Removal of all breaks and lunch for a week

This is insane and I'm a teacher. Complain to the chair of governors. There are occasions like at the end of a lesson, someone's bag has been hidden and I might say no ones going until we've found it...which promptly results in the bags appearance but a whole year group week long punishment is crazy. The school must know who the problem kids are. All schools have cctv, vape alarms in toilets, individual cubicles etc so it will be easy to id them....and if they don't have them then they should get them!
Whoever is running this school must be an idiot because they are going to lose any goodwill they had from any student in the year group and plenty more will decide they might as well fuck about now if they are going to get punished anyway.

Our school tried this because some girls were wearing non-regulation skirts. The day after they told us about the collective punishment, we all wore non-regulation skirts on the basis that if we were being punished for it we might as well have the fun of it as well.

Yes I remember being in school and things like this happened due to a handful of kids breaking rules. ( I'm almost 31 so going back donkeys years now since secondary school ) but I do remember whole year group punishments. However, it was pointless and unfair in my eyes and still is! Many schools still do this unfortunately

The theory that collective punishment will lead the studious, well-behaved children to turn on the culprits has never been borne out by much evidence. On the other hand, if the goal is to get even the well-behaved students to hate the school and administration, and to permanently alienate parents, then this probably an effective way of doing it.

I'm a teacher and this is ridiculous! I never do a collective punishment and it doesn't work for so many reasons! I also believe that a collective punishment is against the Geneva convention! But that may not be true! Talk to SLT at the school and ask them what they hope to achieve by it.

Are you absolutely sure about this? I've spent 20 years in education and never heard of this sort of collective punishment - for a week? How big is the school? Most secondary schools will have year groups of over 250. There's no way you could enforce silence and sitting still all breaks for a week. In the nicest possible way, can I suggest that you check that you have got this right.

This is wrong in so many ways. I'd email the school and tell them, unless my DD was actually seen vaping she will not be doing the detention. If they insist, after day 1 she might suddenly come down with a tummy bug. Oh well.

It's such a weak , ineffective and unfair punishment that I honestly don't know what they're thinking. The kids who act up won't give a shit, and I doubt they'll care much about their peers/their opinion. The middling kids might just decide to act up if they're going to be punished anyway, the good kids will be frustrated and resentful and trust/relationships will break down.

It's such a cop out to expect children to behaviour manage other children, when a whole team of experienced, professional adults have failed. Never mind the risk they're exposing themselves to if they do speak out and the vapers are also violent/bullies/the fighting type.

Straight from OP to now.

Unacceptable. Collective punishments are an indication of a school who cannot manage discipline. It's a recipe for disaster. They know who is offending? Sanction them.

I never say this- but write to the head, and CC the governors. If the school know who the offenders are, discipline them. If they don't, find out. Monitor every corridor, know the kids by name. Allow a culture of whistleblowing. Isolate the troublemakers. There'll be a pike of kids who also want this to stop, too.

Do not do collective punishments.

A year ago I finally walked away from what had been, 6/7 years ago,a fully functioning NHS front line team. Hunt decreed 24/7; so suddenly we were inundated with third world often dubiously 'qualified' staff, disaster after disaster.

Now, the upper management who employed them, fingers-crossed, didn't dare single them (most, if not all) out for identified, recorded issues; they chose the 'you're ALL responsible!' -tack. Fearing a cry of 'Racism!'

The original team all went 'I'm bloody well not!' -and, losing faith in the ability of the managers to manage- one by one...left.

We all knew they knew what they'd done but collective punishment was easier. And caused a complete collapse of the team.

This is what they do when they fail to identify, for fear of retaliation.

Cowardice.

I work in a secondary school with quite strict rules which I support as it’s really challenging…but this is very wrong. Totally demotivating and unfair to the many who are doing as they should.

Piss poor, very occasionally i feel like imposing a whole class sanction, but i never do because it fundamentally unjustifiable and unreasonable. Aa whole year group sanction is off the scale not ok.

I would complain about that extremely strongly, it is completely unacceptable to punish people who have done nothing wrong.

I would send a formal complaint to the Head and encourage other parents to do the same.

I would also collect my child at lunch if possible, as I would not want them to have to go along with this.

It sounds like they have tried to punish the individuals but that has failed so they are now punishing the group (which I have never heard of to be honest). It sounds like they want to annoy the rest of the year group with the sanctions so that the good kids put pressure on the badly behaved ones to get them to stop. All very odd in my opinion and unfair on the ones who do behave. Why can’t they just suspend/expel them!?

That sounds unreasonable and counterproductive as described.

I agree with talking to the school. Start by just asking for their explanation without being on the attack or assuming you've got the whole, unbiased picture. If they confirm what your DD has told you then I'd tell them you don't support your DD being punished for something she can't control (the behavior of other students) and feel this is harmful for her learning, both because of the lack of needed (genuine) breaks and because it erodes trust in teachers and administrators to be fair and act in her best interests.

I see there are at least two teachers on here saying this is ridiculous. I'm a former classroom teacher and I agree. I never did whole-class punishments (like, asking everyone to stay in at break). It's so so unfair on those who did nothing wrong.

I would definitely query it with the school - who has decided this? I also agree it sounds completely unworkable. How are they going to get food? when will they go to the toilet?

I find this perplexing. It makes no sense. I would usually support what the school is trying to do but not in this instance and if you had other options available I would consider a different school as they are so far off the mark on their behaviour policy (that is still evidently not working) that it's a worry.

Many years ago my daughter was in a similar situation, though most of the problems were caused by one particular child who unfortunately lived quite close to us. Said child was constantly trying to get my daughter to go out roaming the streets with her and getting the whole class into trouble. I voted with my feet and moved my daughter to another school. Life is too short and education too precious to have to deal with such problems and the resulting consequences later on.
If I were you op, I would move your child before things get worse.

I'd raise it with the school. They're essentially using the well-behaved kids to put pressure on the vaping kids. Why can't the teachers manage behaviour without having to draft in others to do it for them?

And from a purely practical level, how much actual learning is going to take place that week? A whole year group is going to be angry and unfocused with a load of pent up energy. The school’s primary purpose is learning. The amount of actual learning will be close to zero especially as the week progresses.

We hear so much bollocks about how missing one day of school will forever affect your child’s chances. These children may be present in body that week, but you can guarantee they won’t be present in mind.

I agree with this. Children respect those who respect them. Disciplining the whole year group for the wrongdoings of a few select individuals just completely breaks down this relationship and will lead to issues in the long run.

This sounds mad, and also unworkable, how are they going to get an entire year group to sit in silence for that long, including lunch - when will they go to the canteen? Where will they be doing this detention?

Likely the good kids will turn up to the detention and the kids who are running around vaping will hide in the toilets anyway.

Collective punishment is generally frowned upon in schools, so definitely write in querying this (asking for the behaviour policy is a good idea as this is unlikely to be in it).

It's poor behaviour management on the school's part. They can't control the students who are misbehaving sp they punish everyone. DH and I are both teachers and disagree with this. Follow the school complaints policy.

This won't have any impact on those students that have caused the issue.
Assuming the school know who they are then they are the ones who should be punished and not the rest of the class.
I would absolutely refuse to have my DC participate in this "punishment" and would be contacting the school to make my thoughts known.

If someone does something wrong at work, it isn't the case that everyone is punished: the person at fault is reprimanded or let go.

This is unacceptable.

It's so passive aggressive isn't it? They will know full well who the vapers and badly behaved kids are but they don't want to address it with the individuals, so they punish everyone instead. The staff are hoping the good kids will do their job for them, it won't work!!