Punctuality is the First Step Towards Success!

Being punctual and on time is one of life’s most important qualities, whether you’re a child, adult,    teacher or parent.  It shows you are reliable, dependable, can be trusted and demonstrates respect to other people and for their time. 

We are very concerned by the number of children who are late to school and arrive at the school office each morning rather than entering school via the playground. So far this half-term, we have had more than 260 incidents of lateness.

The start of the school day is one of the busiest times of day, and the office administrators are struggling to manage taking all of the children down to their classes whilst supervising visitors and answering phone calls.

Admittedly, modern day living can provide many challenges and, as a school community, we are aware of this. There are occasions when things can get stressful, things go wrong, or unforeseen circumstances can cause a family to be a few minutes late.  However, our role as educators, in partnership with parents, is to also prepare children for the next step in their school careers and beyond. This means young people need to value the importance of being on time.

There is a lot of published material on the benefits of being punctual, especially for school, and also     relating to the implications of being late.

Being on time:

· Helps young people to be organised;

· Helps to build children’s confidence;

· Reduces stress and anxiety;

· Maintains and improves academic achievement;

· Helps young people to maintain their routine and focus;

· Enables children and adults to start the day settled, ready and relaxed;

· Is a sign of respect;

· Allows others (including school staff) to use their time wisely and efficiently.

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 Impact on children who are late:

· Unfortunately, but understandably, there are a number of negative consequences for children who arrive late to school:

· Arriving late can cause some children to feel very anxious as they go into the classroom by        themselves once everyone else is settled, calm and working.

· Key learning time will be missed. Class teachers or teaching assistants may have also planned to work with a child in an intervention group during registration time, but if they are late, they miss out on this.

· Children may miss the all-important start of the first lesson.  Without question, class teachers will then repeat their delivery to the late child which inevitably interrupts the flow of the lesson and the teacher’s aims and ambitions for other individuals. 

Below is a chart highlighting how much learning time might be missed in extreme cases:

Helpful tips and guidance to improve punctuality

· Be aware that on rainy days, there will be more traffic on the roads delaying journey times. Consider leaving the house 10-15 minutes earlier on these days.

· If children are oversleeping or getting up late, try putting them to bed an hour earlier each night for a week. Reduce screen time before bedtime by up to an hour.

· In terms of the recommended hours of sleep for young children, 3-5 year olds should be getting    10-13 hours each night and 6-12 year olds should be getting 9-12 hours each night

· Uniforms, lunches, homework and bags could be organised the previous evening to save time in the morning.

· Establish morning routines to help children know what to do and in which order.  This enables them to become more independent too. Visual prompts can help.

· Provide a motivation for leaving the house early in the mornings, e.g. scoot or cycle, walking with friends and family, etc.

After half-term, if you arrive at the school office because your child is late to school, we will now be asking you to wait with them until a member of staff is available to take a group of  children down to class.