Detention in yr 7 - harsh?

I teach secondary and everyone gets one chance from me. After that it is detention for not handing in homework. Detention first time seems a little harsh to me, but no unreasonably so. Late homework (regardless of the reason) causes disruption to the child's learning so you can't really blame teachers for having high expectations of students - it is genuinely for the good of the child.

I prefer the "3 strikes and you're out" approach to detention myself. It gives kids warnings that they need to keep focused and a chance to turn it around!

I got my first detention 2 weeks before I left school in sixth year - I had nipped out to buy my lunch without permission - the deputy head tried to make my detention a non event, kept offering alternatives but I was insistent - I had never had one and I told him I wanted to have at least one to add to my school experience - bastard denied me! I left school with a totally clean record - pah!

I agree ifonly - teachers get to know pupils who work hard and they get let off being occasionally forgetful.
In another lifetime my brother got the strap for forgotten homework - mind you the teacher in question got pinned up against the wall by my rather well built father and asked if he wished to inflict physical violence he picked on someone more able to defend themselves - that seemed to resolve the problem.

On the one hand it feels it a little harsh, but on the other...

I was that very conscientious child. I went through the whole of my time at school without a detention, and I actually don't think it served me well. It made me so scared of getting one, and made a detention this huge scary thing in my mind. It made me scared of doing pretty much anything even remotely off key, and as an adult I've really struggled with taking criticism and making mistakes, which I think in part comes from that mindset of never getting anything wrong.

Long story short, I think the odd detention early on would have helped me realise that sometimes we get things wrong, and we have to accept the consequences of that, but actually it's ok and the world won't end.

DD got a detention in Year 7 and it never happened again, but she was worried sick about it at the time. You'll probably find the school become a bit more relaxed as they get to know pupils. In later years my DD didn't hand some of her homework in on time (due to the pressure of there being so much and she wanted to do it as well as she could), but because they knew she worked hard, was involved in the school and it's activities, they let her off.

You should probably be pointing that out to your son then wibblywobblyfish.
In a lot of schools, it's not discretionary on the part of the teacher anyway. They work within the school system.

I'm certainly not going to give up my lunchtime to make detentions more convenient for the child that has misbehaved or not done their homework. The vast majority of the children I teach will never get a detention from me, I don't hand them out for fun. I happily give up my lunchtimes to do revision with kids who work hard and want help though. I understand that they can be disruptive but the onus is really on the child to stop getting detentions if it's causing problems for the family.

There are "levels" of detention at DC's school. Most minor infringements would earn you 10 minutes detention. Missed homework would tend to be a "do it after school" slightly longer detention, and worse misdemeanours would be longer detentions. So I wouldn't necessarily see detention as a horrendous punishment.

All these teachers complaining that they don't get lunch if they hand out lunchtime detentions On the times my son got an after school detention for a non homework reason it meant that I had to incur extra childcare, my other kids would have to miss out on clubs and we would all be stressed while my son sat in a nice warm classroom after school for an hour. For parents who are reliant on school buses it's just a punishment on the family

I don't think this is too harsh (but I'm a teacher!). She had two weeks grace. As a pp said, I also don't give out lunchtime detentions as I like to have my lunch in that time. Or I'm on duty. No homework=detention!

Haven’t read the whole thread but am slightly rolling eyes at some of the ‘top harsh’ comments. I think it was very kind of them to say no detentions for two weeks! Our ‘after school detentions’ for homework are actually a supportive hour to help get hw done. Not harsh at all. It may be that the OPs school’s homework detentions are like this.

Fine to me.

They had grace period and now they have to follow the rules.

I gave my y7s 3 weeks to get used to thinks, teach them how to organise themselves, allow them to get used to being more independent etc. I've given detentions since then. I don't do lunch ones because our lunch is too short for students and me to do a detention and eat (and I've had my fair share of parenting claiming I prevented their child eating when I gave a 20 min detention in a school with an hour lunch). No big telling off as it wouldn't be helpful but a short after school detention and take some time from them and remind them to have it done next time. If there's a 2nd offence they will get a full hour after school.

Haven't read the whole thread but a teacher here who has given out a fair few detentions over the past couple of weeks to year 7s with no homework (30 mins for no homework in my school).

It's a tough lesson to learn for some of them but the rules are there for a reason and if the other students see some pupils getting away with not bringing homework in then why should they bother to do it?

I personally don't do lunchtime detentions, it's generally the only part of the day where I get 20 mins, if I'm lucky, to grab half a sandwich and potentially sit down with some peace and quiet, catch up wth colleagues or try and get some marking done (although 9 times out of 10 I still get lots of students coming to my classroom to ask me something or other).

Just take it as a lesson and hopefully she won't forget again.

After school detention would punish me as a parent for disrupting my plans. Also, I think it doesn't necessary help. some are more forgetful than others. I am also one of the forgetful ones...

We only got a comment for missed homework and then 5 comments = detention. That does seem v harsh. I remember sobbing to my mum about my first comment because it was the first school punishment I’d ever had. I never got a detention because the comment was enough for me.
Yes rules are rules ... but she forgot. To err is human. They should get a warning.

It saves a lot of time in the long run. We've just stepped up to doing this - although we do give a lunch detention first. But basically no hw - then you are straight in detention. Forget/fail to go to the lunch one (20 mins) and you are straight into after school for 30 mins.

And it works. It wasted huge amounts of teachers' time giving second chances, letting pupils bring it in the next day because they'd left it on the kitchen table, chasing up, trying to remember who had missed handing it in...who was off ill...who had left it at dad's house...or granny's....etc etc.

It is much easier to have a blanket rule. No hw = detention. No ifs, buts or maybes.

Oh! That makes more sense. I was thinking six homeworks in a subject could be half a term or more without doing any homework but a centralised system that adds up all disorganisation points seems much more reasonable.

Dumbledore its not 6 homeworks its 6 lapses. e.g. dd forgot her cooking apron last week so got a disorganisation point. Her friend got one for being late back from lunch and someone else got one for leaving their blazer at home. If it was just homework, Id agree with you but given the wide variety of things it covers, it seems reasonably fair

Possibly better to have a one strike policy but otherwise it's much better that there is consistency and it does mean that there's less chance of children becoming serial attenders. My eldest is a bit scatty so gets pulled down on organisation in her reports : at parent's evening I asked why they didn't give her a detention and was told they were thinking about it ............ I'd much rather she'd had one (or two) than me having to be told she needs to be more organised. A few detentions and I'm sure she'd have had fewer problems with curiously changing deadlines/mysteriously lost homework etc!

I don't personally set detentions immediately for forgotten homeworks as a teacher but I know that other departments do. I don't think its unreasonably excessive. Six missed homeworks before a detention seems very lenient to me. I tend to give them a chance to bring the homework the next day or next lesson and if it's not handed in then set a detention.
Fighting should always be a fixed-term exclusion IMO, and I'd be at a school giving detention for a fight. Our head gave a 1 day fixed term exclusion this week for an extreme case of rudeness. A fight would always be a 5 day FTE at least, children have a right to feel safe in school and physical violence should always be a big red line. Detention is useful to deal with low level poor behaviour, inattention in class and incomplete or poor-quality work ( whether homework or classwork).
I've sat on the fence a bit. Whilst I think it's a little on the harsh side, I don't think it's unusually severe. I wouldn't call in or intervene for that.

But, she won't forget again. Yes, harsh but perhaps it will help her to not make the same mistake again?

DD is in y7, already had a day in isolation 😞 so disappointed in her.. although quietly proud because she got it for standing up for herself on the public service bus.. just not in the best way 😕