Can they do this?!?

[hoxtonbabe]

I am so angry with son's school.

He has just come home and told me he has a saturday detention which was bad within itself but thats what he gets for yapping in his exam, however, it is tomorrow!!!

My son is 12, we live 7 miles away from school and not quite sure how they expect him to get there. Monday to friday he goes alone with a friend he meets half way, during the week there are usually more people up and about so a tad safer, on a saturday 7am where I live it is going to be dead and dark and I am not prepared to risk his safety.

He has had a saturday before and they gave a weeks notice, even the ones during the week they usually let the parents know 2 days before, so what they are playing at with a saturday with less than 24 hours is a mystery to me.

I am pretty sure they have to give parents at least 24hours notice, and telling my son to go home and give this note to your mother at 5pm the night before is not 24hours! Not even a phone call from them earlier in the day to give me the heads up. Had they given me some decent notice I could have found someone to watch the baby and I escort him to school, but I am certainly not going to drag the little one up at 6am, to go 7 miles for 2 hours detention all on buses and tube.

Arghhhh...

[seeker]

If he goes on his own during the week, what's going to ahppen to him if he goes on his own at the weekend? He's 12, not 6!

[seeker]

And what on earth time does the detention start if you have to leave home at 7.am to get to it?

[Talkinpeace]

so he's had Saturday detentions before
he yapped in an exam so distracted everybody else
and you are annoyed with the school???

[hoxtonbabe]

Firstly unless you are going to give me some useful advice I suggest you move on to someone else's post.

The detention starts at 8am, and to the bright spark that said he is 12 and not 6, i'm not sure where you live but there is a difference between my son going to school via bus and tube with his friends in the week when there are lots of people around going to work, ect, and a dark saturday morning with hardly anyone on the streets alone!!!

My son has had ONE saturday detention for forgetting is PE kit, (hardly anything major) which was a tad excessive, but I knew school was strict so did not grumble about it, so rather than trying to make out like my son is some kind of inconsiderate lout, I suggest you look at your own kids before passing judgement and looking down your nose at others!!

I really dont know why I ask for advice on this site as there are always people quick to judge you and pick at you rather than give advice.

And so I do not get anymore useless replies I have found out (via a more useful site) that the school by law must give at leaset 24 hours notice so regardless of what my son did I am totally in the right to be annoyed as leagally they can not give him the detention without giving ME notice!!!

[lifeinagoldfishbowl]

Why don't you go with him/take him?

[GypsyMoth]

No I think the notice thing should be given. You're right, so what will you do? Not as if you can ring school now us it

[Ormirian]

There should be notice given of anything that keeps the child in school out of normal hours but I should check when he was told. It might have been before today but he forgot. THis happened with my son but they withdrew the detention because they were unable to give the required notice.

[seeker]

I'm assuming you live on the mean streets of New York, or somewhere where a 12 year old is likely to be gunned down if they are on a bus at 7.30 on a Saturday morning.


One piece of advice - check that the letter wasn't actually given to your ds earlier in the week and he's only just given it to you

[onimolap]

If your name is a clue, I'm taking it that the journey is across east London.

My first thought was that he had "lost" the notification, but as this is the first week of term and most London schools went back on Wed then ( unless he hid it over the whole hols), it sounds as if the notice is unduly short (btw, is the week's notice part of a formal policy?)

If you are sure of your DS's account, and do not want him to do the detention tomorrow, then you could ring the school (someone must be there if they're supervising detentions, but whether they pick up the phone is another matter!). You would need to explain that you already had family events which could not be untangled at such short notice.

He will then probably have to do it next Saturday. But mightn't that mean the same transport problems?

[admission]

The current situation is that the school has to give 24 hours written notice of a detention. In the Education White Paper it proposes the removal of this restriction but it is not law yet. So the school have not given you 24 hours notice of the detention if the detention was given to your son today.
On the Department website is the folowing advice surrounding detentions.

Detentions can take place during school hours, at lunchtime, after school or at weekends. If your child fails to attend without a reasonable excuse, the school may give them a more severe punishment.

You are entitled to 24 hours? written notice of a detention that takes place outside normal school hours, so you can make arrangements for transport or childcare. The notice should tell you why the detention was given and how long your child will have to stay at school. If your child cannot attend the detention, you can explain your reasons to your child?s teacher or headteacher. They may reconsider the detention in certain circumstances, such as:

?the detention falls on an important religious day for your family
?you?re concerned about the length and safety of the route between school and home
?you can?t reasonably make alternative arrangements for collecting your child from school.

Given that you did not get 24 hours notice and the difficulties over the safety of the route I would send an email to the school saying that you cannot send your child this Saturday but that he will attend next Saturday. I think it is important that you can show that you took this decision today rather than it looking like an excuse for your son not getting up to go.

[sproutcurry]

As you're asking for advice, mine would be that you explain to your son how disrespectful his behaviour has been.

[kayah]

I understand that Saturday detention are given if the lunch or after school detention is too light in certain offences (I say offences but Irealy mean bad behaviour)

if he was yapping during his exam (or was it a test?) he must have disturbed other kids, was given warning (probably several times) and he hasn't followed instructions

hence detention
it would be good to compare his version of incident with his teacher