School Detention - Fair?

The initial whole class punishment wasn't fair. The idea is that the bad ones will behave if everyone is mad at them but very rarely happens or that they give a shit, plus it's punitive and creates bad feeling towards the teacher.

What I don't get is how he forgot to go though? Did he tell you he had one? Surely he would have noticed when his whole class were heading off to the detention?! Even if they are in different sets, enough of them would be in each class for it to be a thing - 'urgh we've got mr twatbag's detention now' ?

You are very naive. I support the school. But the school is made up of multiple individuals who make mistakes and are of varying quality. Like everywhere. They make mistakes and do things wrong at times. Sometimes you need to step in and advocate for your child. I also suspect that you don't have any children with SEND!

He is lying

This is perfect. I am all for supporting the school until they dish out a disproportionate or inappropriate punishment at which time it's the time to advocate for your child. I had to do it once because they wanted to issue a public internal exclusion to an already bullied child as "humiliation is part of the punishment". Er no. We reached a more appropriate compromise.

I would not trust them implicitly. I would not automatically jump to presume the teacher was in the wrong but I do not trust anyone implicitly when it comes to the care of my child. If your child is upset because of how they have been treated by an adult then you should be listening to them.

That seems ridiculous to punish the whole class for 3 kids' behaviour. Surely every single class would constantly have detention if one person chatted back (which they always do). Madness. I've never heard such things, maybe in the Army or something!

It will be on the website. I am a teacher and don’t give blanket punishments. However, I do deal with parents daily whose child has done no wrong and the teacher is lying. It’s exhausting.
I'm not sure when, for a small number of parents, it became a them and us. For the parents who are willing to listen and discuss, the relationship is much stronger and everyone benefits. I would ask questions first - not lay down the law.

There is no reason for that. Its not something I can imagine happening at our school.

My DD was not in a class one day (had been at dentist or something) but was still expected to attend a whole class detention handed out for behaviour whilst she was away! Would also mean she missed a club she enjoyed.
She protested and was told whole class includes her, even though she wasn’t there!
I did send a note in about that one, and they did agree it was unfair and she could miss it, but why they told her she had to do it in the first place was never understood.

I am a primary school teacher.
I keep the whole class for 2 to 3 minutes at break if over 75% of the class have not been making the right choices.
I then go around and quietly let the children who I know were making the right choices go within the first 30 seconds.
I don't actually believe there are children who are always good, as both parents and teachers we have to accept that even the best behaved child can occasionally swept up in group nonsense.

well anyone not issues with a detention who wanted one, sorry, I can't be bothered with you, no sympathy.

I was once one of the 4 picked out not to be in detention.

Actually I was totally embarrassed and would rather have been lumped with the rest. I hated being singled out for any reason.

Why is this really much of your business?
Let the school do its work in its way- the fact that he "forgot" to attend shows he wasn't that bothered. And if that led to the lunchtime sitting and staring at the wall so be it.

, telling both of them they have to miss TV 4 days later and then the one who didn’t do anything forgets
But what would have been your response to him forgetting. You gave a clear instruction but it was ignored/forgotten. What would you have done? Ignored it, in which case why did you tell him to forgo his TV in the first place, or reinforce your position that if you tell him to do something you expect him to do it? One is lazy parenting, the other is discipline and expectations imho.

It is true the majority of the class can be involved, egging on bad behaviour, laughing, and generally supporting the main actors - normally though, it isn't the WHOLE class, and there will be a small number who you don't see being involved - and so even if 26 or 27 students ARE in detention, you can make a point of not issuing a detention to the few who didn't join in.

However, not all students would be aware that it was not a whole class detention, and some might be aware, but still claim it was.

That I do disagree with.

You are adamant your DS did nothing wrong but I would encourage you to talk to the teacher and hear it from their perspective. Things may not be as they seem. If the teacher does admit your DS did nothing wrong you could then challenge the detention.

Collective punishments are lazy and often cause trouble amongst the pupils in the class.

But your son knew he had a detention and it didn't need to 'be on his mind' because that's what his planner is for.

Because as explained further up, behaviour can very quickly ripple and the majority are then joining in. It's then very hard in the moment to just pick out they key players. Or as I suggested, others were further encouraging the behaviour by laughing.

I think unless you have actually been stood in front of a class of 30 young people, whose learning you are directly held responsible for (and could face losing your own job if you fail to get them target) and tried crowd control, it can be hard to understand. As a parent I didn't get it either - when I then started working in a school as a second career, then I understood why.

It's also worth noting that the teacher may well have had to give up part of their own lunchtime to facilitate this kind of whole class detention. It's not done lightly.

The only time I would keep a whole class back is for a bag search, if something had been stolen, or similar - these have to be carried out with three adults in the room, so can take a while to get started.

you are talking about less then once every three years I think. The last time was a stanley knife had been taken from the prep room, and all the classes on that floor were kept in and all bags searched until the culprit was found. He was then expelled

Not sure tbh cos both kids out at the minute.

If the school did decide to do a whole class detention, I'd presume there were a few mouthy kids and then the rest of the class were egging them on or laughing or whatever.

It could be worth a polite inquiry about whether collective punishments like this are school policy as it is generally accepted to be poor disciplinary practice.

There are also very very rare - OP needs to be sure of her facts

YANBU. Collective punishments really are the mark of weak teaching.

Are you sure it WAS a whole class detention? I am always having children tell their parents this - I never set them. There are times though, when three quarters of the class or more might be kept in at break or lunch time, if each individual there deserves to be! but they will often tell their parents it was the whole class.

if it was a whole class detention, then contact the school and get it cancelled.

Speak to the head of year. My son got stupid detentions like this and the head of year removed them and spoke to the teacher, as any normal human being can see its unfair. The teacher must be stressed but that's not your child's fault.