Is it necessary to give sanctions for being late?

Imagine this scenario.

You have been transported back in time to Year 10, and you are still on the bus in the morning, stuck in a multicoloured sea of traffic.

 The waves do not seem to hit the shore – the only thing that seems to be hit is the horn.

Your heart starts beating.

It starts palpitating like the symphony of a thousand drums.

You feel stressed, anxious, restless, worried, apprehensive, stressed. Or did you feel stressed already?

It doesn’t matter – you barely have time to think.

Do you get off the bus and walk (and run) that final 500 metres to school?

Or do you trust that the bus makes it in time and escape the bell by a whisker?

You choose the latter.  

As you can see, there is an entire realm of choices that need to be made to get to school on time - especially in London, where traffic is at its worst behaviour, even significantly in peak hours. 

Schools, especially grammar schools, expect students to come nothing short of late to school – and if they do, they are given sanctions such as an hour or 30-minute detentions.

 Is it really necessary to give sanctions for being late?

Now what am I saying?

Am I saying that coming late doesn’t matter at all?

No - not at all.

Coming to school on time and not coming to school on time is the difference between a good student and an excellent student.

If a student is late 10 minutes every day in a year, excluding absences, this is 32 hours of quality study time lost. 

 But what I am saying is that punishments are not needed all the time for being late thrice in 2 weeks.

Detentions are important - I am not saying it is not, as it makes sure that mistakes are not done again but along with just detentions, it is also helpful to motivate the students about the importance of coming to school on time, and give them guidelines on how to be on time to school, such as leaving the house earlier so that the students are not stuck in traffic.

Additionally, to boost students' mindsets, awards or certificates could be given to students who don't come late at all.

Now imagine that same scenario at the start – you are on the bus, and traffic is brimming like never before. But you are nonchalant, having left for school 15 minutes earlier than usual.

Time is precious after all.