Charging parents for pupils arriving late at school

[Tinkers]

Btw Tinkers, you can still get marked as late without getting a text if you are late for registration. The text is only if you arrive after the gate is shut at 8.25.

Thanks, didn't realise there was a distinction. DD is usually in about 8:00 anyway.

[aliportico]

Mine is usually dressed by 8 ...

If I got a fine, I would absolutely pass it on to her! She's 17! Last term she got "community service" - a detention picking up litter, etc - for having more than 5 lates in half a term. I'm not sure whether this is a new thing for the school, or just a sixth form thing. There were about twenty of them, and her 7 lates was the lowest number. So clearly the school are not very good at getting the punctuality message across.

Dd2's school are much more direct. If you arrive after the gate shuts at 8.40 you get a 15 minute payback at the end of the day. Sixth formers don't get punished if they're late, but if you want the privilege of leaving the school grounds at lunchtime, you need to be in before the gate shuts 3 mornings every week.

[Yamin151]

Oh no...yamin will sue me for mis quoting her! The computers are taking over!

Don't worry Southbucks, I'm sueing Tinkers too for calling me Yasmin (though I always did love that name). Yamin is a dog. Ben-Benjamin-Benyamin-Yamin.....God knows only dog lovers will know how that kind of silly shortening comes about!!

[UmSusu]

I hate being late. I get up by 6.30 every morning and get the older two ready and out on time but the younger two drive me up the wall! DS4 is in reception and always plays up just as we need to leave. DS3 is so slow - even at putting his shoes on! We have been late so many times this year It is so embarrassing walking in sheepishly just as all the parents are heading out of the playground. Especially when I find some of the other mums looking fab and make it on time and I just put on whatever comes to hand and still get late.

I'm afraid I am one of those who live opposite the school too, so there is no excuse really. Except that is the excuse itself. I usually try to get them out the house 10 minutes before I need to leave but something still goes wrong. When we lived across the city and it took half an hour to get to school we were always on time.

[Tinkers]

Oh no...yamin will sue me for mis quoting her! The computers are taking over!

Don't worry Southbucks, I'm sueing Tinkers too for calling me Yasmin (though I always did love that name). Yamin is a dog. Ben-Benjamin-Benyamin-Yamin.....God knows only dog lovers will know how that kind of silly shortening comes about!!

Sorry, it got autocorrected as well.

[Yamin151]

Oh no...yamin will sue me for mis quoting her! The computers are taking over!

Don't worry Southbucks, I'm sueing Tinkers too for calling me Yasmin (though I always did love that name). Yamin is a dog. Ben-Benjamin-Benyamin-Yamin.....God knows only dog lovers will know how that kind of silly shortening comes about!!

Sorry, it got autocorrected as well.

[southbucks3]

DS4 is in reception and always plays up just as we need to leave. DS3 is so slow - even at putting his shoes on! We have been late so many times this year It is so embarrassing

Umsusu, I had a little monkey in reception, and the other two would sit there thrilled that the pressure was off them, as I tried to negotiate him out of the house! He got the only smacks on his hand ever at that time, and that was because he started taking his safety belt off as we drove to school every day obviously this meant I had to stop the car and buckle him back up, lecture him on danger...and eventually, sadly, the only thing that worked was the smack. it is so stressful isn't it. We were mostly not late, but only because of the older two helping get themselves ready as I dealt with him...He simply hated school, and was not at all ready for his mornings. (Summer baby).

The shoe issue I dealt with by having wellies to walk to the car and the school gates, then basically swapping over in front of teachers and peers, it embarrassed him into putting them on quickly. My friend went a step further one day, her child appeared bare foot, with shoes and socks in a bag. You really are not alone, although it feels like it sometimes, and nobody else seems to realise that star charts and bribery simply do not work on exit strategies if you have a stubborn one who realises he has a moment of power. Ooh I put the kitchen clock forward 10minutes too (i did not tell the older one)...this meant an extra 10 minutes to prize ds3 off the door frames.

The only thing I can suggest is getting the little ones dressed and shoes on before the big ones (who presumably are just in need of a nag or two) leave the house...a bit of extra floor cleaning may be worth it. (Although you do have to remember to get the mud off their shoes the night before).

Now it s ds3 who clock watches, panics and chivvies in the morning...needless to say, I get wonderful payback in my mind.

[Oblique]

Not many people notice that the clocks in our house are all set 5 minutes fast. I know they are fast, but in the morning rush out of the door, this fact tends to elude me!

[UmSusu]

Thanks for the advice SB3. DS1 leaves at 7.30 and DS2 around 8 if he is not getting a lift. He was great last year and would get the slow one ready while I got DS4 ready for nursery but he is in his own zone on the mornings now.

DS4 knows exactly when to push things and reward charts just don't work. I feel the heat rising up in me but try to play nice so that he doesn't think he is getting at me.

Tell me again why we are not allowed to smack them?! I am sure it would work!

[doodles]

Threatening (and then actually doing it) to put them in the car in their pyjamas seems to focus the mind quite nicely.