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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To tell the teacher that dd won't be doing the detention ?

377 replies

Wibblywobblyfoo · 06/10/2017 20:15

Dd came home from school tonight saying that she has been given an after school detention, to be done on monday, for missing a bit of homework that was meant to be handed in today. She went to her lesson and they were all asked for their homework. She told the teacher there was none and the teacher logged onto the online homework portal and showed them the set work, that she had set at 9.30pm last night!
Dd is 14 and was in bed at 9.30 last night. We also have a no computers after 8.30 pm for them all during the week.
Is setting the work that late reasonable?

OP posts:
Original poster
Wibblywobblyfoo · 09/10/2017 14:33

The teacher replied at 1pm this afternoom.
She had set the homework at 9.30 pm as she had been called away on a personal emergency and had only just found out that evening that the lesson she had left had not been taught but the work was needed for the lesson for friday. she said she presumed that no teenager woud be in bed by 9.30 and so thought it was fair that the detention stood because her subject was now a lesson behind.
I have replied that 9.30 is far too late to set work and that dd has no device access after 8.30, I said that dd has now competed the work and would not be attending the detention and that for future reference any work set after 8 pm would not be getting done that night.
i said i hoped she understood my position and that if there was any further concern or need for conversation regarding this matter could she direct them to me and not dd.

OP posts:
Threenme · 09/10/2017 14:42

Brilliant response I 100% agree! Even if you saw it and 9.30 how long would it take to do it and what standard would it be at being completed at that time!

Sprinklestar · 09/10/2017 14:42

The teacher's response is a load of old codswallop. No self respecting teacher would try to justify setting homework at that time of night, including a next day submission expectation! She's clearly in the wrong and yet still won't admit it. I'd be going to the head. Whether they're behind a lesson or not, that is not the fault of the students. What kind of message is she trying to send out? Every single student deserves an apology for her disorganization and subsequent overreaction by dishing out detentions willy nilly. I can't stand teachers who power trip.

Topseyt · 09/10/2017 14:44

I think your reply was very reasonable.

Common sense should have told the teacher concerned that setting homework due in the next day after 9.30pm would not work.

I am trying to get my own DD to have some downtime by that time in the evening, and not succeeding much because she is fretting about being in her GCSE year.

PaleAzureofSummer · 09/10/2017 14:46

Ok. My prediction was wrong as i was assuming she'd be reasonable!

Original poster
Wibblywobblyfoo · 09/10/2017 14:48

to be honest, i presume she must have had a big issue to behave in this way. Dd has been taught by her since she started and older child also has, she has always been reasonable and fair.

OP posts:
ILoveDolly · 09/10/2017 14:52

My dd had a note in her planner about a homework that was supposed to be on the online system, but we couldn't find it. It appeared later, at much shorter notice and at that time she was not able to hand in the work due to other commitments. I wrote a polite note to the teacher explaining that she had so many home works we had quite a tight schedule for fitting them all in with her outside hobbies as well, and if a homework was supposed to be set with a two day allowance, it would help if it was actually set then. Probably looked like an arse but the poor girl is working like a dog to fit it all in without these last minute little surprises. YANBU

Joey7t8 · 09/10/2017 14:52

The teacher has mental issues if she thinks it's reasonable for teenagers to be checking online portals for homework at 9-30pm and then spending an hour or whatever actually doing the set work!

Haven't read through the entire thread but have you taken this up with the school's senior management?

NeedMoreSleepOrSugar · 09/10/2017 14:54

The irony that the teacher (quite rightly) isn't expected to look at emails after a certain time, but she expects her pupils to. Perhaps if they'd been forewarned to expect it posted later than usual that night, but as it stands, totally unreasonable!

catkind · 09/10/2017 14:57

Bizarre response. Can only think the teacher may not be on good form if she's had an emergency. I think your response is very reasonable.

If you didn't already, might be a good idea to copy message and your response to her form tutor and/or HoD in case of debate?

prh47bridge · 09/10/2017 14:58

I would escalate this. It isn't just your daughter. It is almost the entire class being given an unjustified detention. Forward the teacher's email to the head of year saying you think the teacher is being unreasonable and that the detentions she has issued should be withdrawn.

