Is a day of isolation too harsh?

[Yomuma]

My son is in year 7.

This week, I had an email from the school which explained he had received a "level 3" punishment. This was because, whilst he was sitting in the front row watching a rehearsal for the school play, he found a crisp packet he had screwed into a ball on his pocket. He began throwing it from hand to hand, before he missed and it ended up going near the stage / performers. All this was on the email from the teacher, which described the behaviour as "very inappropriate".

For this, he received a full day in isolation and a bad behaviour point.

The teacher in her email did not say she had given any warnings, or asked him to stop, and also explained she doesn't know my son as she doesn't teach him but he seemed upset about the whole thing.

I do fully agree he was rude and disrespectful to the performers, he should absolutely have not been doing that whilst he should have been watching the performance.

Though I have spoken to another mum whose son punched another child in the face, and he received a day in isolation but no bad behaviour point. Ie. A lesser punishment.

I have also been told that the process is to issue usually 3 warnings first as isolation is a last resort. This didn't happen.

AIBU to think it isn't fair that my son received essentially a worse punishment than a child that punched someone in the face? And surely he should have been given at least one warning first?

He is generally very well behaved and is mortified this has happened. I hate the thought that I am "one of those mum's" that thinks their child is an angel, but it does sound a bit extreme to me.

Should I just let it go, and trust the school acted appropriately? Or do I need to raise my concerns that this doesn't seem very fair?

Blimey! Your school would be pretty empty...

Sounds like my kind of school!

Sometimes adults get things wrong, even teachers. There is nothing wrong with a parent standing up for their child when they believe something isn't right. Isolation is a terrible punishment and I think far to extreme. If he was watching the rehearsal it was probably very tedious and boring. It doesn't make what he did right but Isolation for a day is way to extreme. A detention after school would be more than enough.
Isolation should be banned as a punishment for children. All it really does is takes a child out of the classroom for an entire day.

Isolation should be banned as a punishment for children. All it really does is takes a child out of the classroom for an entire day.

Which depending on the child and their behaviour, can be a blessed relief for the rest of the class who want to learn without disruption.

Your son, during a performance of a school play and while sitting in the front row, took a paper bag out of his pocket, scrunched it up, started throwing it around, and then threw it at the stage (whether deliberately or not is irrelevant).

This is both disrespectful and dangerous.

I am a Drama teacher and this sort of behaviour from students during performances drives me insane. The children on stage are so vulnerable when performing in front of their peers. They are nervous and anxious. Any kind of distracting behaviour from a student in the front row can totally throw them off their performance and ruin the experience for them. If the paper bag had landed on stage it would also need to be removed, disrupting the performance even further, and could potentially have caused a performer to slip or stumble if they hadn't noticed it on the floor. The children performing will have worked bloody hard and your son's behaviour - while thoughtless rather than deliberate - risked ruining their experience. He needs to understand that.

Personally, I would have given a detention rather than isolation, but I would imagine the school wants to 'send a message'. The teacher clearly couldn't give 3 warnings when your son was doing this in the middle of a performance, so that is not really relevant in this situation.

Frankly, I think you need to let this go. As another poster has said, comparing with another punishment given to another child is pointless - you don't know the full circumstances. I would make it clear to your son that you support the school and encourage him to see it as a learning opportunity rather than a punishment.

I agree, it won't kill him and at year 7 he isn't a small child.

I am interested in what a day in isolation entails having not come across it before. If I had access to books, I think I would have enjoyed that :-). I love being quiet on my own and if I was comfortable, eg if my coat was handy, I might have had a sleep on the floor. At one of my schools there was a 'Disgrace Bench' in the front hall of the school on which a 'naughty' pupil had to sit still in full view of everyone else!

The punishment is OTT, a detention would have been sufficient.

My DCs school is ridiculous for disproportionate punishments (esp with kids with additional needs) and also inconsistent with it. My 2nd child is in Y11 and I can't wait for them to finish, I'm sick of it.

Cannot believe some of the dramatic responses. A days isolation for throwing a packet at a school play rehearsal is very obviously completely disproportionate.

Isolating school children is actually a ‘thing’? I’m lost for words.

I have adult DC and it's been a thing for at least 25 years, maybe more.

They have to come down hard in Yr7 to nip the little buggers in the bud before they become large and unmanageable.

Fair enough I say.

