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!

cardibach because she had to go out to work. She couldn't sit indoors watching him 24/7.

A school taking bullying seriously? Surely not!

Who organised the work experince OP and how do you know about it?

He would be travelling out of normal school hours surely. And he could have been taken by car.

When ds was suspended we were given no rules. The first time I was phoned at 8am and told to go to the headmasters office instead of dropping him off. It caught me by surprise when I was told he was not allowed in school that day so I ended up taking him to work with me. (He was in juniors then & had told a teacher he was stupid)

The second time was for 3 days. He’d had a meltdown and someone got hurt. I took him out in public a lot, to the doctors, to work, i didn’t feel he was in a fit mental state to leave alone to be honest. (I also spent a lot of time on the phone to autism outreach who told me not to send him back to that school). Neither times was he given any schoolwork to complete.

The not-in-public spaces rule doesn't apply below secondary school age, IIRC, precisely b/c the kids aren't expected to stay at home alone if parents have to go out.

On balance I think I'm ok with the kid doing WE for those excluded days. He still has a suspension on his record. Via WE he might find aspirations to do better in future & think about the needs of others. Not yet locked up & key thrown away material.

The first time for ds was year 6. The second time was year 8.

Here, if you are excluded you are sent to another school in the city for a week or however long, rather than sitting at home.

In a smallish city we have 5 high schools so it's easy for them to just switch to another for the period of exclusion without much disruption to parents for work/travel etc.

Work experience seems a bit off though. In secondary WE is a bonus and shouldn't be undertaken during a period of punishment.

Call it community service

He would be travelling out of normal school hours surely. And he could have been taken by car.

Of course it’s possible, if you're so inclined, to push the boundaries of the terms of the exclusion in order to do as you please. But those are the rules, and in our LA, they are the same for secondary as primary.

Do any of the LA rules re excluded pupils being out and about apply to private school pupils though?

Suspending a pupil can't put them under 24 hour house arrest, it must only be valid during school hours, schools have no control over their pupils whereabouts other than that.

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

I am not going to speculate on what the offence was. But I still maintain that it is a better use of time to have the pupil doing something constructive with their time than sitting at home. Even if their parent stops them playing on the xbox what else are they going to do? Lounging around at home wouldn't achieve much at all This!

Is WE fun?

Maybe different in private sector on stuff.

I was suspended from school for a week, back in 80s.

There was no process and I wasn't even there at the thing that had happened. No work was given and parents weren't informed just told to go home.

I doubt it's as rigorous as in state sector. May have changed since those days but doubt it.

The prep school having a kid in too help in term time seems a bit odd. They must have asked why he's free? I don't think it's appropriate at all.