these attendance reward systems. I can't see that they will make a lot of difference since most pupils who are off school other than for genuine reasons beyond their control will be either a) children with other problems behind school refusal or b) children from chaotic homes where they don't have parental support to get ready and to school on time. I can't see rewards for the children making a lot of difference in either of these scenarios, so I suspect it's all to be seen to be doing something. I'd be interested to hear a view from someone who's seen the impact of these sort of things on attendance.

Absolutely this!

One year my DD2 was off with Covid three times. I was sent an attendance warning letter.

I think some of these processes are completely automated though. My DD had previously had near 100% attendance, always gets good grades and always takes pride in her work.

Oh and the first time DD3 was late for school in Yr7 because the bus was nearly an hour late, she got herself in such a tiz that she was bawling her eyes out by the time she got to school. I reassured her that I'd let the school know about the bus situation but she got put into 'isolation' for half an hour just so she could calm down.

Where I live, problems with buses are the order of the day until around the October half term. It amazes me because when applying for the hugely expensive pass you have to put down your child's school and their home address, which I naively assumed would help them to plan.

It seems very odd that the school would lower his attendance as a result of this, when schools are under huge pressure to keep attendance figures high. They’ve shot themselves in the foot there.

He can’t leave any earlier as he already leaves a lot earlier to get the early bus and eats breakfast at school. There was just a period of time where no buses showed up. Where he gets on is a main bus route so there’s several he can get on. Just none of them turned up today so must have been an incident somewhere. We will just have to pass it off as one of thise shitty situations and as long as he gets himself to the bus stop on time he’s done all he can do.

Hes not bothered really I’ve not made a big deal of it, I just think these rules are unfair and punish otherwise good hard working students.

Definitely good points about those off due to unfortunate health issues etc. Just unfair for everyone isn’t it!

my kids got a train to school. In the last few years (since covid) the trains have been really unreliable and they were late at least once a week (and an hour late home too)

school knew it was the trains, and never complained or were bothered by it, there were about 70 kids on the train.
But they still got a late attendance mark, because the reasons for a late mark are laid down in law, if you are more than a certain number of minutes late that is late and more than another amount of minutes that is absent even if you turn up after half an hour. School has no choice on that.

And when chasing up kids who had persistant lateness, they ignored the train lates, as they knew there was nothing they could do.

If you arrive late, you arrive late. It's not a 'late without a good reason' mark. I imagine the school won't alter registers.

they are not allowed to alter them, they are a legal document and the legal definition of 'late' and 'absent' is not up to the school

Do you not see the difference between your car parked on your drive/street that you can decide when to leave in it; and a bus that, if it doesn't turn up, and the next one maybe doesn't turn up either, or the next, you are utterly powerless to do anything whatsoever about it?