Factors affecting the punctuality of Greswold families

Challenge

Impact

Advice

On average, nearly 5% of the pupil population are currently arriving after the bell has sounded and gates have closed each morning.  This number increases on rainy days.

Late pupils then have to wait while being signed in,  have their lunch choice taken and escorted to classrooms, some of which are the other end of school.

Children’s lunch choice is rushed as they have to complete it at the office.

If it is raining, there will be more cars on the road meaning journeys will take longer.  Therefore, leave 15 minutes earlier on rainy days.

Pupils won’t physically reach their classroom for up to ten minutes after they arrive at the office. 

Check your route to school, using an app, in case there are roadworks or congestion.

Pupils can get very anxious when arriving in class late.

Use the previous evening to prepare lunches and put out uniforms and bags to save time in the morning.

Pupils arriving late will miss their learning during registration time.

If children are waking up too late in the mornings, leading to lateness, consider changing the time of bedtime to earlier in the evening.  

One to one or small group learning, can’t take place if a child is late.  This impacts on the time the class teacher or teaching assistant has taken to plan for it.

School may take the decision to send a reminder letter to parents of pupils who have accumulated several lates.  This is to reiterate the importance of being on time to school.

At the end of the school day, families have more than one child finishing school at the same time, e.g. Reception and KS1.

Families might be worried that their children are waiting too long.

Pick up the oldest child first and then walk round to Reception or Nursery. It’s completely understandable that parents might be a couple of minutes late.

Teachers can arrange to dismiss oldest child first to save time.

At the end of the school day, pupils haven’t been collected outside classrooms on time or after 3-4 minutes.

Class teachers may have meetings or school sporting event they need to attend to straight away, or a medical appointment out of contact hours.

Please leave plenty of time to travel to school especially when it’s raining. 

Y1-6 families should enter school through the KS2 gates so congestion is avoided around KS1 classrooms.

Pupil feedback from School Council in 2023 suggested they prefer to see a familiar face straight away to talk to.  This prompted our Hometime Harmony campaign.

It’s understandable that being late can happen on occasion. If so, consider phoning ahead to notify the school office or even have a little jog! 

Pupils from Greswold Greyhounds haven’t been collected by closing time (6pm).

This doesn’t happen very often but it delays staff travelling home, especially if they have to use public transport.

Please don’t park in the staff car park to save time, especially if you are running late.  This helps to avoid potential accidents.  Most schools across Solihull don’t allow parents to use staff car parks either.

The school will be adopting a new charging policy soon for lateness.

There are no parking restrictions directly outside the KS1 gates after 4pm.

Some families are using the staff car park to park while dropping off children at Greyhounds in the morning.

It isn’t fair on other families who park outside of school correctly on the road.

Please park on the road outside of school.  The parking restrictions still allows vehicles to park on the road directly outside the KS1 gates until 9:30am.

As the school gates aren’t locked until 8:30am, we want to avoid any vehicle or pedestrian incidents or accidents.

Adopt our values of belonging and respect by thinking of others who are following the correct parking procedures.

Pupils attending after-school clubs are sometimes being picked up late after the session has finished, e.g. Football, Dance, Basketball, etc.

The club organisers (All external providers) may well have another club to run at a different venue and can’t be late themselves.

Please adopt Greswold’s value of respect by being aware the club providers have other commitments once the session has finished.

Parents tend to park in the staff car park if they’re running late to collect from a club, something which isn’t allowed.

Please don’t use the staff car park to pick up pupils from clubs, which take place directly after school. Additional congestion may cause a pedestrian or vehicle accident.  The vast majority of schools across Solihull don’t allow parents to use staff car parks.

To provide these club opportunities, we need to work together with the providers to ensure we retain their services.