Fines for being late - in the afternoon!

[TeenTimesTwo]

A school local to us has just been on the local news for warning of potential fine if a DC is late again. They had 10 lates already - but each was for the afternoon session when they were already in school!

Have looked for an online link but can't find one yet.

Sounds bananas to me. ( tagging @Talk1nPeace as she might find this interesting)

Is it because of them having to wait too long for lunch or poor timekeeping?

So the parents are being fined because over-11s are failing to get themselves to afternoon registration on time after lunch?

Seems a tad unreasonable.

In our house, that would mean the fine being paid by ds for being late when he had already been taken to school.
My ds counts every penny in his account, so I bet it would only happen once.

It isn't a terrible idea students wander around the outside of the school building, hide in toilets or in bushes, go to the wrong lesson on purpose and then walk in 10 minutes late which disrupts the rest of the class so parents putting pressure on their children because of a potential fine this frustrating behaviour may stop.

Single But the pupil is in school.

Fines are surely meant to cover truancy etc, especially where the parent isn't bothering to ensure their child attends. Wouldn't the detention system be better placed for dealing with a pupil who is on site but can't be bothered to get to their lesson on time?

Seems odd - afternoon session is usually much shorter than the morning. For being late it could be coded as L (authorised) or U (late after the registers close - unauthorised). I wonder where their cut off is. Only the unauthorised ones can count towards a fine.

Strange thing for the school to do, if coding lots of afternoon lates as U as this will affect overall attendance figures.

But the pupil is in school

They may have left the premises. And ultimately, if they are not in lessons they are not in school. If they miss afternoon registration (which I would imagine is what this is about) they will be marked as an unauthorised absence regardless of whether they are on the premises or not.

Yes that's true, but it seems pretty weird to use fines rather than e.g. detention. Perhaps there was more to this than the father was letting on in the interview.

So is this a pupil that keeps disappearing in the afternoon and then deliberately being late therefore disrupting lessons on purpose ?

No idea. The Dad was interviewed saying he thought it was unfair.

I think I'm viewing it as a bit weird to fine for being late to the afternoon session as I don't view it as more special than say 2nd lesson.

But if he is bunking off over lunch and going somewhere I guess it makes more sense.

Being late for a lesson in the afternoon is no more special than being late for a lesson in the morning. The school has no powers to fine the parents in either case.

Being late for afternoon registration or missing it completely (which means being at least 30 minutes late for the start of the session) is the same as being late for morning registration or missing it. The parents may be fined.