To refuse to send DS12 to detention

[AlwaysTheGoodGirl]

I know everyone thinks their kid is perfect, but mine is super-conscientious, and every day he comes in from school saying most of the kids just mess about and break things all day and all he wants to do is get on with his work.

Anyway, his class have been given detention tomorrow after school, and the teacher (supply teacher as far as I can tell) has sent a really angry-sounding explanation for the detention. I know DS is going to be gutted about losing his 100% positive points record more than anything. He's been invited to an awards evening next week for achieving 100% positive points, so I know this is going to cloud it for him. And me! I'm gutted too!

Is it any good ringing the school to complain, or is this just a suck it up situation?

Whole class detentions are bad and not fair but he needs to learn to cope with this type of thing. In the scheme of life it is incredibly minor. You can’t solve all his problems for him. If he doesn’t think it is fair and wants to get out of it, he should be the one to speak to his form tutor or head of year. That is what most children do from about Yr5/6 upwards.

how do you knoo w that the whole class are being kept back? The ones who weren't joining in may already have been exempt.
The thing is , you can't expect a supply teacher to be able to exercise control over an unruly class whose names be doesnt even know, if you will not allow them to use the only sanction they have at their didposal

Also the message to me sounds like something he has sent to management, rather than to the parents???

I would not let my child take part on a whole class detention if I were confident that they had not been involved in the bad behaviour. In your shoes I'd write a polite email noting that whole class detentions are against school policy so could they please provide you with specifics of what your child has done or else retract the detention.

Don't agree with sucking it up because life's not fair. Of course life isn't fair but that doesn't mean you shouldn't challenge unfairness.

Agreed, it's crackers that that was sent out to parents as is.

@frightenedmum1 This is the note he put out on Class Charts, if you're familiar with that. So, yes, it has gone out to all parents. He sounds like a 15 year old on work experience tbh.
I have sent an email to head of year, nothing back yet, so I'll keep an eye out for a response.
As for whole class punishments having the opposite effect, yes they do! Ds says that some of the kids who started off the year well behaved are now joining in with the messing about as they don't see the point in always being good. I agree with him.

I would want to meet with the teacher or the school and discuss before I made my decision .

that year was very hard for my dd. She is ASD and it’s an age where behavior problems are common among a certain cohort. She found it incredibly disruptive to her learning and we were constantly working with the school to make sure her education was not disrupted. She frequently had to wear noise canceling headphones or go work elsewhere just because a large portion of the 12yo boys, though not all, are just awful.

if they included her in a group punishment when she was behaving given how frustrated we all were about the ongoing situation, I would not let it stand and I would not be ok with a mark going on her record.

If she had a massive personality transplant and participated, then I would want to know. At that point I would support the punishment and we would be having conversations at home.

Completely agree. If you're going to be punished whether you behave or not, why bother being good?

I would not allow my child to attend this detention in those circumstances. No way.

I'd be inclined not to dispute him going to the detention, but take it up with the head of year, along the lines of:
I understand that whole class punishments are not part of the behaviour policy, although I realise it is very difficult for supply staff who don't know the class. DS is very upset that his perfect behaviour record is spoiled, and whilst he has attended the detention, I wonder whether the official records can be amended so that he (and others) are not penalised.
That way hopefully they can put things right without undermining the supply teacher too much.

Once you've ascertained your son is blameless then I'd be asking the Head to explain to you what this class detention is supposed to be teaching your child. It's not up to your son to police his classmates behaviour - that's the teacher's job.
As far as I could ever see, it just teaches kids that life's not fair.

It's fairly disrespectful to refer to the supply teacher as a 15 year old on work experience. Let's hope your son wasn't as disrespectful if you are going to oppose this detention.

I wouldn’t be sending my ds to that detention and I’d be emailing the head of year to ask what they were going to do to improve behaviour as that sounds like an awful learning environment. Whole class punishments are just lazy and ineffective. The naughty ones don’t care and you end up punishing the well behaved ones.

You'll probably find it's been flagged up to pastoral lead already and tomorrow they'll sort it out so only the naughty kids get a sanction.

No one does whole class detentions any more - it makes sense that a supply teacher has given it as they may not have had any CPD in a little while.

Basically, don't panic. I'm sure you're not the only parent who has contacted the HOY. It will get sorted.

Regarding the detention, yes if your son is going to be upset then I'd challenge it.

It is also quite likely that the supply teacher has not been given/made aware of the full details of the schools behaviour policy - especially if it's their first day/few days in the school. They also won't know any of the students' names which makes it very difficult to pick out the few students who weren't causing chaos in what sounds like a very challenging classroom environment.

Regarding the unprofessional tone of the ClassCharts message, I suspect that the supply teacher was not made aware that behaviour system comments are visible to parents, as that sounds like an internal 'short-hand' note (probably with a character count that prevents detailed sentences about what sounds like a string of incidences).

Overall though I'd be wanting to speak to senior management about how they will be dealing with what seems like an ongoing serious 'pack-like' behaviour issue (from what you've said this doesn't sound like a one off 'talking advantage of having a supply teacher to mess about and 'have a laugh'). If they don't have a plan/after a few weeks there's no evidence of the plan working I'd be looking to change my child's school.

The only detention I ever got in school was one of these all-class things. I didn't go and the teacher said a word, presumably as she knew it was wrong just as I did.

I feel very sorry for this teacher though, having read that message. What appalling work conditions.

I just find this approach really problematic because you are then undermining your child and for what, so the supply teacher doesn't lose face? I don't think we have to support the teachers (misguided) approach to discipline at the expense of our own children if they were not in the wrong. It's essentially sending them the message to just get walked on in life.

Collective punishment is outlawed by the Geneva Convention in times of war. It certainly has no place in a school. I'd be going straight to the head and governors.

I have once set a whole class detention. It was a horrendous lesson, a bottom set history year 9 last period on a Friday in July. I
had 4 children removed by behaviour support that afternoon, the fifth time I was told to issue a whole class detention. The behaviour policy failed that day.
Sometimes even the “always good” behave get caught up in something.

With 100% positive record this close to the end of the year I'd absolutely be contesting this.

My own son, is nowhere near 100%, but this year the school punishments have been under my microscope because they're so disproportionate. Group punishments are such a cop out and in this case I'd want to know specifically what my son did to warrant the detention. I don't want to be a pain in the arse at all but a kid who cares is worth defending.

I’d be embarrassed to send that home to parents. It just reads “I can’t control the class”. I don’t agree with full class detentions as it is never all students misbehaving. I’d ring up and complain as I imagine this is not their behaviour policy. I’m a secondary school teacher.

Not secondary but my child had a class detention in year 6 for some of her class being disruptive during assembly. I spoke with the teacher, asked if my child was one of the ones being disruptive to which she said no, and I asked why she was being punished. It was some bollocks about collective responsibility, I said I did not give my permission for her to miss her lunch break and that all they were teaching her was there's no point in behaving because you'll get punished anyway. She was excused, told in front of the whole.class she wasn't in detention because "your mum said no". Thankfully the teacher left the next term.

That's a terrible message. The teacher couldn't control the class, admits that not all kids were disruptive and then dishes out a whole class punishment! And uses terrible Spag along the way.

No, me either. If my child had misbehaved, or been rude to a teacher, or done something to warrant punishing, fine. In this case, it sounds like a blanket sanction on the class, which is unfair.
I'd want my child to know I had their back in such cases.

Whole class detentions are never a good idea but you should check first of all. Even the most lovely, wonderful kids can have a moment of madness.