Some of the ridiculous comments on here are the reason why we have a teacher recruitment crisis! He did something wrong, he’s been punished - end of. You should be supporting the school and telling your son to suck it up. Behaviour has gone to shit in schools at the moment and this sort of attitude from parents is a huge factor. There’s a growing trend of parents who seem to have nothing better to do than complain about trivial things rather than actually supporting the school in failing to do what is essentially a parent’s job - manage the behaviour of their children! If I had been contacted about my DCs behaviour when they were in school I would have been mortified and they’d have had a bollocking from me too.
FFS, it’s one day! Anyone who doesn’t think isolation should be a thing in schools is clearly deluded about the quality of behaviour in schools at the moment. I’d be more than happy for any parent to come into my classroom for a day and see the disruption and the amount of disrespect I am subjected to on a daily basis. Then you’d see exactly why isolation is necessary! 🙄

Totally agree! I’m currently teaching year 9 and 10 kids who have never had any sanctions. Not only are they not learning but they are seriously damaging the learning of those who do!

Christ.

Have a look at the official DfE Behaviour guidance - https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/651d42d86a6955001278b2af/Behaviour_in_schools_guidance.pdf. Isolation (framed primarily as removal from the classroom here) is only to be used "when necessary and once other behavioural strategies in the classroom have been attempted, unless the behaviour is so extreme as to warrant immediate removal". It enlarges on this to say Isolation should be used:
a) to maintain the safety of all pupils and to restore stability following an unreasonably high level of disruption;
b) to enable disruptive pupils to be taken to a place where education can be continued in a managed environment; and
c) to allow the pupil to regain calm in a safe space.

Furthermore, before imposing it the teacher should check whether there are any special considerations to be taken into account, e.g. whether the child has SEN or there are other relevant personal circumstances such as problems at home. The school's behaviour policy should set out when removal is to be used and there should be steps taken to monitor its use as a sanction.

On that basis, it doesn't sound as if this teacher's action remotely complied with the guidance and was arguably unlawful. I'd suggest initially asking to meet the head of year and the pastoral lead or equivalent to find out what happened, whether they are aware of the guidance and why it wasn't apparently followed in this case. Check out also whether the school's behaviour policy complies and, if not, point that out to the head and governors.

No, not "end of". It appears highly unlikely that this punishment complied with statutory guidance. Schools purporting to exert strict discipline whilst ignoring the law themselves are hardly setting a good example.

You're misleading the OP. 'Unarguably lawful'- How?

The very first page states it's non statutory, non binding, not a subsititute for legislation and more importantly it is left to schools to develop thier own best practice for managing behaviour.

It's non statutory. They are NOT ignoring any law. 🙄

My son is forever absentmindedly kicking balls or things, throwing things between his hands etc - at 16 he was diagnosed with inattentive adhd. I can see how a restless and bored year 7 boy could do this accidentally. I think the punishment is too harsh.

I said "arguably unlawful", not what you claim.

Your own post is misleading. The guidance states that it "should not be taken as a complete or definitive statement of the law" - it doesn't suggest that it is somehow entirely separate from the law.

The guidance is manifestly not there to be ignored. It is a long-established principle that guidance of this type should be taken as good practice, from which schools should not depart unless they have a very good reason. Unsurprisingly, the fact that any individual teacher didn't know about it - which seems likely to be the case here - is not a good reason. Case law has a number of examples of schools having been found to have acted unlawfully when they have ignored guidance of this type without being able to demonstrate a valid reason for doing so.

This guidance in fact originated, albeit slowly, from concerns about the misuse of isolation as a sanction in many schools, and in particular from an agreement given by the DfE in order to stave off a legal challenge. There really is no valid reason for schools not to take it seriously.

It's a very well established principle that courts and regulators may look to non-statutory guidance when they consider whether an organisation is meeting its obligations and duties. So a school that is merrily failing to follow this guidance without a valid reason would be extremely foolish and may well find itself on the wrong side of a judicial review.

It is ENTIRELY separate from the law.

The schools are not bound to accept all of it, yet you adviced OP to meet with the head whether they are aware of the guidance and why it wasn't apparently followed in this case.

Being disruptive in a performance with 100s of kids in the audience is not the same as being disruptive in a classroom. Imagine every kid in the hall got 3 chances of making a noise before they were given a consequence . It would be absolute bedlam.

The teachers have to act promptly and firmly to control any disruption. He was throwing a crunchy bag around so he was being disruptive even if it wasn’t his and her didn’t intend for it to go near the stage. The fact remains that ge was being disruptive.

You would be very unreasonable to undermine the school by trying to get the punishment changed. Just accept it, otherwise your son will start to think he can do anything and then go running to mummy to avoid any consequences, and you’ll start having a lot more bother with him.

Well established where? Courts will deviate from legislation, precedent and statutory guidance and let general advice and guidelines overide these?

Come on now. This is Aesop's fables!!! The fact you state it so emphatically instead of insisting you erred is baffling.

Over reaction city here. The teacher should just have issued a detention. Fidgeting isn’t disrespectful it’s just marginally inappropriate.

Isolation is a punishment that should be reserved for real bad behaviour like bullying. It should also be last resort punishment for repeat offenders not one of lack of concentration