Would you send a complaint to school about unfair whole class punishment?

This sort of bad punishment has happened at my dc's school a few times. I always write an email to 'complain' and it ALWAYS turns out that it is new member of staff who is not aware of the sanction policy. The school apologise and say they will get it sorted.
It's entirely the school's fault for not doing a proper induction process for new members of staff in the first place.

OK - teacher made mistake and hopefully she'll have some feedback from her Head of Dept or similar about avoiding such in the future but, seriously, some of the suggestions about forcing a change of teacher for the class as students will have lost all respect/ are unable to work for that teacher again are very wide of the mark. Students are much more resilient at dealing with such upsets and errors and, in my experience, will be quickly over it within a few weeks and all will be fine.

OK, let's be charitable then and assume this is the first time she's done this.

If she does it a second time then she shouldn't be teaching.

I'm not sure about Giraffe's suggestion, it involves children telling on each other and that could cause all kind of problems within the class. There are two potential outcomes:

1. Someone drops the guilty child in it. Then we get the denials from the guilty child - and guilt cannot be proved here - and the whole class knows that someone has 'dobbed them in'. There will be suspicions and finger pointing.

2. No-one says anything and the situation continues unresolved.

I'd say fair enough to not doing any more practicals for a while though.

And you did actually say 'if she does something like this then she shouldn't be teaching'.

It's really really not the heinous crime you're making it out to be, and I would do exactly what noblegiraffe suggested. I have done similar. Things improved.

I don't particularly want to get rid of this teacher, but I don't see how she can continue to teach this class. If she backs down - which she should because she was wrong - then she loses all respect from the class. If she doesn't back down, she will still lose the respect of the class. How do you suggest she extricates herself? Or do you think it is acceptable that the indefinite lunchtime detentions should continue? This isn't about giving the wrong kid a detention, this is about giving 29 wrong kids a detention.

I sincerely hope that every parent in this class complains and withdraws their child from the detention - except the parents of the guilty child obviously, but we can be pretty sure that bit isn't going to happen.

I'm not a teacher, and I am on the side of teachers 99% of the time because I have many friends who are teachers. I know what pressure they are under. It doesn't excuse error on this scale and it doesn't excuse the unwarranted punishment of the innocent majority.

"At the root of this is a CHILD who behaved badly, not a teacher"

And not only has the teacher backed herself into a corner but she has handed on a plate the power for one badly behaved individual to hold the rest of the class and the teacher to ransome! It's possible that the culprit could be loving that. Especially if their parent has written a letter getting them out of detention....

It sounds like naivity and inexperience and the teacher needs some help extricating herself from it.

Pointythings you've never been in front of a class I take it? Have you any idea the pressure teachers are under at the moment? How many we're losing? You want to get rid of a teacher for making a mistake like this? There'd be none left.

I made disciplinary mistakes as a young teacher. Luckily I was in a school that supported me but that also allowed me to remedy situations with my dignity intact, something you clearly don't feel this teacher deserves. I learnt, and I went on to teach hundreds of students. Should I have thrown in the towel in my first term because I gave the wrong kid a detention?

Noblegiraffe that is exactly what I'd be doing too. prh47 is right, but SHE has to get back the authority. Anything else will have repercussions for a long long time that will benefit no-one.

At the root of this is a CHILD who behaved badly, not a teacher

True but the problems are entirely down to the teacher's failure to handle the situation appropriately. Unless the culprit comes forward the teacher will have to back down. She cannot follow through. She cannot keep the class on lunchtime detention indefinitely. She has seriously undermined her own authority with this class. The question is whether she can get it back.

If I were the teacher I would just make a comment along the lines of 'clearly I can't only have half of you in detention and as the culprit still hasn't owned up, unfortunately we won't be able to do any practicals until either they do own up, or you have shown me that I can trust you again' (or similar)

It depends on how keen the department is to track down the culprit. If it was really expensive I'd get everyone in the class to write down anonymously what they saw.

