To wonder if being late for school has consequences?

[ChimeNine]

I see other children regularly being dropped off late for school. I am always worried about my daughter getting a black mark against her for lateness so ensure she is on time, usually. However, this week I have had some extremely challenging personal circumstances and my daughter was 10 mins late to school on two occasions. She has now told me that she has been marked down late for both of these days. School do know the circumstances, but I understand it must be protocol to record the lateness, which I am fine with.

Im just wondering, does anything come from this? I’m worried that in the coming week or two, she could be late again and am a bit concerned about any impact this will have on DD.

It will depend on the school to be honest.

Try not to worry, nothing will come of it.

A few late mornings, no, nothing will come of it. You might get a letter at some point in the term if she has other absences and it drops her down below 95% attendance or whatever the target is.

For the ones who are chronically late, 15, 20 minutes 3 days a week every week, they will eventually speak to you about it.

A few days, really no big deal. There are children with bigger issues than that and they don’t have time to worry about 2 days of being 10 minutes late.

I imagine they will try and "support" families with persistent unexplained/lifestyle type lateness.
If the lateness is due to personal issues that you've 3xpkained to them, then they'd have to be pretty inhuman to be looking to g8ve your DC into trouble.

I'm assuming primary? I would hope they would be compassionate enough take your circumstances into account and nothing would happen, except an offer of support. High school might be slightly more punitive and result in a detention

Yiu would think they don’t but the truth it yes it is likely to be raised and yes the school may well want to speak to you about it

it also depends on how late - there is a window after the register shuts when you go down as late but in (perhaps 20 minutes) then after that it will go down as an unauthorised attendance for the whole morning which could have implications

the world of school attendance is rough

High school definitely a detention across the board at all the ones I know about

How old is she? Have you spoken to school about why she is being late?

I work in a primary school and if a child was suddenly regularly being late we would worry about what was going on and would reach out to parents to check everything was ok and how we could help.

we also have some persistant late families who we try to work with to support.

At DDs school those chronically late were rewarded in the days they made it on time.

It sounds like it never usually happens, you've got valid reasons and school are aware. I wouldn't worry.

My DD attendance dropped below 90% due to illnesses. It came up all the time but school told us to ignore everything as it was mostly system generated.

Nobody can answer until you say primary or secondary

If she is in primary school, there won't be any consequence for her. At most you'll get a slightly snotty letter about how important punctualityand attendance are. You'd have to be missing a lot before anything came of it.

If she is secondary age, then it could cause problems for her, as the kids are usually considered responsible for getting themselves in, but if the school are aware of the situation and know it's beyond her control, they are unlikely to implement any sanctions.

Yes, she’s in primary school. Very reassuring to hear all should be fine. Thanks everyone.

Schools I’ve worked in record the number of lates on the front of the report card along with absences. If there’s a certain number of either a member of leadership will speak to you, usually to find out if the school can help with something. If it persisted agreed that chat the head would speak to you/warn it might go to the LA. If it persisted further you would hear from the LA, possibly a fine, however you would need to rack up a LOT of lates for that.

One school I worked at was quite strict because there were persistent problems with punctuality and they added up the amount of time a child was late to create absences. So long as you are not at a school like that, you’ll be fine. Though I would consider the impact of walking in late for your child. Some classes can be quite competitive about punctuality awards for the class or year group and it can get a bit blame-y.

In our school children who are on time are able to settle into the day more easily, they can hang up their coats and sort out their bags alongside their friends.
We do morning jobs from coming in until 9am and then at 9, we do phonics. We have some children who are consistently late every day and miss loads of phonics - they are way behind and often have to do catch ups.
So whilst it is not the end of the world- regular lateness definitely can have an impact on education. We would be understanding and sympathetic if needed. It’s frustrating when there are no mitigating circumstances though.

It depends what time the registers close, our school starts at 8.25 after 9 you wouldn't get a mark for the morning

Tell me about it!

I think it will be fine. Our school reports the % late by class every week in the newsletter but I don’t really know what purpose it serves. I think it probably becomes a concern when it’s coupled with other factors - as a PP says, our school starts phonics at 9am so if your child is behind because they’re consistently late and missing the session, that’s going to be an issue.

