AIBU? Dentention for low score?

[ThrowAwayQP]

Okay; I’m a long time lurker. Made this account to ask all you kind people to sound out this issue we and DH are having.

DD is in year 7. Yesterday we had a text from school saying that she had a detention for “inadequate progress”. DD has never been in trouble before, no issues at parents evening and we always make sure she does her homework so was a bit confused.

I asked her what happened when she got home, and she explained that her teacher set homework to revise for a short test in lesson. Apparently they needed to get a certain score in the test or they would get a dentention and she missed this score by two marks. She says there was another pupil in the class who got much lower but everyone else met the score; so she and this other boy were issued the detention.

It didn’t seem fair to me to set a detention for a score on a test so I rang the school to enquire and to be fair the class teacher emailed me within about half an hour.

The teacher said, and I’m quoting here; “It’s not a dentention per se, but a mandatory revision session that I’ll be running. It’ll be an opportunity for [DD] to have another look at what’s she’s struggling with in order to ensure she makes the progress she needs to to meet her target. If you are not happy with her to do it after school, considering her age and the dark nights we can arrange it for a lunchtime instead; but in line with the policy she will be attending at some point.”

I was actually happy with the response; since it looks like the teacher will actually be going back over lessons in this time and explained to DD it wasn’t a punishment but meant to help her.

DD is stil pretty upset by the whole thing tho; and when DH got home he still thought the school were being unreasonable in making the session compulsory for her.

So... what are your thoughts; people of mumsnet? Do I get back in touch with the school or no?

You send her along for the revision And tell her it’s for benefit and her teacher is giving up her time to help her succeed.

My DC goes to before school tutorials as his maths and science grades were dropping. It means I have to run him to school and he grumbled at the start, but now he can see the benefits. He goes 4 mornings a week. I stressed his teacher wasn’t being paid for this and was doing it to help him so he should get on with it.

don lol. Yes we should make sure all students reach the average level at the very least...we should totally ignore the obvious mathematical impossibility of achieving that goal!

Newsflash. Some kids are below average academically (around half of them weirdly enough). They should be set targets that stretch them realistically just as the above average academically should.

Setting the same target for everyone is dumb is fuck and a counter productive move that will disadvantage children at both ends of the academic spectrum.

There will be kids in the OPs childs class who did no revision and passed. What message is there for them? Keep coasting all will be well! There is the OPs kid, who may well have not understood how to revise effectively and could be given some pointers rather than dragged in at lunch time. There is the kid who scored much much lower who may genuinely be struggling with the material...and still will be after being dragged in (with a completely different issue to the OP's child).

This wonderful example of teaching is good for literally no one in the class and addressed exactly none of their specific needs.

But yes...clap clap clap...and bravo most excellent teacher!

don in other news...there are no teachers having to deal with me...so don't waste your crocodile tears on them.

This is totally unacceptable. It was framed as a detention until OP questioned it. Lower ability should not be punished. That is what happened. The 'explanation' is gaslighting, oh no dear it's not punishment but give up your break or after school tine for daring to struggle understanding something.
Guessing they're not set in y7. A decent teacher should be able to differentiate, rather than punish lower ability kids. And even if OP's DD isn't, lowvabilityut didn't put the effort in, jfc is a y7 not being perfect forgivable? Jo decides these targets? Do adults always put in 100% at work? I am with your DH OP, not ok

I feel the need to jump in and defend the teacher now... they have emailed me back twice in good time and explained things clearly.

As DD’s class is setted; I imagine that most of the children in that room would have a similar target?

It clarified that they (according to them) didn’t use the word “detention” in the lesson and they “wouldnt call a session such as this a detention” however it’s school policy that it is recorded as a “progress detention” and this auto generates a text home.

So they don't call it a detention, except that they do! Providing an extra catch up lesson for children who haven't quite got it is fine thing to do. Surely, they can think of something else to call it other than a progress detention. As detention is a punishment and this seems like a possitive way of helping children.

madmum But I gave an example of something that requires no work but automatically generates reasonable and INDIVIDUAL progress goals.

Its not actually difficult, and takes less time than the kind of intervention done in the OP.

It isn't done because schools care more about getting everyone to standard X as relevant to league tables than they do about everyone reaching their own potential.

The system is the problem...not the premise.

op in a setted class people can still struggle different amounts with different content/skills.