No need to swap classes or anything dramatic!

Perhaps, but given that the child is not going to own up and that 29 other children who did nothing are being punished because of the teacher's incompetence, there need to be consequences for the teacher. There are mistakes and then there's this - it's a different order of things. I have zero sympathy for this teacher, if she does something like this she should not be teaching. It's an incredibly basic mistake and she should not have made it.

When I was at school I had a teacher who did exactly this, and she most certainly was swapped. That was back in the 80s though, when we still did common sense.

Poor decisions usually come back to bite schools. My DD was on a school trip and about 4 girls were badly behaved during the lunch stop. I was a parent helper on the trip and I knew exactly who was involved and what had happened. As the year group moved up the school, it was apparent that all the normal trips that had been run for years suddenly never ran for this year group. So the trips to France, Iceland, the theatre, art galleries etc never happened for 3 years, years 9-11. This was at an independent boarding school. A few parents were beginning to wonder what was going on but the majority did not know what the school had previously organised. However, only 24 of 64 girls stayed into the 6th form. You reap what you sow! Never punish pupils who are not involved!

And no Head would do that. If you swapped the classes of every teacher who made a mistake, secondary schools would be chaos.

At the root of this is a CHILD who behaved badly, not a teacher!

You can't just transfer a teacher to another class! Seriously, that is not a simple process and would involve major disruption to 60 children.

KingThistle I can see only one solution:

Teacher is made to back down. Teacher is then transferred to another class because as you say the relationship with this class is now irrevocably damaged.

Then we will have to hope that the teacher learns from this and never does it again. This situation is entirely of her own making - she would definitely not have learned to do this in teacher training so she now needs to suck up the consequences, however tough that is. This wasn't a minor mistake, it was a major one.

Obviously the teacher has made a mistake here, but what do you suggest they do now? Not following through as a teacher is like not following through as a parent, only magnified by 30 - they have to teach this class for the rest of the year. How would you suggest they get themselves out of this situation?

Honestly, they will already be tying themselves in knots over this. I wouldn't phone.

BTW Venus, nice work writing off a new teacher's entire career based on one badly thought through decision, .

I'd write and phone.

The points you make about teachers putting off students is very relevant.

Maybe this new teacher is in the wrong profession, and needs guidance from management about the school's climate of learning.

Indefinite lunchtime detentions sounds like torture tbh, and may impact the group dynamic irrevocably.

Try and keep your Dds interest in science going!

If one child has been allowed to not do the detention, then the teacher has totally lost the whole effect (if there ever was any) of it being a whole class punishment.

She has now lost the respect of the whole class by her ineffectual & heavy handed punishment.

Oh and you can bet that the parents of the child that did it were probably the first ones to write the letter and excuse him

This teacher is assuming that all children have a conscience and will not want their peers to be punished for something they did not do. Quite frankly as a secondary teacher they should know that some kids are sh*ts and wont care and some, from abusive homes, are too scared to get into any trouble at school - my DS has such a friend, he often does things then trys to get my son to take the blame so his Dad doesnt find out.

I'd send the letter personally but make clear that you are happy for her to be punished for things she HAS done if that is ever necessary

If this sanction is not in the Policy, then send a letter saying DD will not do the detention, on that basis, and also contact the Head of Year explaining that you would back a detention as described in the school's Policy, where wrong doing is proven, but you cannot support a whole class detention which does not comply with the Climate for Learning Policy. Ask for their comments and observations.

I was all set to come on and say don't interfere if it is the first time. But every lunchtime till someone owns up is very over the top. I think I would phone the school and ask to speak to someone, perhaps head of year? and mention that this punishment seems to be a bit out of order and heavy handed.

I would send dd with note though.

It's not just unfair, it's now ineffective as if most of the class don't attend, it is unlikely that the culprit is going to be in the detention, or forced by the detention to own up. The teacher is going to have to back down, unfortunately for them.

It sounds like a very young teacher who has backed herself into a corner. Why not just phone her and discuss.