To be late for school once a week?

[Latelateshowz]

(Writing this from DC POV.)

I am in year 13 at school. My school’s late policy is that you can be late once a week without any penalty. If you get two lates you get put on a report and have to turn up early for 2 weeks.

I don’t see the point of getting in on time just to sit around in form time or to go to an assembly. So I choose to make the most of the system that is in place and deliberately go in late once a week.

In case it is relevant, I have the second highest voluntary service hours in the school (this is for things like helping younger students, doing clubs etc) and I am predicted the highest grades. I’ve never had any detentions for behaviour etc.

My form tutor mentioned my punctuality in a recent parents meeting and my parents think I should just be on time. My view is that I am just making the most of the system the school has set up.

YABU: get yourself to school on time
YANBU: fair enough, be late if you want

They aren't necessarily whole school assemblies. Quite often they will be specific to a particular key stage and relevant to their particular stage of learning. They may involve a guest speaker.

Singing doesn't tend to feature heavily in school assemblies at secondary school anymore - or at least it hasn't in the 100's of school assemblies I've attended at schools across the UK.
Worship will only happen if you are church school and if that's the case then I'm afraid that's what you signed up for!

I was routinely late to sixth form because it started far earlier than other schools (namely 8:30 am) and I was doing 5 A levels and working 16 hours a week in M&S, so was tired and prioritised sleep.

Anyway, it didn’t say anything about my character, I now work in a six figure job in law. Let your DD figure things out for herself.

If there’s no penalty for being late once a week and you’re not missing any lessons, I would absolutely be late once a week.

Year 13 is weird because you’re essentially an adult being made to go to school. I can vividly remember my school asking for a note from a parent to excuse me for being ill, and having to point out that this was ridiculous because I was 18 and they weren’t actually my legal guardians any more.

I was late all the time in Y13 - assembly? No thanks - and I used to leave the premises in free periods, which we were also not meant to do. I’d long since stopped giving a shit about teachers telling me off, and I excelled academically so I didn’t feel the need to bother with any of the other nonsense.

Our town is one school sixth form only or bus to nearby town for college (expensive and adds commuter time). It is run like secondary school with school uniform and they expect them to be in form, phse, assembly and onsite for frees not just in subject classes. Had to go to class to be babysat if teacher off even if no work set. Can’t study at public library right next to school, must stay in school even if overcrowded and only place to work noisy canteen. Weren’t supposed to go off for a driving lesson in free period.
You can see why some students push back against those type of rules. There was lots of turning blind eye by staff (driving instructors picked up from gates) and doing enough to skirt under radar in my dc’s friend group. They are all doing competitive courses at top universities. They all were hardworking juggling study, volunteering, pt jobs, learning to drive, uni visits, work experience etc.
One example my dc’s friend doing medicine used to use her Monday afternoon free period to volunteer in a care home in town, that was not allowed but was important for her uni application and relied on blind eye.

Interesting range of opinions: thank you.

Slow hand clap to the few who say things like “Can't believe any parent would even publish this post. Ffs.” FFS yourself @Morrisdancer403010!

Can’t remember who was questioning it but it’s real! I haven’t revealed my DC’s sex or mine because they are irrelevant.

I’m not planning to show this to DC. I was just interested to see what other people think. For the record, DC is pleasant, respectful (apart from this!) and has already got an excellent UCAS reference. I have an older DC so this isn’t my first time navigating this phase of dealing with a not-quite adult.

Exactly @Cakeandusername. It’s the babying that DC is reacting to. We have lots and lots of experience of UCAS, for example, in our wider family so endless assemblies about UCAS or indeed about other things DC isn’t pursuing are completely irrelevant. In a few months it’ll be uni time and I certainly won’t be driving DC there in pyjamas!!

At year 13, it her choice. The school are making her aware that it's not very good and not an allowance of one late a week, everyone should intent to turn up on time but they seem to have some leniency. If she asks what I thought I'd reiterate what the school thinks but what can you do, she's nearly 18. She's got to start making these choices for her own life now.

I wouldn't care as long as school is ok with this.

Dear young person,

By relying on your school's policy of excusing lateness one day a week, what you are playing is a game called "brinkmanship." I.e., seeing how far you can go before you don't get away with it any more. This, while technically legal, sets authority figures' teeth on edge and anyway is a bad bad bad habit to develop.

The day's grace is there so that people who actually do have a valid reason for atypical lateness, such as unforeseeable bus cancellations or acts of God, aren't penalised for events beyond their control. You are working against this increasingly rare but valuable spirit of common sense and it is not in your or the community's interest to do so.

If the preschool admin bores the heck out of you and wastes your time, take a book or a crossword and gain something productive from it instead.

Punctuality is the courtesy of kings. Be proud of your ability to be on time, which I personally have longed for all my life.

