Would you tell the school your child isn’t doing detention in this situation?

[beeonmybonnett]

my DD is in Y13 and has got an after school detention due to being late to one of her subject classes two times in the same week. She was only a few minutes late on both occasions - no more than 5 minutes.

In normal circumstances, I would agree with the detention as she should not be being late, I know it happens occasionally as we can get held up at times, but there are no excuses for her being late twice in such a short period of time.

However, the reason I am annoyed at her getting this detention is because the teacher of the subject class she was late to, and is getting the detention as a result of it, is late to class quite often.

For example, DD tells me that the teacher is usually 5-10 minutes late every Monday afternoon when they have that class after lunch. So clearly the teacher has problems getting from the staff room to the classroom in time for the start of the lesson?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for my dd to be spoken to and warned about being late, but I find it absolutely pathetic that this teacher has recommend her head of year give her a detention when the teacher in question is guilty of the same thing - is it not a bit hypocritical?

Not sure why they think this teacher’s lunch break is more important than her a level class but if the student is late then it’s the end of the world.

I’m not sure on how to proceed with this one, but I genuinely feel like ringing the school and telling them to withdraw the detention unless they’re going to discipline the teacher for being late!

lol at deportment

I’m often late because I’m responding to emails from parents who are being arseholes about detentions

You are being utterly ridiculous; I’m beginning to understand why your daughter is unable to follow school rules.

Why the sniffing at 'deportment'?

They were lucky enough to attend a school where their teachers were held to a high standard of general professional deportment, including attendance for the entire duration of class, and thanks to adequate staffing, properly planned scheduling, and a system where teachers occupied their own rooms and students moved from room to room throughout the day, they were able to prioritise their central role, i.e. teaching their students.

Yes it does sound as if they were lucky to attend a school with ‘adequate staffing’. Unfortunately as many previous posters have pointed out, in most state schools, teachers have many additional duties on top of teaching.
In our school, teachers are used for playground duty, exam invigilation, school tours, corridor behaviour management…. amongst other things. The school cannot afford to pay other staff to do these duties. Every state school in England will be in the same situation.

It’s nothing to do with teachers not being held to a high professional standard.

*sigh
Yesterday I was late to lesson because I witnessed a y10 pupil (and friends) shove a small y7 pupil into a wall and call them grim names. The y7 pupil - age 11 and quite vulnerable - was quite upset. I had to contact heads of year of both pupils, and ensure small y7 pupil, who was traumatised, was ok getting home later.

I was late to my 6th form lesson as a result. Because, y'know, that was more important.

This wasn't an isolated incident. This type of thing happens every day.

Oh - I don't get a lunch break either because half an hour is just about time to prep my next lesson, have a meeting or catch up on marking and prep.

It's not the same as a teenager being late to a lesson.

So no - far from "do as I say, not as I do" nonsense, we are actually doing our jobs. If it really was "do as I say, not as I do", then your child would also be out on the corridor helping with the very many issues that go on when you have 1500 pupils in a school.

Of course we don't expect your child to do that. But we DO expect both you and them to understand that they are not more important than every other child in the school, and that in a situation where we are very short of both teachers and funding in schools, a few minutes late to a 6th form lesson is a small price to pay. Increasing numbers of 6th forms are closing down.

Have some compassion, and understand that your child doesn't come before every single other child in the school.

You have no idea why the teacher is late and it’s none of your business.

your child should do the detention.

sorry but you sound ridiculous and entitled

Year 13 you shouldn't be getting involved with their detention at all. If your child thinks the detention is unfair that is on them to talk to the person giving out the detention. They are nearly an adult and could be at uni next year

If your child was at FE college would you call to complain?

Agreed. Back in the dark ages when I was at school I can't imagine my parents so involved in this sort of nonsense. And I would have been mortified if they had been.

But teachers don't wear any part of the school uniform?! Why should one part of the uniform apply?

