Inappropriate sanctions?

[Duckinghell80]

Hi.
I have a daughter who has transitioned from Y6 to Y7 (160 children in the entire school to 2000 in secondary)
Shes very compliant, punctual, worries about getting her homework in on time. I have no need to remind her of anything. She’s kind and gentle and has never received a detention etc.

Yesterday school called me to say they had confiscated her phone for 24 hours due to her sharing a video on Snapchat of the class. I was happy-ish with this punishment. She has a 1 mile walk to school which is fairly new to her. I track her on Life360 and she has to check in with me when she’s home with her 16 yo brother if I’m not at home. I was a bit worried but glad school had informed me
i asked about the video and they said it was of a pupil that had body confidence issues.
Today I collected the phone while she was at school. I checked her social media and she had shared a video of the back of the class. Two pupils turned around so their faces were visible.

Whilst out today I received a phone call from the same teacher inviting me to a reintegration meeting ( Next wed)
When I asked why they said it’s because she had been put in faculty isolation for the whole day today and that we must discuss this and whether she should be suspended.
I’ve seen the video. It’s nothing more that what I’ve already said.
She’s been in isolation for the whole 6 hours. Neither me or her were alerted of this before hand. She only knew when she was removed from her history class first thing.

I’m quite unhappy about the punishment. I agree with phone confiscation and a detention bit what I don’t agree with is confiscation after school hours and a full day of isolation

I’ve looked at their policies and they seem to state that aggression and disruption would lead to isolation.

I feel quite angry at the world today (for various other reasons) so I’d just like a voice of reason to suggest if I’m overreacting or school seem to be really harsh for this kind of behaviour?

x

This seems to be you trying to defend her, or play down what she did? I don’t understand. She filmed in a classroom without consent and uploaded it to social media. What don’t you understand about that? The boundaries she crossed, how inappropriate her behaviour was?
The content of the video doesn’t matter. If you don’t understand that and try to minimise then your daughter won’t learn. This is completely out of line. The punishment she got fits. You need to back the school up and don’t say any “oh but it was only” where she can hear you. She needs to learn. And it sounds like you do to.

I've got a DD of the same age - she's one of the few who've not had detentions yet (by some miracle cos she's got a gob and no filter between her brain and her mouth on her)! Her school are strict on phones because Y7 is really that point where the kids have to start learning how to manage having them on them (as opposed to handing them into teachers at primary) and the school lay down the rules hard to start with.

We get an almost live update on behaviour positive and negative marks on the school app though so we'd be able to see if she ended up in isolation - I've no doubt she'll get a detention at some point but at the moment she seems to be on her best behaviour!

Having her phone in her hand probably got her the confiscation.

Filming and posting on line is the serious bit and if it is of a child who does, as the school say, have body confidence issues then it could be distressing for that student.

Would you be happy for a film of DD taken by a stranger to be uploaded to social media?

There are 100 other reasons to not post, some children are not allowed contact with a parent and for good reason, social media can tell that parent what school their child is at.

School needs to take this seriously and a suspension is appropriate. At my school if you record other students and put them online without their consent that could lead to a suspension.
we are trying to discourage pupils from filming other students. One pupil said" but i didnt film anything inappropriate ". He still got suspended. Absolutely no filming of staff and students in school.

Lots of online bullying happens in school and it is devastating for other pupils.
You seem like an active and present parent and my advice would be to back the school up and talk to your daughter. I am sure she will understand

she hasn’t filmed to ridicule

It doesn't matter what she's saying the intent was. She's been told that she shouldn't do it, she's also gone ahead and done it without any regard for the consequences or the feelings of the other pupils. You've also mentioned that one of the pupils has problems with their body image.

Instead of co cent rating on what you believe the school has done wrong, I think your enter goes would be better spent on how your DD can feel more empathy for the other pupils and how she can make better choices.

@Duckinghell80 then why DID she feel the need to film in a classroom? Who was she filming? Her friends? I don't think so.

You seem to be in denial about your DD's behaviour, the school told you flat out that what happened

"i asked about the video and they said it was of a pupil that had body confidence issues."

I think you are maybe unaware of your DD's behaviour in school, she may be part of a group who are targeting people. School will not necessarily tell you everything that goes on until it becomes a bigger issue that needs parental intervention to help send a message. Kids mess about all the time, do things to act cool, join in stupid behaviour in the class room. You will not know about any verbal warnings she has had through the day, she could get one in every lesson. Unless she pushes it further where it becomes a negative and added to her planner you have no idea about her behaviour in school. She could be a mean, nasty, spiteful child in school but very different at home.

The fact that you don't seem to be backing the school with your shock at their isolation of your DD suggests you haven't read the behaviour policy of the school. Plus you don't seem to understand how serious an offence it is to film in a classroom. You keep brushing it off like it was nothing, looking for another reason.

She filmed a child deliberately and intentionally which is why she got the isolation and she should have too. Hopefully she will learn from this.

*sorry for the typos.

Actually following posting on this, I got an email from DD's key worker (she's awaiting an ASD assessment and so the school SENCO has her an allocated key worker who is a point of contact for both us and DD when in school) about DD doing something similar the other day - she took a photo of a friend who'd been annoying her that day and put it on their group chat, friend was annoyed, reported it and knocked her phone out of her hands which has added to the general aura of pre-teen cracked phone screen going on (and serves her bloody right).

School have dealt with it by reiterating rules, getting the kids together to talk it through restoratively and as a learning opportunity which I think is about right for them still navigating the learning curve of year 7. DD now has an even more knackered phone screen she's got to live with - which I am NOT going to repair (she can wait out the 2 years remaining on my handset contract!), so karma got her in that regard.

Honestly op. The content of the video is pretty irrelevant. The rule about filming in class and posting on social media is a pretty unbreakable one in most schools for safeguarding reasons so I'm not surprised that they are coming down hard . The potential for serious harm with phones filming classes is huge .

I'd suck this one op.

*You seem to be in denial about your DD's behaviour, the school told you flat out that what happened

"i asked about the video and they said it was of a pupil that had body confidence issues.*

So she's filmed and put online the video of a pupil with self confidence issues? Am assuming it wasn't kind?