DS11 - constant detentions for low level stuff at school

[Bookendedbylife]

My son started secondary last Sept, local state school that’s well regarded and fairly focused on academic performance. It’s a ‘hard to get into’ school as the catchment is tiny.

My son seems happy there, but there have been issues in his teaching group with 3 or 4 pretty disruptive kids, 2 of which have been moved. Things settled down for a bit but the head of year admitted to me it was a challenging group.

The problem is my son is constantly getting pulled up for - what seems to me - fairly minor things. Not wearing his blazer immediately after a class resulted in a detention. He got another detention for ‘not having the right equipment’ for class - turned out he didn’t have a red pen.
He’s been getting 2 or 3 detentions a week for the past month or so now and most of them seem to me to be for chatting, and not focusing properly in class. Seems pretty minor stuff tbh. At first, he was scared of getting a detention but now he’s completely not bothered, and the whole thing seems to be backfiring (in my view) ie it’s no deterrent at all.

Any advice on how I handle it at home? I’m getting pretty worried about it as it is demoralising for him, and not having any real impact as far as I can see, and if things don’t improve I’m worried they’ll try and force him out or something.

Some school rules are, imo, completely unnecessary and unfair and archaic. My bugbear at the moment is detentions for wearing an outdoor coat inside, because my children, who don't want to get detentions, have been refusing to wear coats at all.

But chatting in lessons, not focusing on the work etc, and even it bringing the right equipment, are examples of low level disruption which is the biggest problem in a classroom. In my 20 years experience in a secondary classroom, extreme disruptive behaviour is relatively rare, but low level disruption is what makes it really hard for all the kids in the class to learn.

the uniform and pen seem silly reasons for a detention. The chatting understandably results in detention but is not as serious as carrying a knife or physical bullying.

Hi All,

I am looking for advice as I am of mother SEN child who is recently diagnosed with ADHD. To give background, we had issues in his primary education in the school he started his education since school consumed all the ehcp budget (after getting it) in other activities and after fighting Tribunal, we changed his school to another mainstream school which goes from primary until 6th form. He started new school in Year 4 and completed his Y6 in same school.
They accepted his Y7 admission in same school stating some academic delays but with no disagreements on his placement. In the meantime, we got him assessed for ADHD for which got confirmed around July 24, towards end of Y6. Immediately when the camhs teams confirmed his diagnosis, school started making up case saying he is not fit for mainstream education and has lot of academic delays and behavior issues. We have countered that he was in school for past 3 years so if there were issues, they should have referred him to Camhs and why only when Parents got him referred to Camhs through GP, school is raising concern on his mainstream placement.
Now school has started giving him frequent detentions since start of year 7, sometime they are given in all the breaks, first break and lunch break as well keeping him away from meal for entire day.

His EHCP states that he needs to have extended meal time however with this, he is completely kept hungry and now causing lot of nose bleeds. We had discussion with school and called for early ehcp review however no matter what we can't let everyday detentions for him going on for complete year 7. These detentions were never there since past 3 years in same school.
He has overall development delay, Heart correction done, cdk13 disorder , speech & language issues and now ADHD.

Please can someone advice who should we complaint. Also some reasons that our child has progressed in this school for past 3 years and also has sibling here, we want to continue with same school. It is really difficult fighting crocodile in water so need advice please.

Just wanted to mention that in Y6 when school was ousted due, they called us to meet inspectors for the progress our Child has made and we did it. They accepted Y7 admission and immediately after ADHD diagnosis towards end of Y6, they started raising that he is not fit for Mainstream. We have also told school that his ADHD medication will start in FEB 25 so they need to be patient but seems all our efforts are failing.

@GKBM this is an old thread so better to start a new one for specific responses to your situation. Is it a private school? A through state school in UK is unusual and they cannot pick and choose pupils unless it is , for example, an academically selective school.

Chatting and not focusing are not minor. I've been teaching nearly 30 years and I would say this is probably one of the things that grieves me the most. The pupil chatting is not learning and this interrupts the teaching and the learning of others. These are basic rules He needs to focus and stop talking then the detentions will stop. Not having the correct equipment is disruptive too. If he is blasé about detentions then maybe he should be worried about your reaction? If so then maybe the detentions will stop. It's easily solved really, he needs to follow the rules
, make sure he has all his stationery etc and everyone will be happier all round.

@GKBM please do start your own thread to get more replies and targeted advice.

Talk initially to the school SENCo - ask for a meeting with them, copy in tutor and head of year - and discuss how the school is not meeting his needs. Needs fall into 2 categories here, firstly basic needs like eating and drinking, and also what is specified on his EHCP. If this does not resolve the problem, escalate to his SEN caseworker in the Local Authority (cc the SEN team email address) because they are ultimately responsible for delivering what is on his EHCP.

You did the right thing calling for early AR. Do you have a date for that, and is it a state school or private? But things like detentions and eating should not need to wait for an annual review. That is ridiculous. Having spent their EHCP money is not a reason for school to say he cannot have the support. He had a legal right to what is specified in his EHCP, and if school can't supply it then you can compel the LA to.

If it's a private school I suspect you may be being managed out. They hold A lot f sway over who they do and don't want there. A state school would usually be looking at eg getting advice from LA behaviour support team if they can't handle him, not baldly declaring him unfit for mainstream. Honestly if it's a private school that doesn't want him, I would get him out of there.

He needed the red pen.
another time
he’ll need to protractor, calculator, pencil, etc etc and won’t be in the habit to check he has everything before school unless someone is making him accountable now.

the blazer thing is on the face of it ludicrous, but teaching kids to comply to rules requires consistency. Disruptions in class ruin the flow of teachers and limits learning.