School punctuality

[whenskiesaregrey]

Part of my job role is to monitor attendance and punctuality in a school, the latter being an issue in our school. Parents will regularly rock up 15, 20, 30 minutes late for school. This obviously impacts on the kids and them settling into class, starting their learning etc. The reasons from parents are very often that the parent overslept or they didn't leave on time AKA not real reasons. Or no reason at all! It's always the same families, often multiple siblings. I'm thinking of bringing in a rule that once you've had five lates in one term, the child will start staying in at break to account for however many minutes late they are and catch up on missed work. This will obviously not include extenuating circumstances (SEN, medical etc). If there is a one off problem, this won't affect you (because they will have been late fewer than five times). Kids are primary age. What would you think? AIBU? Is it reasonable to be late more that five times a term for no good reason?

[PinkSquidgyPig]

Aside from the other arguments against it I think:
parents who are unable or disinclined to get children in on time are unlikely to be affected by your proposed measure

Children need their breaks to run off energy which helps them to focus on the next lesson, and build/maintain friendships with other children. Depriving them of break-time is counter productive.

They need break-time opportunities to go to the toilet.

Please don't put this measure in place. Please ...

[echt]

Reward the ones on time.

It pains me to suggest such a low-level stakes system, (with a gazillion get-out/ excuses clauses) but, I think you have a shitty job and are, essentially, fucked.

[Phineyj]

Unfortunately, you cannot make people who do not care, care. I like the solution of equipping children with their own alarm clocks and getting them in for a free breakfast. That would actually help the children who don't want to be late.

[Holidayshopping]

This will make parents who struggle to get their children into school have an even harder job :(

[Acopyofacopy]

My dcs school publishes lates in the weekly newsletter, as in “butterflies: 6 lates , caterpillars: no lates ”
The class with the least lates gets a break time extension in Fridays.

It’s an uphill struggle, OP, I sympathise!

[ASauvignonADay]

Have you approached it as a safeguarding issue? We find by escalating chronic attendance/lateness issues to a senior member of staff who addresses it as this has more of an impact. Obviously you would consider which families.

[FamilyOfAliens]

Attendance is part of my job too.

I get monitoring summaries and identify persistent lateness. I then phone home and talk about it. I talk to the parent about how we can work together to resolve it.

This is a great idea though:

My dcs school publishes lates in the weekly newsletter, as in “butterflies: 6 lates, caterpillars: no lates”

[Lexilooo]

What about starting a walking bus so that children can get to school safely without their parent? It could probably be manipulated to be especially convenient for the persistently late pupils. Couple that with the previous suggestion of free alarm clocks and kids can get off to school completely independently. Especially if you could also tie in with a breakfast club.

[MidniteScribbler]

Have you looked at a more open start to the day? My school opens the classroom doors at 8:40, but the roll isn't marked until 9:00. That twenty minutes is for students to come in, unpack, sit down and read quietly, or the younger grades do fine motor activities or quiet play. It means that parents can aim for anytime between 8:40 and 9:00, and spreads out the carparking madness, so parents aren't waiting until after the bell to avoid trying to get a carpark. Our lates went down considerably when we started doing this.

[ladygracie]

I haven’t read all the posts yet but I once volunteered in a school that had a big problem with lateness. What they did was to have an assembly at the start of each day but any late children had to sit in the foyer & weren’t allowed to go into assembly late. The kids didn’t like it but it wasn’t a punishment. They put pressure on their parents to be on time and it made a massive difference. Not sure if that’s helpful to you though, sorry.

[Phineyj]

Open start to the day is a good idea. Although late people will still be late for it.

[imip]

I think dc school does a special breakfast club also. I’d suggest teaching dc how to get ready independently, how to organise their time in the morning etc. I come from a chaotic family and I can emphasise enough the small things I didn’t understand. What time to get up, that I showered. Could never find my clothes (hand them up on coat hanger). Will be valuable lessons for life.

[gallicgirl]

This isn't just general lateness it seems. This is a hardcore of families who will not engage.

My DCs school tries to encourage children to arrive on time with rewards. We have mascot who is not the gate to hand out rewards once a term, the children can earn dojos for early morning work. We have a staggered start from 8:35 to 8:50 with staff on the gates to greet the children. Dojos or whatever can be swapped for a small toy in the attendance shop, the more points you have, the better the reward. Good behaviour etc is rewarded with extra playtime on Friday, lateness sees children have slightly less playtime (this is in addition to normal break time). We have a team that works with the family and a drop in session for families to discuss parenting problems.

We have a paid breakfast club but I understand that pupil premium can be used to pay for this if need be.

I'm guessing these families might be PP or be involved in other agencies but it's difficult to get anywhere when the relevant post has been scrapped. I'm sure you know that there is probably lots going on at home that needs addressing. We have one poor child who gets himself dressed and to school because that's his safe place

I hope you manage to find a solution but I think the key is going to be engaging the parents.