After school detention

[Lonnie]

My 12 year old has just arrived home with an after school detention.

Now putting aside any personal issues I have with detention (I dont believe they are a good way to deal with these things but stikcing a pin in that)

My daughter goes to a school that is 20 mins drive away the school bus leaves the school at 3.05pm the detention ends at 3.30. I do not feel it is acceptable that the school expects me to be able to collect her at a time where they have not checked that I am available (as it is I am not on this day because I have 2 other appointments that I am at a stretch to make as it is) the only other way my daughter would have to get home would involve her walking on her own for 20 minutes and then taking the train having to change once again not something I am comfortable with my 12 year old doing on her own.

the other issue in this and that is actually what grates me the most is the reason she has been given a detention is because she has not done her home work (it says in awful almost non comprehensable handwriting even after extention) now usually I would be very well why didnt you do that but in this particular case it is over a piece of computer homework that was saved as a pub file. We do not own publisher in our home it is a £150 piece of soft ware that we have not felt was in our means to buy. Upon telling the school this the first time they simply said they would look into it, nothing was done the 2nd time we told dd1 to get them to print it out for her so she could get it home to do she got told go to the libary, libary says that they cant print out A3 pieces, leaves dd1 again to go to her teacher whom printed out some but not all and dd1 did some of the other stuff on the school computer however you can only book 2x 15 mins sessions of this time and it was not enough for her to get it finished.

now am I unresonable in feeling

1 the detention is wrongly given and that the school is in the wrong?

2 that it is unresonable to expect me to be able to rearrange my schedule (something I cant for that Thursday) to come and collect her (They do lunch time detentions too)

and lastly 3 to out right feel that once the school bell goes at 3.00 then the school has no say in what happens to my child.

www.homeaccess.org.uk/ is the link about the laptops.
rols.ramesys.com/product1.aspx?Product_ID=1646&Category_ID=648& will take you to the Ramesys shop page.

YANBU

If after school detentions are given then school transport shoudl be available after this time.

Schools should not require expensive computer software to be owned or even computers at all.

I don't have publisher and I would expect many others don't.

It seems to me that the OP and her dd did their utmost to sort this out. There are many who wouldn;t have gone to all the effort of trying to get it printed/done on the school computers etc.

I really feel that some schools are losing touch with reality.

And my dh is a teacher.

When I was at school, you could print out work there (and take it home).

Was that also an impossibility?

By the way Lonnie its lovely to see you here, its been a long time (BW, coffee, homebirth and various other forums) and I will never ever forget you are the reason I breastfed ds or at least I did after a month of refusal!!!

Sorry to hi-jack.

My students often choose to do their work on a computer. They often bring it on the memory stick, I save it and print it in my room.

Before we had Publisher dd1 used to use it at the local library, put the work on her stick and print it at home or at school. Is this an option?

Unfortunately not having computer facilities at home is in the minority it seems and you really do have to think ahead and plan plenty of access in advance to be able to complete tasks. I know, we've been there so I do sympathise!

YABU about wanting to exclude your child from the punishment of after school detentions. If that is the punishment that all children would receive then any inconvenience to you is the same as it would be to any other parent.

I didnt say I wanted to exclude her I said I didnt agree with detention (I dont however I have upheld her other detention) and I said I was not willing to have her do so on a day she can not get home safely 2 very different things

yes I feel the detention is given unfairly Yes I will discuss it with the school but at no point have I said she should not hve to do it that has ben assumed because I said I didnt agree with that as a form of displine..
what I have said is I wont agre to her doing so if it puts her safety at risk and that day will

YANBU.

This situation has not arisen directly with my DS yet although there have been situations where he has been unable to hand in homework for IT related reasons. We do not have a printer at home. The only reason we would need this is for DS to print out the odd piece of homework one or twice a term so frankly to me that is not a priority. Hence on the first occasion DS sent his homework to himself as an email attachment. He could then not access his email at school because the email host is blocked. He was unaware of this prior to sending the email. His teachers do not give out their email addresses due to privacy issues....eventually some solution was found to access the email and the piece of homework.