You might be brilliant at reading and writing in French and terrible at listening and speaking. So its into the middle set for you where your average mark puts you! Tough luck that you are ahead and coasting half the time and struggling hopelessly the other half...

Maybe going down a set is a better move than detention? Maybe a little understanding that sudden gaining learns can and do happen and progress isn't linear?

But that’s exactly what this will help find those who are struggling with a particular area and as such are at risk of falling behind. Meaning support can be given to help bridge that gap

This is a bit like the summer born thread...everyone is so embedded in the stupid thinking of the system that they will argue over deferring or not for hours without ever stopping to ask why it is acceptable for the education system to be so spectacularly shit at meeting the needs of the individual, that it actually matters what month you were born in!

Btw I'm not saying OPs DD is of low ability, necessarily, I don't know them. It's January. Show me an adult who is putting in 120%. A generally well-behaved and achieving DC had a blip for whatever reason, going straight to detention is draconian and may well affect her for years, as PPs said, no wonder there are such high rates if mental health problems in teens.

M3lon
try to use your brain, and think what the teacher is going to do when taking some kids for extra study at lunch time.. if you cannot comprehend that they are giving them extra time and showing them the steps to succeed trying to help.

Your posts are very immature and angry, calm down, if you don't have children at school, no need to get your knickers into such a twist.

Secondary school teacher here: framing as a DT, especially if your dd is usually very good, is clearly the issue here, however I assure you that intervention now is the best course of action. You said she made revision notes but that’s not necessarily the best re union technique for her so maybe suggest to her to ask the teacher if there are other techniques she could try?

In my subject I regularly do short tests related to homework weekly and if pupils don’t reach a certain minimum level they have to resit at break, lunch or after school. If this happens repeatedly, they have to attend a compulsory support session. If they fail to attend it’s a dept DT. We run soooo many voluntary sessions to support pupils but they don’t so sometimes compulsory is the only way to help.

Tbh so many schools don’t bother with timely intervention so in a way your dd is lucky that the teacher/school care! If your DH thinks compulsory support isn’t a good thing in the long run then he IBU. It sounds like you really care about your dd’s progress so next time she has a test, encourage her to tell you and help her revise by quizzing her - pupils whose parents get involved with school work tend to do much much better!

don I'm allowed to care about what happens to other people's children!

I teach the products of the UK secondary school system and my rage stems from seeing what the system has done to them. It stems from seeing the vast prevalence of mental health problems and the huge levels of study related anxiety the majority of them carry. It stems from seeing people unable to set their own meaningful goals as adults and instead depending entirely on validation from the system as to the value of their achievements.

Everyone should care about what the school system is doing to our children.

Everyone should also understand that non everyone is going to reach 'average' performance...and that it makes far more sense to set goals that are matched to individuals than blanket boundaries for all.

No one puts in 120%, that’s not possible.

My DC is more than capable but the teaching was at such a fast pace the concepts weren’t being understood. With the tutorials it’s all come together and his understanding has improved and therefore his grades.

My other DC is struggling and is an end of summer born. We accept either he is average, although his teacher says he is capable and just lacks focus, or he is not ready for his grade and needs to be held back. Whatever we decide if he doesn’t get 70% which is the school district pass mark he will be held back regardless

It’s the automated school response that’s the problem and needs changing. Whatever the session was referred to as at school if I get a text saying my child has a detention I’m obviously going to ask them why they have detention???
I also feel sorry for the children who struggle who will have to attend many of these ‘not detentions’.

Everyone should also understand that non everyone is going to reach 'average' performance...and that it makes far more sense to set goals that are matched to individuals than blanket boundaries for all.

I kind of agree, but parents will never agree to see different abilities class and their children being put in the low-level one. It's politically correct to mix all abilities in one class. The brightest children are the ones losing out in our system, not so much the ones behind.

But maybe extra sessions will benefit these under average or under achieving children? I failed maths at school. That never should have happened. I always thought I couldn’t do maths and was too dumb for it. I think if I’ve had the extra support and more time to absorb the concepts I would have been fine. I took a level 1 through the OU as an adult and passed with 80% or so.

I’d be delighted with the extra time to help your daughter 🤷‍♀️

I'd be okay with it in that context. I struggled a lot at school and something like that would have really helped. I'd have had a massive strop about going but it would have helped.

One to one help isn't always possible in lessons and this is really just getting her to a point where she 'gets it.'