Child in all day detention for something they didn't do.

[rooby252]

Hi,
I'm just trying to see if this is common practice in secondary schools really.
One of my children was kept in an all day detention for 1.5 days for something that happened after school and he wasn't responsible for.
He was at a bus stop with a few other children from his year group (year 8) and another boy threw a plastic bottle on to the floor. It bounced off the floor. It didn't hit anyone or anything and didn't break.
A teacher apparently saw the incident and saw my son wasn't involved, but the school kept the 4 children in detention for 1.5 days- knowing exactly who had thrown the bottle- waiting to see if the boy responsible would own up.
They missed out on all lessons, just doing work they had already done in year 7.
I feel really angry about it but am thinking this might just be how school do things these days?

Do you work in the public sector?

It wasn't patronising, but it was rude, so I apologise for the rudeness.

I was very rude here, and so i am going to try to re-write this less rudely and more diplomatically. It also turns out the poster wasn't a teacher.

"It would be helpful if you could clarify whether you are a teacher or not when you post. But in relation to time management, if there was a quick system of notifying parents of key things, reasons for "punishments" then then it wouldp prevent unnecessary emails and meetings with parents who are wondering what is going on and reduce stress all round."

I work in healthcare. I experience daily the unrealistic expectations of the public to a point of regularly wondering why I still do the job.

We all have the right to have high expectations from our public services and complain when these expectations aren't met. However I don't think many people in this country understand what a truely privledged position we are in to have access to an education that can get us anywhere we want to get and access to a free at the point of service healthcare. I don't think they appreciate how much of this privledge is down to the good will of the frontline staff working for these services either.

My class had a week of lunchtime detentions. It was only about 5 lads that took the mick of a supply teacher. Parents of those unaffected - including mine were utter annoyed.

I never got an individual detention for anything myself.

Firstly, it’s my day off, so I’m spending it enriching my own children’s lives by cleaning my house and improving my own mental health.

Secondly, I try not to take time management advice from people who are patronising, rude, or clearly haven’t spent any time in schools.

I teach over 300 children. ‘A book or sheet to quickly jot notes down’ clearly isn’t going to work. Instead, we have a well developed electronic system, used by thousands of schools across the country, where we record any issues. We still get the emails.

It would be much easier ‘just’ to teach your kids to follow the rules.

You haven't responded to my question. You've just posted nonsense. Although I shouldn't be surprised, as what you originally wrote that I was responding to was nonsense too.

If a child told me they got a detention for looking at a fly, this is what I imagine happens:

"Please X, can you do the exercise?"
"I'm trying to find my book"
"X can you please pay attention"
"Y was chatting to Y sir "
"X again just do the questions!"
" There's a fly, oh look at it, it's landed on Ys pencil case"
"Just concentrate please"
"Oh but sir, it's on my blazer, eww its disgusting"
"Please turn around and work"
"But I'm looking at the fly!"
"Detention"

To mum: " Teacher gave me a detention for looking at a fly".

You didn't deserve a humiliating smack for talking 😭

Spot the parent that doesn't read the letters or emails sent from the school.

Here's a shock for you all kids lie.
They might be little white ones,
They may just be an omission of certain facts.
But all kids lie.

Do Not agree with that at all.

I am a teacher. We do have such a system. Everything gets logged on sims and parents have access to this part of it. You spend half your day logging things on sims. It’s exactly what teachers DON’T need.

I once had a parent complain at parents' evening that it was a total surprise when I told them their kid was being a lazy arse and why hadn't I said something before? I pointed out all the after school detention slips and behaviour points and reports that said 'not good enough' but some parents don't seem to think that counts as 'communication with parents'.

lol you’ll never convince me your kid got a detention for looking at a fly. Your problem is blindly believing your kids. And if you really do think they got a detention for this then it’s insanity that you didn’t query it with the school.

You mean a Homework Diary? Those things that cost us a fiver each and got lost, left at home, left on the bus, deliberately concealed, thrown around and generally aren't checked by the parents that really need to be looking at it after the second week of Year 7? And if you introduce sanctions for not having it, you then get parents absolutely raging that a 'stupid book that was in their pocket all the time' wasn't worth a behaviour point/the teachers are just out to get him?

We've pretty much evolved past that stage these days, as for less than the cost of supplying them for a year group + the license payments for the old bulk email and texting system, you can get an app that covers in school use, internal and external communications, details of behaviour, provides a live timetable, distributes reports, enables data entry and registers, links to payment systems, enables absence reporting, provides a parents' evening booking and appointment management system...

...and the same parents never, ever login to it or deny ever having access to it when you're sat looking at their last login time or give the login details to their children to deal with everything as though they're the parent (including sending their own absence notifications as though that's not a massive safeguarding and data protection issue) or call/turn up at reception raging because there's an absence mark, a late mark or behaviour point/detention notification and they want it removed immediately.

Exactly and surely there is an honesty code or something as your son also didn’t tell what happened.

Yeah but OP they weren’t. You believed your son and his version of events on what the teacher said are very different to the head.

You also jumped to why is my son in isolation when he hasn’t done anything (basically the title of your post) without speaking to the school or finding out what happened. You believed he was innocent (fine he was) but your point was rhe teacher said he didn’t do anything which wasn’t true.

Your first reaction was to believe your son without knowing the full story so having your eyes wide open means understanding the entire and whole situation before you jump to conclusions.

I mean, your son could have just told the teachers at the beginning which kid did the act and not been subject to isolation. Yet he chose not to, and as such had to accept the consequences. Lesson learnt, snitches don't get stitches, they get punishment for not being decent upstanding members of society.

Also, at his age how can he not know where the middle east is?? I'd be inclined to believe he was being a smart mouth unless his educational age is that of primary school. My 12yo knows where the middle east is!!

Fucks sake op you've got some right answers here. Why on earth are we teaching our children that this sort of behaviour from adults is ok? Can you imagine a situation where something broke at work so 5 members of staff were kept isolated and regularly interrogated until one of them broke?

If you think that throwing stuff around at work is OK, I am pleased that I don't work with you.

The fact this is common practice in schools does not make it right. It teaches kids that life is unfair and you can’t do anything about it, that you are punished till proven right, that even if you are right the punishment has already happened so sod off, that wearing the perfect uniform and asking for permission to take off a jacket is more important than being in the class and learning. It is a very old way of educating kids based on fear and not supported by any educational theory. It works as it is easier for teachers and schools to maintain order. Is it good for our kids? Obvs no one agrees with that, but since parents were also brought up in the same schools no one complains and they just accept.

Whoknowshere

The fact this is common practice in schools does not make it right. It teaches kids that life is unfair and you can’t do anything about it,

Except that the pupil could have told the teachers who did what, thus getting himself (and his friends) out of trouble.

No Fripp, it broke. No mention of throwing. I'd hire someone who read their messages carefully tbh

I'd hire someone that didn't change the narrative of the thread to meet their agenda.