In future DS was told to put the work on a memory stick (if thats the right term). Next time he did, the computer could not read the info on it, he had to go to a friends after school, print it there and hand in the next day.

Without wishing to sound like a Luddite, it was all so much simpler when you did your work in a book and handed it in without all this song and dance!

Re the OP's situation, my view is that the whole way in which this homework issue appears to have been dealt with by the school is very poor (but does not surprise me, at DS's school computer time is first come first served, half the time either the server is down or printers are not working, or there no internet access, assuming DS can even get on a computer which are sometimes booked up a week in advance......) and for that reason the school should not be handing out detentions for her DDs failure to complete this homework which from what has been said was not due to her not being bothered, or deliberately making no attempt at it.

As to detentions in general, my view is these should be carried out in school hours only. My DS has a number of duties after school which do not include sitting in a classroom on a teacher's whim. I have no intention of him attending after school detention - I should point out I never did either in my time. Did that ruin my education and prospects? Not in the slightest!

And as to the whole home school agreement, well the one I signed referred to the school working with parents on homework issues which the school don't seem to have done too successfully in the OP's case!

I don't think a child who has to take a school bus should get detentions before or after school, but during lunch.
You probably are going to need to get a publisher though for her schooling. I would suggest asking a friend for a copy of theirs until you can afford to buy one.
Would this free download be useful? Only good for 60 days, but maybe will bide some time?

Free 60 day trial of Microsoft Office Publisher 2007
Free 60 Day Trial

The issue in OP?s case is that the school is being totally unreasonable. It can?t just say ?that?s your problem? when it has been explained to them that Thursday is not possible as her DC cannot get home.

I would ring the school, ask to speak to someone senior (Head of Year, perhaps?) and say that you understand your daughter has an after-school detention, but that she CANNOT do it tomorrow as you are unable to make alternative travel arrangements for her to get home on that day. If they still aren?t receptive, quote the government guidelines which make it perfectly clear that a request to change days should be accommodated by the school.

As a more general point, though, I?m at the number of people who think after-school detentions are always unreasonable. They?re meant to be inconvenient, that?s the whole point, isn?t it?

I?d be interested to hear what any teachers out there have to say about parents who don?t think schools have a right to impose discipline on children found breaking school rules?

I would say that if they don't like the forms of discipline used they should find a school whose policies they do agree with, otherwise stop whinging.
I would like to point out again that the school can legally keep a pupil for 20 mins after school any day without any warning.
What alternative discipline do the detention haters suggest?

I can understand the 20 minute rule but as far as I am aware at the local schools to me school transport doesn not leave until at least 20 minutes after the end of the school day.

I only ever had 1 detention during my school career but I rememebr clearly that it could not be done on a Tuesday becasue of getting to my piano lesson. Friends had similar reasons why the day was changed.

Riven, sorry, yes I meant for the children. I realise that you have an extremely difficult set of home circumstances and would hope that any school would appreciate that and deal with you using some common sense and compassion.

You don't need to pay £150 for Publisher.

You can get Microsoft Office Professional from here for £45. It's a scheme for parents to make sure dcs have Office access for schooling. We got two copies (you can have two per household IIRC) and they are what they say on the tin.

HTH.

That's interesting, madhairday - we used to have publisher, and I used it a lot, but then we changed computers, and the new one didn't have it - it had excel, powerpoint and word, but not publisher, and I really do miss it. Do you know if I could just load on publisher or would I have to reload the whole thing?

Lonnie - have you tried contacting the school and asking if she can do the detention on a different day, when you will be able to pick her up? That does seem the best option, and the school would have to be very bloody-minded to refuse, imo.

I'm not sure SDTG, perhaps you could email the site and ask?

I should have thought of that myself, shouldn't I, madhairday?

Nah, sorry just realised my last post sounded a bit condescending, didn't mean to be! Sometimes t'internet doesn't do great things for communication, sorry!!