To think my daughters school is misusing isolation

[GrabbyAbbie]

My daughter is in year 9 at my local secondary school. She is generally a well behaved teenager, she has her moments but don't they all!, but generally keeps her head down and doesn't engage in negative behaviour.

However despite being a child who doesn't get in much trouble she has been put in isolation 3 times!

Once for drinking out of a water fountain - she apparently broke covid procedure ( this resulted in a full day of isolation) when I complained and said there were no cups or a warning on the fountain they said tough basically.
I accept she maybe should have been punished but maybe a warning of even a detention could have been used not isolation.

The other two times she was placed in isolation for a uniform issue and couldn't come out of isolation until I brought the correct uniform ( I work part time so if I hadn't have managed to bring the uniform in she would have been in isolation a full day)
The first time was a genuine mistake she thought she had to go in her pe kit in face she was told to by a teacher who got it wrong and the second time her shoes were broke so she had to wear trainers.
I get she should have had some sort of sanction but when I was at school isolations were for severe disruptive or aggressive behaviour and not for minor offences.
My friends son had been bullied for weeks violently and the culprit wasn't given a lesser punishment than my child.
Should I just suck it up? Am
I being a precious parent? Or is the school misusing isolation?

This all seem quite harsh - isolation is used for disruptive behaviour at my kids’ school. Although they are insanely strict on uniform, I think they use DT’s for incorrect uniform.

Isolation to me says to a child - your behaviour is so egregious you shouldn’t be around other people.

Of course schools abuse it. Because it’s easier to dump the child in the proverbial bin for the day and criminalise them, rather than deal with the actual issue.

I think it’s appalling that as adults we allow schools to use this technique so easily. What is it teaching a child who incorrectly used a water fountain? Nothing. Instead they could have asked her to spend half hour of her break printing up some signs for the fountains.

Makes me mad.

Isolation is used because teenagers don't like it and because it is less hassle than chasing people for detentions and so class teachers don't have to deal constantly with pupils not in uniform etc.
It used to be one step removed from temporary exclusion but it often isn't regarded that way anymore.

Isolation is used for uniform violations so your child is not seen around school in incorrect uniform, ie. if other students see them wearing trainers then they will think they can get away with it too and the next day there will be more students in trainers.

All standard reasons I'm every school I have worked on.

Seems absurd to me.
I can't understand what trainers have got to do with anything!

I'd be annoyed at the isolation for drinking out a water fountain, that affects no one except herself, and how is she supposed to know she can't use it if she's not been told and there's no signs, surely telling her at the time it's out of use would be quite sufficient.

Secondary schools are absurd places. YADNBU.

So out of three incidents only one was knowingly committed (the trainers) but couldn't be avoided anyway? I'd be tamping mad at the other two, how can they justify a punishment for wearing what she was told by a teacher? Or for not being psychic for that matter.

That sounds extremely harsh. My kids go to a very strict secondary, the strictness was part of the reason we chose it in fact. But they do manage to temper "the rules" with common sense and compassion.

I think it's OTT. None of these things affect her education or anyone elses. Secondary schools aren't reflective of the real world at all. It's bizarre.

How do they teach a child in isolation? Do they miss class altogether? (I’m not in the uk)

My daughter who is top set maths was given worksheets such as colours by numbers to 10!

Surely water fountains are there just to fill bottles? No one should be drinking straight from a communal tap as its unhygienic- Covid or not.

The other examples I assume would be covered in the schoolmates code of conduct so if you don’t agree with them you can move your child to an school where the rules suit you.

*school’s (not schoolmates)

Agree that my child should have been punished that's not in dispute by when she was sat in isolation with a child who broke another child's jaw it makes a bit of a mockery of it.
Correct uniform is of course in the student code of conduct but there is no mention of isolation being used to implement the rules.

This is completely absurd and OtT. Surely a child should only be isolation if a danger to others or uncontrollably disruptive. Im struggling to believe this is really happening in UK schools and possibly your daughter has some behaviour problems she is not letting on about

It absolutely does happen @Volhhg

Teacher here. I agree with you. Isolation should be a place for pupils who have behaved in a way which disruptive to the welfare or learning of others. There’s no way a pupil should be in isolation over a uniform issue given that circumstances you’ve explained, or the misunderstanding with the fountain.

Why do parents accept it? Dread to think What else goes on?

@Volhhg

Why do parents accept it? Dread to think What else goes on?

Because fighting against it doesn’t work to be honest. You just have to spend a hell of a lot of time reprogramming your children to make them understand that when they go to uni or work, people don’t isolate them for making a mistake.

Sounds more like a prison camp than a school.

We don't accept it we get told those are the rules you signed up for When you agreed to send your child here

No behavioural problems at all, not disruptive or aggressive, generally a good student.
It went from her never getting punished before to being put in isolation for 2 days!

Isolation is only for extreme behaviours such as disruption, directly insulting teachers, abusive behaviours, fighting etc at my daughter's secondary school.

It sounds as though that school is holding nothing in reserve for minor issues, which is ridiculous. Especially when all teachers (particularly heads) seem to do is despair over how much education children have missed!