AIBU or is this a little heavy-handed for primary school?!

[RichSherl]

My DCs go to a school in the south west and this term the headmistress has started a bizarre new drop-off policy...

Every day the children are expected to enter their classrooms for 8.45. This is when teachers open their doors and let the kids in. The parents then need to leave immediately.

I've got no problem with any of this but the thing that's changed is for latecomers.

Over the past couple of weeks the groundsman has begun forcibly closing the main school gate at 8.50 and telling late arrivals to go in via reception. It all seems pretty weird and draconian because he has to keep opening the gate for parents that are still leaving!

Some kids walk by themselves to school (so it may be a safeguarding issue?) or have genuine reasons for being late that's not their fault.

I know schools love rules but it all seems a bit needless and trivial to have an unfamiliar man telling children off and making them feel bad/naughty at the start of their day. I know some of the other parents have got pissed off about it too.

So, AIBU?! Tell me what you think.

Is he actually telling them off or just asking them to go in via the reception?

I don't think it's an issue to say that children who arrive more than 5 mins late need to go in via a different entrance - presumably this enables the school to track persistent lateness as well as acting as a motivator to get to school before the gate closes.

But of course, if the groundsman is yelling at the kids before they go in, that isn't acceptable.

Sounds normal to me? Most schools don't let parents in to classrooms and late children have to sign in at reception.

This is what our child’s school has done since he started.

I saw him tell a child and their Dad "you're late, you're late!" which seemed to shake up the Dad more than the kids. I think the parents know they're late and telling them this over and over probably doesn't help!

I think it’s normal and ok

lateness is very disruptive for teachers

It's so they can get on with their day and make sure nobody is missed off the register, which is a safeguarding thing. It probably should have been that way before now, but the HT is probably making it quite a small window to reinforce the point.

My child's school has always done this - children go in the gate nearest their classroom if dropped off on time, if they are late then they have to be signed in at reception.

It allows the school to keep track of who is persistently late, it's also for safeguarding reasons as keeping the gate open after school has started would offer an opportunity to the more 'spirited' children to do a bunk.

Our doors open at 8.55, let the lines of kids in then close. Regardless of who is still coming in the gate. Anyone after that, signs in via reception.

Agree, minor later was has probably been an issue for a while so they're making parents pull their socks up to be there on time. Also, why are parents still leaving at 8:50 - they need to get their arses out of the playground!

I think it’s a pretty standard system and telling someone that was late, that they were late, presumably to explain why they had to go in a different way, is totally normal isn’t it? Not sure if I’m missing something…

I thought that was how all schools worked🤷🏻‍♀️

Yes it is normal - lateness is a big thing with the new guidance and it is going down alongside other absence

Well, it's just a statement of fact, isn't it? An observation, rather than a telling off?

I can't see that a very occasional instance of being told "you're late" is going to be damaging to a child - it isn't likely to happen more than once or twice a year for most kids, surely? And for those that are persistently late, there probably needs to be more intervention in any case so this approach will help to identify those children?

Schools can't just operate a free for all for kids to turn up as and when. There needs to be a cut off point. This is also a safeguarding issue as the site shouldn't be open all day for anyone to just wander in (or out!).

Ikwym it just seemed weird for there to be a stream of kids coming in, only for the groundsman to shut the gate in their faces!

My children's school's do all this too I'm very happy it all, late arrivals to enter reception way no parents in the classroom locked gates always seen it as a safety measure and a way for the school to easily monitor which children are late regularly and less of a disturbance to rest of class as registration and weather children ate dinners or packlunch may of already happened but teacher would have to stop the class to ask child about dinners then let reception know they have arrived and if they having dinners and could be a parent wanting to discuss something can be a total disturbance to the classroom just makes it so much better for the running of the school and Safety wise that gates are locked.

Yes, but they're late?

The real question is why there is a stream of kids coming in more than 5 mins late. Seems like the head has recognised that the school culture has got a little lax and is trying to send a clear message to parents that they need to get their acts together.

DD’s school do this, it’s a security precaution as well as a “try to be on time thing”. The gates are locked and the points of entry to school are reduced to just reception. The simple solution is to be on time.

I don't think it's unreasonable sorry! In my DD's primary school doors open 8.50 and all doors are locked at 9, so if you're later than 9 you have to ring the bell at the reception door.
Lateness is a problem, some kids are always late and it's not good enough. School aren't going to care if a child is late once because the car wouldn't start etc, they're clamping down the ones that are always late.
If a child is 10 minutes late every day they're missing almost an hour of school a week and it does make a difference

It seems like the groundsman might be getting a bit flustered. The last thing he wants is to become some kind of school attendance monitoring officer, locking gates and turning people away. They've lumbered him with this responsibility and maybe he's not even very good at communicating. He's a groundsman, not a teacher. Just accept that you go in via reception if late. Once it's widely known hopefully the groundsman will calm down. It's probably making his day more difficult before it's even started so maybe that's why he seemed cross.

Our school has been doing this for years, not weird at all. They do it to stop the teachers being disturbed and to keep the kids safe!

What’s the official start time these days?

Don't move to Scotland then, parents don't go through school gates at all after the first couple of weeks of primary 1. Drop at the gates only.

Once the bell rings and classes go in, the doors are locked so if you're 5 minutes late there is only one way in - buzzer and wait for reception to open it.

Why on earth would your kids be late often enough for this to be an issue?

Nationally there are more stringent rules around reporting absences and lateness. Our school has the same rule. If you've not dropped off at the playground gate for a certain time you now have to report to the reception where the child is marked as Late.

This is what I thought - I bet the teachers all said "err, no, not me thanks!"