30 Days to Make a Change | Punctuality

Following another very successful challenge, with children and adults alike commenting on the improvements made, our fourth 30 Days to Make a Change | Punctuality, has been running for the last couple of weeks and will continue until the middle of June. Most obviously, punctuality relates to pupils getting in to school on-time, ready to start learning, by 8.45am. There are many reasons why being punctual is so important, not least the amount of learning time missed when you you’re not:

• Arriving 5 minutes late every day adds up to over 3 days of lost learning each year;
• Arriving 15 minutes late every day is the same as being absent for 2 weeks a year.

Not missing learning time is vital to your child’s progress, but being in school on-time also gives them a chance to meet up with their friends before school starts. Moreover, punctuality is a good habit to build in preparation for going to secondary school and beyond.

As with each new challenge, we introduced it to the pupils in an assembly. One of the questions we asked them was how they can help themselves to be punctual. Some of the ideas they came up with were: packing their school bags, and getting their clothes ready, before going to bed; setting their alarm (earlier); going to Breakfast Club; meeting a friend and walking to school with them.

The other aspect of punctuality we’ll be focusing on is being on time for the start of lessons, when they’re already in school. During the assembly we discussed things like: walking quickly and quietly to my line when the bell goes; tidying books and stationery away quickly to be ready for the next lesson; going to the toilet and having a drink at the end of break and lunch times so no learning time is missed.

A key part of the success of the challenges are the adults in school actively supporting them, and staff will be: modelling punctuality by making sure they are ready to meet the children before the end of break and lunchtime; always arriving on time for meetings and for assemblies; reminding learners who are not punctual for lessons to make sure they are; praising and rewarding learners who are always punctual.

As with each of the 30 Days challenges, a key aspect of this one is placing an emphasis on the pupils taking responsibility for themselves, rather than needing reminders from adults. As the behaviours become habits, we would expect to see more and more evidence of this independence across the school.

Once again, we hope that you will support us with our latest 30 Days to Make a Change Challenge.