Suspended pupil does work experience

[fatarsesally]

Private sector...a child is suspended from a secondary school for 5 days. He then shows up at his previous 'prep' school doing work experience during the suspension period. AIBU to think this is unacceptable? Suspension is supposed to be a punishment not a CV enhancing opportunity!

Luckily the state school he is in now is great at helping him to cope and helping him not to get to breaking oops not.

Yanbu at all and I am amazed that anyone thinks you are. Work experience for most is a treat and a privilege, to be allowed to do it when you have been very seriously misbehaving is ridiculous. And please don't kid yourselves, it is very unusual to be excluded for 5 days. For example fighting, abuse of staff, stealing would normally incur a 1 or 2 day exclusion.
And those of you saying 'better than being on consoles...' any half decent parent would confiscate them and leave the child with their school work to do. Schools always set work when a child is excluded.

Schools always set work when a child is excluded.
Yeah right

My experience of suspended dc as a social worker was that they got little or no work. Also a single working parent isn't going to be able to get a week off to supervise their dc at short notice so yes plenty of them with parents doing their best did leave them to play consoles for a week.

Work experience is a treat. Haha tell that to my dc 🤣

I don't consider going to do work experience in a primary school a 'treat' though. Surely it's better than them sitting at home relaxing? They will be busy all day in primary. I doubt they would be rushing to do that again.

In the state sector excluded students aren’t supposed to be out in public during school hours.

Not sure how that’s meant to be policed within current budget restraints.

Also a single working parent isn't going to be able to get a week off to supervise their dc at short notice

The whole point of an exclusion is that it’s not meant to be at the student’s family’s convenience. Not saying I agree, but that’s how it is.

dreich While I appreciate that a parent cannot take time of work I do not think that a parent who lets a child whose behaviour is so severe that they have been excluded retain access to a computer is 'doing their best' at all. they are pandering to their badly behaved child. Something that has probably caused the worst behaviour in the first place.

Work experience for most is a treat and a privilege, to be allowed to do it when you have been very seriously misbehaving is ridiculous

I disagree and think it is a very good use of the time and may teach the miscreant something. Maybe they don't like school but do like working? Lots of kids are stuck in school a lot longer than they want to be. The UTCs were meant to sort that out, but haven't been very successful in most cases, sadly.

In the state sector excluded students aren’t supposed to be out in public during school hours

Being in a school isn't "out in public". The reason for that rule is so the kids aren't roaming the streets!

Jeez, he's a kid. Give him a break.

I'd be interested to know how they got "child excluded for bullying helping in class" past their safeguarding officer

oh silly me, private schools ignore much of that 'red tape'

It's not possible to stay out of public places all day if the parent has to go out and the child is too young or not safe to be left alone at home. It is not only 'badly behaved' children that get excluded.

Presumably the most productive use of his suspension would be being at school. But he has been suspended!

I stand corrected on the work issue though - I have worked in 3 different state schools and work has always been set for excluded pupils but it seems this is not consistent practice.

Work experience for most is a treat and a privilege

I know people have disagreed with this, but I think it's right. A lot of kids that age who I know would love a chance to go and work with the younger pupils at their old school. It doesn't seem right to me when the exclusion is for bullying.

I'd not be too happy if a known bully shipped up in my child's class to "help out" but maybe the prep school thinks it character building.

Schools do work very hard to strike the right balance between the necessary sanctions for poor behaviour and providing interventions which will help students to modify their behaviour in the longer term. The responsibility of this work experience might have been deemed as a good strategy for this child. Maybe they thought he might enjoy a week at home a bit too much!

havingtochangeusername
I don't think you understand how serious an offence has to be to warrant a child getting a 5 day exclusion.
I totally know the sort of kid you are talking about, I have taught 100s of them. They can be rude as they are frustrated at being in school when they could be learning a trade - you are right that the school system is woefully inadequate for this kind of child.
But this is not a child who has been a bit rude to his teacher, refused to write a Shakespeare essay or similar. The offence is bullying and a 5 day exclusion woul suggests serious physical incident or a long term campaign. Neither of which should be rewarded with a week off to have fun practising a future career.

smiley I think that there are a lot of ways of ending up with an exclusion, fighting back when being bullied, poorly supported SEN, drug or alcohol misuse and mental health issues. Excluding these DC's may make sense from a school perspective but it doesn't move anything forward for the dc. If these dc have limited work sent home there isn't necessarily going to be much else for them to do that isn't screen related if they cannot leave their houses.

I agree with those who think a child
doing something useful during a suspension is a good thing. It well be that this is a specifically agreed intervention to help the pupil improve his behaviour.

Given it's a private school I don't think there's any objective measure of "how bad" the bullying had to be to merit the suspension. That will totally depend on the individual school's policy.

Work experience is not a treat. A school is not a public place. It's fine. And, as others have said, much, much better than lounging around at home doing nothing.

Personally I think suspensions where the child sits around at home are ridiculous. Surely it ends up beibg more of a punishment for parents than the child. I know a child who would be delighted with a suspension as it meant time off school.
Work experience/voluntary work during a suspension sounds much more sensible. Assuming he was working at helping the prep children, perhaps the idea was to help him learn how to get along better with other children or to try an improve his empathy for others.
Lounging around at home wouldn't achieve much at all.

Being in a school isn't "out in public". The reason for that rule is so the kids aren't roaming the streets

No, the point is that they are supposed to be at their home doing school work during school hours. Travelling to and from somewhere for work experience involves being out in public.