Never being late for school - are we unusual?

[Posey]

Dd is in y6. She's been in the school since nursery so is in her 8th year of school. She has never ever been late and tells me she will probably get an award when she leaves primary because of it.
Is it really that uncommon?

think it's quite nice they're rewarded.

there seems to be no reward system at ours,which is fine with me,I'd just expect myself to get ds in on time.Late comers get marked as late but don't know what the consequences of persistent lateness is

I do think punctuality is a good habit to learn and well done for getting to year 6 without faltering.

If you have any brilliant tips for getting a reluctant/easily distractible/congenitally slow five year old out of the house on time, I'd love to hear them. I am always on time for things. I always make sure we are up in lots of time. But short of physical abuse (which I will not stoop to), there are days that I just cannot motivate her to get out of the door on time.

Have never been more than a couple of minutes late - and only about twice a term. But it's a constant battle, which I'd rather we didn't have

Posey, I wasn't having a go at you at all. Sorry if it sounded that way.

It's the schools punishment/reward systems I get annoyed with sometimes.

All these golden certificates, happy points blah blah have caused more upset than anything particularly positive as far as I can see.

Charliecat, I wasn't suggesting that Posey's dd should have a potential award taken away, but rather that it shouldn't exist in the first place.

It's mostly down to the parent/traffic/other siblings which affects a child's ability to get to school on time - why reward or punish a child for something which may be beyond their control?

Agree with Mercy. Children at primary school have no control over whether they are punctual for school.
I can sort of see a place for rewarding punctuality at secondary school as they do have some control over that.
Overall, though, I think punctuality should be the norm to be aimed for and as such a reward would be unnecessary.
I also have a big gripe about schools giving out 100% attendance awards. Lucky for the children who are never ill. Or unlucky for the ones at school who are made ill by sick children being sent into school so they don't lose their 100% attendance record.

My dd got a certificate the other day for

'excellent written work and improved attendance'

The lateness and occasional non attendance was sue to my flash of extreme depression. So...I asked the teacher if she would consider repjhrasing the certificate to reflect dd's achievements rather than her mother's personal ones. Teacher replied, "I'll think about it".

Cow-bag.

I sort of agree with you Juulie, re 100% attendance. But I once taught a girl who came from a horribly dysfunctional home. This poor child's behavior was (understandably) awful across the board.

But she got herself to school, in uniform, every day. And at the end of the year that kid went up and got her certificate. And for once in her poor bloody life, she was a success. So I have mixed feelings.

She was so mixed up she would tear up work if you praised it, she couldn't accept praise in any normal way. So sad.

And I remember the look on her face when 100s of people applauded her. So whatever it cost the others who missed it by a day, I think, on balance it was worth it.

MB - that almost made me cry.

Juuule, DD2 has been late for school once. She was really upset with me - my fault completely - just hadn't left enough time. She was only about one minute late, but the doors were closed and she had to go in via the office and we had to sign the late book. She did have control over being late because she made sure I left enough time to get there after that
DD1 has been late several times since she started at secondary school, but it has never been her fault - the school bus sometimes gets caught in traffic, so all 50 passengers are late.

I very much agree that schools should not have rewards for 100% attendance. If a child is ill or needs to attend orthodontist etc. they should not be penalised for it.

And now I've read MBs post and yes, for that child getting to school every day is an achievement and rightly should be praised.

My ds went through the entire primary school without being late. I approached the school about whether they recognised this at the end of the final year. They said they hadn't done anything before because it was so rare but agreed that it would be a very good idea.

In the end nothing came of this. I reckon the school was just too busy at the end of the term/year.
I think it's a shame that such achievement isn't recognised somehow.
AND I do think it IS an achievement for both the child and indeed the parent, just as anything other success is marked as such.

Don't we use 'praise for the good' in other areas of a child's life?
Sure, it is fair to say that you are doing what you are meant to do, but, for eg, a child is meant to eat their dinner, or go to bed on time or use the potty/loo - don't we praise them for getting these things right?

I say well done Posey. I'm sure, like me, many mornings were more luck than judgment but still, we achieved and an award is deserved.

christ

I think that how you travel to school can be a big factor in lateness for school. It's fairly easy for us as it's a short walk with no major roads to cross. Presumably it's more difficult if you have to drive across town in the morning rush hour.

Juuule - I agree with you about attendance awards. They might as well write on the certificate "Well done for either having a great immune system and never being ill, or for coming to school even when ill, and congratulations on having no SNs that mean that you need time off to attend appointments and assessments."

I drive eight miles to school and have 3 children and am late maybe one or twice a year. Children who live on the same road as the school are frequently late. Its about attitude not proximity. ( and I dont mean dysfuntional families where getting to school is an achievement I mean the middle class working or sahm parents who cant be bothered)

My DH doesn't do timekeeping. It is infuriating. He used to pick me up from work- I finished at 5pm and he used to leave home at 5pm or just after.

He is supposed to get home from night shift in time to take the boys to (secondary) school. DS2 has ADHD and can't travel alone.

Last week we had a morning when he just didn't arrive home. The boys didn't wake me (DD2 wakes all night so we sleep in) and eventually I woke up at 8.50. Tried to get hold of DH but no answer from his mobile. Dashed the kids to school and of course they were really late, and DS3 got a detention. Now his only fault was not waking me earlier, but they expected DH to arrive at any minute.

DH rolled in at 10.30 with no apology. There had been trouble at work and he'd stayed behind to sort it out. Hadn't occured to him to ring us. I was furious and DS3 is upset. It should have been DH doing the detention.

Our other problem is constant roadworks in the town that has increased our 10 minute car journey to anything up to 40 minutes in the morning. Can't leave 40 minutes earlier because DH isn't home in time

{slightly off-topic but}
When I was at secondary school we had to sign a late book if we were late and give the reason why and one day I was late and signed in, and saw that someone who had arrived late the day before had given as her reason "too cold to get out of bed". Later she became the head girl.

We usually come panting up the drive as the bell rings. But this is at 8:30 so compared to most of you we are fantastically early! 8:50, pah

I wish our school did something to motivate the kids (juniors at least who are in theory capable of telling the time) ... I'm heartily sick of chivvying DD to get her out of the door.

Do I deduce from this thread that Minty's timekeeping isn't her strongest asset

Hear, hear EmsMum (about motivating the children). I have tried every strategy known to man, in order to impress upon DD1 the need to get on with getting ready in the morning. She is not a morning person, finds the whole thing astonishingly tedious and will use any distraction possible to delay doing mundane tasks such as tooth cleaning or hair brushing.

It would really, really help if she encountered some sort of disapproval at school, when she is late. So that when I say "we are going to be late", she has some understanding that it is A Bad Thing.

But all they do is write her name down in the late book, which she doesn't even notice them doing. So I get marked down as "bad parent who didn't get her there on time", when I really, really did try my hardest.

My daughter suffers quite a lot from this popular policy of rewarding classes with low absence rates and getting the children competitive about being the class with the best attendance record. She has a very painful genetic condition which means that she is often off school and sometimes struggles in late, in horrendous pain- so her class gets let down. It is not nice for her to sit through the endless assemblies where other classes are praised and rewarded for not having her in them.
It is such a relief to have her in hospital at the moment: being in the hospital school counts as attendance and they don't count you as late if you're in too much pain to get out of bed.

minty I am so with you here

find the whole thing unbelievable