Oldie2017 · 09/10/2017 14:58

Very sensible response. Totally unacceptable of the teacher! Some of us have teenagers who need a lot of sleep and are not up all hours doing homework. Even my twin 18 year olds who just left school right up to upper sixth were in bed at 10 on a school night and not often doing home work late on. Also some of us have to get up very early for work and school so cannot be staying up late until mid night.

No school should expect teenagers to start homework at 9.30pm. It's totally wrong. Of course your reponse was polite and fair so you should not have caused any issue with the school so they can just leave it at that.

safariboot · 09/10/2017 15:00

"so thought it was fair that the detention stood because her subject was now a lesson behind."

Wow. So she thinks it's 'fair' to punish the students for a cock-up made by the school staff. Just wow.

Also, "any work set after 8 pm would not be getting done that night." is far far too generous. If a teacher wants to set homework for next day - which is already a bit crap of them - then IMHO it should have to be set before the end of the school day so pupils have the full opportunity to do it, and be a small amount of work.

LuckLuckLUCK · 09/10/2017 15:03

I would definitely escalate this.

Original poster
Wibblywobblyfoo · 09/10/2017 15:06

safari
you may be right about that.
I have sent an email to the head of year and head of pastrol care to ask for clarification on the schools position on the matter

OP posts:
Morphene · 09/10/2017 15:06

wow batshit authoritarianism gone mad!

remind me how all these arbitrary rules and unfair punishments at school prepare us for the world of work?

Because I have never ever been asked to do something at 9:30 pm for then next morning, let alone been punished for not doing it.

Spudlet · 09/10/2017 15:10

As a fully grown adult, I wouldn't be checking my work emails at 9.30pm as a matter of course, and I wouldn't be starting a studying task either, especially not if I didn't know one was coming. I thought that you were supposed to have an hour of screen free time before sleeping anyway - how late does this teacher think a 14 year old should be up?

YoureAnArseholeDenise · 09/10/2017 15:19

She’s stark raving bonkers 😮

prh47bridge · 09/10/2017 15:21

The teacher's comment that no teenager would be in bed by 9:30pm is incredibly stupid. Some 14 year olds will be in bed at that time. And, even if they are still up, they mostly won't be watching their email and checking for new homework. By setting homework at that time and expecting it to be complete for the next morning she is basically deciding that all the teenagers in her class must be doing homework until 10pm regardless of the parents' rules. Unacceptable.

LoobyLoomicles · 09/10/2017 15:24

From how the teacher is acting, it seems that stress (either work induced or external) is affecting her work - it is not normal to punish kids (which she was doing both by expecting them to do extra work late at night AND then by setting detention) for something that was caused by school admin error.

Aderyn17 · 09/10/2017 15:26

I think you have to draw the head teacher's attention to what has happened here too. I get that the teacher is trying not to get behind and might have very little teaching time and a lot of ground to cover, but she has turned her personal problem into a problem for the whole class.
Behaviour like this alienates parents from supporting schools.

BlackAmericanoNoSugar · 09/10/2017 15:27

Even if your DD had access to the internet after 8.30pm and wasn't in bed at 9.30pm (my 13 yr old goes to bed between 9pm and 9.30pm, because that's how much sleep he needs), why would she check the homework portal? If, to the best of her knowledge, she has done all her homework there was nothing to prompt her to check the portal, even if she didn't normally go to bed until much later. In all likelihood, the two that did do the homework probably weren't the 'good' students, they were probably ones who leave things until the last minute and so they might have logged on because they knew they had some homework that they hadn't done in a timely manner and then saw the new homework.

TieGrr · 09/10/2017 15:42

I imagine it's frustrating for her that she did the ground work in providing a lesson in her absence, only to find out it wasn't taught. Nevertheless, the detention should not have been issued.

Oldie2017 · 09/10/2017 15:44

Yes it is punishing the pupils which is the silly thing.
My sons would sometimes be set work with silly deadlines and not do it and explain why and that was that. No need to have detentions for hard working teenagers who like their teachers want to do well.

5rivers7hills · 09/10/2017 15:50

Wow totally unreasonable. I'll hazard a guess that the teacher has some serious stres going on since you say this is ot typical behaviour from her.