With all good wishes,

My 14 would absolutely do this if they could get away with it, but they’re a year 9 … I am seriously hoping that he’s grown up a bit by year 13 so aI don’t have to deal with this kind of BS!

While I totally disapprove of this type of gaming the system so would not do it myself I think this type of thing is likely best left to their own conscience. It's worth pointing out that this type of behaviour is, while still being within bounds, morally unacceptable to many (but not all) and might be reflected on any future references. People that stick to the spirit of the law as well as the letter often come through as being more popular and well thought of.
Totally not worth a fight over though.

That's hilarious, what a stupid policy. Given the choice of not facing consequences for skipping registration I'd have done the same in year 13. As it was my school awarded attendance. If my school had done that in the late 90s every 6th former would be late once a week.

Let's hope they're more respectful of staff time at university.

That's a smart kid you've got there. If the school set it up that way why complain when someone uses the option? If my workplace said I could work from home up to 3 days a week am I being unfair in anyway to do that rather than going into the office every day?

We all complain about boring, unnecessary meetings so your son has just found a perfectly acceptable way of minimising the impact of unnecessary attendance for form time, which can, largely, be seen as an unnecessary meeting.

I think he'll go far in life!

Funny you should say that about the sick pay. When I worked in Germany, it seemed to be the done thing. It certainly was for all the cleaning,catering and maintenance staff anyway. I was gobsmacked when I was concerned at not seeing our cleaning for couple weeks and the others laughing saying its normal. So effectively at the end of the leave year, they use all unused sick pay too!!

Year 13s are a bit smug, in the same way year 6 are. They’ve mastered this system and want to rebel a bit.

This issue is a bit silly; but likely not a big deal and your Yr 13 won’t always be this self satisfied.

I’d just leave your yp to it they sound absolutely fine. Only a few months to go. FWIW my dc got into her choice of top uni and is living a productive life balancing her commitments.
I’m usually a rule follower but I definitely tipped in yr13 to leaving it to her judgement.
Sitting through the how to draft your personal statement when you’d already submitted ucas or everything about engineering apprenticeships when you don’t do Stem subjects was a waste of her time.
I don’t see how it’s disrespectful of staff time @HighLadyofTheNightCourt at uni they sign up for talks interested in eg mine went to study abroad last week, her mate who has zero interest in it didn’t. At school age 18 they would have expected them all to go.
They were zero help with subject my dc applied to, really awkward about her having morning off to sit a test she needed to for uni so it definitely rankled she was expected to sit through irrelevant talks.

Disagree. Takes a village. Good way of canvassing opinions from others.

I think the problem here is the lack of clarity in what being late means.

Id see it as 5/10 minutes due to be disorganised, traffic etc.

Missing tutor and assembly isn’t being late - it’s truancy. It’s a choice to miss lessons.

Late could mean turning up at 2pm for the last lesson if not clarified but “allowed”.

But that’s up to the school to change their policy and meanings and serve consequences for a choice to miss lessons.

As a teacher in a 6th form, it would infuriate the tutors - they get given things to pass on during tutor (notices, reminders, messages from staff) and they then get it in the neck if those things aren’t passed on. I was trying to get hold of a pupil to arrange something last year and it took days to sort out because I didn’t have any lessons with them but they also didn’t go to tutor so the tutor couldn’t tell them to come and speak to me! Also, even though there’s no formal consequence for one late, I’d put money on the fact that they’ve been flagged up by attendance so the tutors (again) getting it in the neck unless something is done - which is why they’ve mentioned it at parents evening so they can say ‘I’ve spoken to x and the parents about this’. The smart arse thing wears very thin after a while when they are impacting other people’s jobs and they don’t appreciate that fact.

But they are doing the bare minimum on ATTENDANCE without getting punished, i.e. being late once per week.

It's fantastic that they are a high achiever academically, and that they volunteer, but I don't see how those positives somehow allow rule-breaking in another area. It's the equivalent of an adult saying "I always park in disabled spaces even though I'm not disabled, but that's OK because I have a high-paying job and run the kids football team at the weekend". Well done on the positives, but that doesn't excuse negatives.

I don’t blame him. He’s not missing anything important and it’s allowed.

This is a misuse of your time, but by SLT. Year 13 are capable of reading and acknowledging such information via email, they'll be expected to at university and in the workplace. This could be allocated to a pastoral lead, reception or even a new post created someone as a tlr or admin post that collates and forwards information to students. What a really inefficient method to expect teachers to pass all these things on in person verbally or on paper.

Similarly if the policy allows for a late each week and that rankles, it's the policy I'd have an issue with, not the student who has worked out how to use their time more efficiently (even if that's to grab 15 minutes more in bed)

I think it depends if your DC will be dependant on their tutor/ school for a reference in future to get a job/university place. With 2 candidates of similar high abilities/extra curricular, one who is regularly late would likely not get the place- so may not be any penalties now but longer term there might be…

Brinkmanship is exactly what it is - and it works well until it doesn't.