I don’t want to make you feel bad at all but I will say that I was often late to primary school and I still get very anxious about being late to things now even though I’m in my 40s. As it’s just one one off, I wouldn’t worry but I think being chronically late can have an impact on a child.

How late is she?

I am sorry OP but all those who are saying it is fine I suspect have not come up against school attendance and what it is like. Because all the data is sent to the Local Authority Attendance/Inclusion team and lateness will be flagged

school targets on attendance are insane

At my kids primary school the doors shut at 8:40am but between 8:40 and 9am there was a “walk of shame” where you had to go in through the office but it wasn’t officially late. So no consequences at all as long as your kids didn’t mind going in that way. (One of mine would have been mortified whilst the other wouldn’t have cared at all.) I think in 10 years of primary drop offs we had to do that once.

One thing that always fascinated me was that everyone always arrived at pretty much exactly the same time. Doors opened at 8:30am and we used to arrive at roughly 8:30am each day meaning that it was about 8:35am by the time they got to the classroom. Every day at 8:30 I would see the same parents arriving at the same time as me, the same parents already leaving as I walked in, the same parents arriving as I was leaving at 8:36ish and then as I went along the road the same parents running in the opposite direction as they were late again. None of us could break our patterns.

Persistent lateness affects education in lots of ways but a few one offs are normal and primary schools are understanding. I hope everything’s ok. They are always willing to listen and can offer support. As a primary teacher I always appreciate a heads up from families if things are happening at home that impact the kids eg a sick sibling causing lack of sleep/worry for my pupil, i will then build time into the day for a 1:1 check in

Friend had 3 of similar age and was on maternity leave.
She was really stressed trying to get her eldest into school on time.

Similar thing happened with her (teacher telling her they were monitoring lateness.

Something broke in her and when she realised they were going to be late the next day she phoned the school to say DS was ill.

After that she would try to be on time but realised the stress it was putting on her was doing her no good

But what happens if schools don’t achieve those targets

A lot of school related things like getting black marks if you are late mean absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of life

It's not so much the consequence for your child alone, it's a consequence for the class as a whole.

Students coming in late, even the sweetest nicest kids with valid excuses, disrupt the learning of the whole class. Teachers need to give the late child the quick version of what's happening, not ideal for them, disrupts the lesson and this can set off some other students. Learning time is lost for all.

Your DD might only be late now and again, but if every child in the class was late twice a month and picked up early for some reason once a month, that time adds up.

We all know that some disruptions absolutely can't be avoided, and sometimes medical and dental appointments can only be in school time, so a disruption is necessary, but as a rule, all late drop offs and early pick ups are discouraged for this reason.

Personally, I'm never grumpy with a late child as I assume it's never their fault as they are not the adult, and as a child, I was the child who was always late. But I understand why schools do their best to stop these disruptions from happening.

As a VERY occasional thing, it's fine. Schools are quite forgiving and understanding that sometimes these things happen.

However, let me tell you a story that recently happened to me.
I'm a primary school supply teacher, and spent a morning teaching in a lovely local school, in a Year 3 class.
I've been asked to teach History first thing. Specifically, facts about the Nile, so the children can create a fact file. I did think it was a bit dry and random for 7-8yos, but whatever, I do as I'm told.

A lad wanders in 9:45. I've done all the teaching, delivered all the facts, shown them how to create a fact file, and this lad has missed it all. He's got no clue of any information about the Nile, nor how to present it. The teaching assistant in the room informed me it's normal for him to be an hour late. And he's 7. They haven't got the wherewithal at that age to cobble something together and hope for the best.

As it happens, it was "only" geography that morning. It's usually Maths or English. So he's regularly missing the most important teaching of the day.

And these parents wonder why their kids are the ones not achieving as they should.

I was never quite sure what effect lateness would have on my life and frankly not a lot. Instead of shock horror at the announcement in assembly that I held the school record for being late, 27 times in ONE TERM, the atmosphere was one of quiet amusement! I became a Prefect, and my lateness was the reason I wasn't made Deputy Head Girl, I wasn't that bothered as I was House Captain. As I said at the time, the girl who got the appointment needed it more than I did. Oh, I was told endless times it was rude to arrive late, I'm afraid that it has been a feature of my life. I couldn't stand wasting time by being early so used every moment which unfortunately led often to my being late.