To object to this punishment ?

[School99]

My son is doing his GCSEs at local secondary school. They give lunchtime / break time / afterschool detentions for misbehaviour (ranging from not wearing a tie to constantly talking /disrupting class) which I support.
They also do a thing called internal exclusion which is where pupil has to sit in a different room all day with no lessons and nothing to do. My son has been told he has to do this on Monday for what I think is not a serious offence. Apart from thinking the punishment is not appropriate for the crime, I actually think this punishment is not at all appropriate in any circumstances- surely missing out on lessons when doing GCSEs is just setting them up to fail ? How is that teaching them to behave according to the school rules ?? I would object less if they were isolated but got their normal work given to them but they don’t even do that. I’m not really happy about the punishment - is this standard across all secondary schools ? I’m thinking of contacting the school to voice my views/objections but not sure if there’s any point ??

Not giving work to do sounds crazy to me. Are you sure??

I think you'll find he is given work but doesn't do it on his own.

You may feel the sanction is disproportionate but perhaps he is undermining the learning of other children?

I would work with the school, not against them.

He will get work to do but no, it might not be his 'normal' work. In my school we give out generic work for isolation or we'd be having to essentially plan a whole other lesson for a child who can't meet expectations. Where does "not a very serious offence" start and end?

It's not ideal for a y11 to miss classes, but maybe this'll be an absolute one-off.

Internal exclusion/isolation is standard at secondary schools.

Most schools give it for either a serious incident or refusal to attend previous punishments eg detention.

What did he do?

I don't believe they give them nothing to do so they're just sitting there twiddling their thumbs.

They probably won't be given anything special as why should the teacher be put out?

But they'll definitely have books etc.

I suppose it depends on what he did? If it was disrupting the class then I think it’s right that he’s pulled out for his punishment (why should the other kids be disrupted?). If it was a uniform violation then possibly a lunchtime detention is more appropriate.

if it’s about the work I would just gently inquire as to what he’s being asked to do.

Yeh I imagine he will be given work to do. This used to happen where I taught. We would be asked for work for anyone in inclusion. Not always easy to offer something appropriate tho (as the lesson needs them to be there IYSWIM). But I would at very least send a text book and some revision work. They never did it tho.

What did he do OP? tbh it must be something reasonably serious. In my old school it would be for swearing at a teacher, that kind of thing.

What he has told you he has done and what he has done will be poles apart.
He committed the crime and this the consequence, he knew that it would be. He needs to suck it up, lesson learnt.

What was the offence? You say you do think it’s serious but don’t say what it is. Is that because you think it actually was reasonably serious?
He’ll be given stuff to do. It probably won’t be what his class are doing because that needs the teacher, but revision or some reading on the topic they are covering. Depending on the offence it may be work around that and the causes of it. Apart from anything else supervising teenagers with literally nothing to do would be a nightmare. School wouldn’t do that to its staff…

surely missing out on lessons when doing GCSEs is just setting them up to fail ? but this impacts him so he learns not to do whatever it was he did. Just because you don't consider what he did to be serious doesn't mean he didn't break the school rules. You can't just be punished for fun so what exactly did he do?

He is in his 5th year of being at the school. He knows the rules, he broke them, he gets punished. I know when Ds was in year 11 those put in isolation were allowed to look at their revision stuff. Ds was glad when people were put in isolation because it meant his teacher could actually teach instead of doing behaviour management.

Most schools have work available in isolation - textbooks etc.

In some cases the teacher will be asked to provide work, sometimes students will do coursework/reversion etc depending on how old they are/where they are in their gcse courses

He will have stuff to do,

Being out of lessons is the point,

What did he do?

Yeah, that's not how it works.
I'm a teacher we set work as close to the class lesson as possible but not necessarily the same for internal exclusions. This also applies to first 5 days of external exclusion, including permanent exclusion. This is a legal requirement.
Most often the children who have been given these consequences do not engage with that work. Hence the expectation amongst them that no work is set/done.

I'm loving how the OP tells us all they don't think it's a serious offence, but omitted what it was from the opening post 🤣🤣

There was an ofsted report published this last week about how parents are increasingly willing to challenge school rules, and it was impressed on parents to remember that they themselves sign up to a schools' policies.
Whatever it is he has done wrong, you shouldn't be questioning the punishment in terms of whether it's a good one, you should be looking at the school policy and seeing if they've breeched it.
In the case of an internal exclusion, in my experience it's not something that's just pulled out of a hat, and is always heavily documented in terms of "why". I fear if you challenge the internal exclusion you'll end up embarrassed .

Instead you should be challenging your child on whatever it is they did.

Yes, it is normal in secondary schools to have a day’s isolation as a punishment.
Yes, work is set, although whether it’s done is a different matter.
Yes, it is a shame that he’s missing lessons in his GCSE year. Do you think he will consider his actions in the future and avoid this sanction?

No one here can say whether the sanction is appropriate, since you haven’t said what happened to cause it. However, it isn’t done lightly, so I’d guess that there had been previous sanctions, or your son had ignored attempts to moderate his behaviour.

By all means voice your objections. You might find out exactly what happened. You might not like it though.

Why do you think it is minor? He can spend the time going over last week's lesson and revising.

He can revise.

It's a pain in the arse setting work for kids who are working in isolation - they can rarely do the same tasks as the rest of the class.

I've got a folder full of independent tasks linked to topics (Collected over time) for the specific purpose.
I just pull one out and send it over, if I don't have anything when I put something together I pop it in the folder I also have one with lessons I've left for cover teachers which are often also suitable. It's been a real time saver.
Edited for clarity.

Some school rules are stupid but need to know what he did

I'll be amazed if we find out.

Impossible to comment without knowing what he’s actually done to get the punishment

It’s a legal obligation to give work for external exclusion, not sure about internal. I’m sure he’ll be given work, probably textbook/worksheets.

How about you teach your ds to behave rather than complain about a standard school punishment? One of mine was caught smoking in the toilets and was-rightfully, imo-internally excluded recently. Awful example to the younger kids who share bathroom facilities.

Maybe voice your concerns to your son and support the school. How much work do you think it would be (and who should do it) to get the lessons from each of the teachers he should have on Monday? Part of his punishment is catching up on the work he will miss! That is his responsibility. Supervising children in detention or internal isolation is a pain for teachers.