"But teachers don't wear any part of the school uniform?! Why should one part of the uniform apply?"

Exactly this. And to add- teachers don't make the rules either! It comes from management (nor do teachers fine parents for going on term time holidays - but that's whole other thread!!)

You sound a pain in the arse
I wonder if your child is as entitled as you? The real world will be a shock to her

Imagine the OP when daughter starts the university application process......

When I taught A level I had one lesson a week where I knew I would always be slightly late because of break duty. I apologised to the students for that at the beginning of the year. They knew that they had no excuse for being later than me and always had work or reading to do. They were mature and understood the situation.

You complain about losing teaching time but your daughter loses 10 minutes a week for no apparent reason - or, worse than that, the whole class is delayed waiting for the late ones to turn up or for the teacher to go over the first part of the lesson again.

Teachers are human and understand why students are late. Is your daughter late regularly?

Thank you. This is how it should be. Teachers should explain to their classes if they are going to be late to the lesson regularly (and, indeed, irregularly). It never hurts to manage expectations and explain to students what they should do if you're not there at the start of the lesson. I think this applies to every year group at secondary, not just sixth form.

The OP's daughter should do the detention, yes. But if the teacher is regularly late to the lesson and hasn't spoken to the class about why, that's pretty poor form.

Year 13?! Your daughter is almost an adult or is already an adult- don’t embarrass her by phoning school to complain about a detention 🙈 I’d have been mortified if my parent did that in sixth form!

You don’t need to know why Ffs, it’s none of your business.
You sound like a nightmare parent, no wonder teachers are leaving the profession in droves.

It happens though unfortunately. My lunch duty is year 10 girls toilets. We can't leave our duty post until toilets are empty as we have to lock them. Frequently the girls refuse to come out of the cubicles at the end of lunch and as I have no senior support, I am left to deal with this on my own. I have to force them to leave the cubicles, prevent others from coming in, ge the toilets locked up and get to my classroom to start my lesson all at the same time. I am frequently late if the girls are being difficult as I am not allowed to leave them in the toilets

This
Storing up trouble for your dc being entitled and unable to accept responsibility.

Not sure I'd even believe her about the lateness.

I totally agree however why is a 6th form treating students like secondary students, no way should detentions be handed out. It's ridiculous.

@MyNumber1Rule yes detentions for year 13 seems madness but again that's for the students to discuss with the head of 6th form- not the parents.

If I had a detention for every lesson I was late or missed at 6th form I'd never finish early! Especially when we used to go to the pub early doors for 3 hours and then head back for the next lesson!

Definitely for the DD to sort!

Yep same, I think my DS Y13 has managed to be late only once as they went to McDonalds in a break but he's always turned up (most of his lessons start in the afternoon and those that don't have 2 hr gaps in the middle) and always on time. There are no punishments, the teaching staff talk to the students and will take action if they are consistently late or not turning up and not doing work but this will be warnings then eventually being asked to leave, basically like being at work.

The rules are for the kids and not the teachers. For example rules around no earrings but teachers can still wear them. This is because teachers are adults in the workplace and kids are kids and need to learn through rules and discipline.

I have to say in nearly 20 years on the classroom, 6th form detentions are infrequent to say the least.

They usually only happen for repeated infringement (usually with an attitude which needs tackling). In my experience this has been for missing deadlines, with accompanying attitude issues but by FAR the most frequent 6th form detention flyers are for lateness. They are allowed off school site so some take the Mickey about timekeeping.

I had one girl last year who was late almost every lesson, often with a sneery/entitled attitude as if she thought being on time was beneath her as frankly her occupation in that time was far more important. It pissed her class colleagues off as we waited for her to start lessons. She also was a spoiled, entitled little madam for whom the real world will now be coming as a bit of a shock, I suspect.

She got detentions. She also got grades below her UCAS requirement, and this was due to her slopey shouldered attitude.

Why don’t you ask the teacher herself?