DETENTIONS IN YEAR 3 FOR STUPID REASONS (RANT)

[ForeverBlowingBubbles]

My DD came home today and told me that today she had TWO detentions.

The first one: She was sent to the Deputy Head's office at morning break to be shouted at. Reason: In class TWO DAYS AGO they had been making posters; she had added a lift-up flap to her's with sellotape, decided she didn't want it after all, and stuck it to her mini-whiteboard to put in the bin later.

The second one: She had to stay in the hall after she'd had her lunch today. Reason: She had doodled on her mini-whiteboard TWO DAYS AGO during a lesson.

The teacher never said a word to me, and I saw her twice today (I work part time at the school). I feel pissed off firstly because why on earth would the teacher wait two days before giving detentions; secondly because my DD said 2 boys were doodling as well, but the teacher let them off; thirdly because IMO the first offence was not an offence, just a total over-reaction!

In parent's evenings, the teacher is always telling me my DD behaves nicely and is very quiet and bright, etc. She IS a good girl, 90% of the time at home, so I really don't get this.

End of rant.

FBB

(Now why has it made the word 'reason' bold but not the other things with stars around them? Hmm...)

seems odd, has she done the detentions already?

Whats a mini-whiteboard? sorry if I sound daft but not used in my day

What silly reasons for detention and two days after, I'd complain. I never used to atttend detention (was a naughty girl - not horrible though just got caught a few times smoking in bike sheds etc) I used to get detention for not attending detention - I have the detention card in my memory box and still laugh about it to this day.

Yes she had to spend breaktime being shouted at by dep.head and lunchtime in the hall sitting on a chair when everyone had finished eating - not allowed to go out and play.

A mini-whiteboard is what they use to write on in class instead of paper - like a blackboard only it's white plastic and you use a special pen. That gets me onto another subject - she's always coming home with pen marks all over her jumper where one boy keeps drawing on her!

Hang on she's in year 3!!!

you mean she's a little one not at Secondary school?

That seems silly writing on a board, surely she wont be able to go over her mistakes.. ignore me if i'm talking nonsense but we always kept our classwork to refer to

But yes thats another subject.

the whiteboard does sound daft. all children doodle too. my son wouldn't be able to stop himself doodling on a whiteboard

1. mini whiteboards aren't daft!!
2. yes, question the dententions
3. you can only make one word bold at a time - 'tis crap

Mini white boards can be a great way to get kids all involved in a lesson.

When I don;t want them to mess about with them, I take them of them

But how would the teacher record their work?

How would the teacher know if the student isn't rubbing out their wrong answer to write the correct one? I don't like this idea at all.

My mum still has all our school books and we go over them sometimes remembering our school days, do children not have excersise books anymore?

You don't use whiteboards all teh time. ONly for quick activities/games/idea gathering. They do the long stuff in jotters etc.

Yes they still have exercise books.

White boards are used as well.

You tend to use them for short activities, often at the start or end of a lesson.

If a topic was food chains you might teach the lesson, and at the end say, 'OK, imagine a field full of grass, rabbits eat the grass, foxed eat the rabbits. Draw me the food chain! One , two three....show me'

It is a great way of very quickly seeing which kids have 'got it' Also great since all the kids take part, not just the one or two who always put their hands up

Ahhh I see ok yes that sounds good

For a minute there I thought all schools had gone green or white

I too would be angry over the detentions
Never heard of such stupid reasons for disciplining a child in such a way.
My son (also year 3) use mini whiteboards at his school, as great as they are, the school (on a tight budget) bought new marker pens for beginning of Sept '06 school year and although they might not be permanent on the white board are very much so on his fingers, palm, school jumper and white polo shirt! damn black marker pen.

I would certainly ask the teacher/school as to why they reckon these incidents warranted such a punishment, being left in the dining hall after lunch (was it solitary?) is horrible.

CGM

Wow, what do they do with children who actually do something serious like fighting or swearing?

Call the police?

Line them all up and shoot them?

Maybe they should build a prison cell in the playround, just to be on the safe side, can't have these little thugs sticking cellotape on school property and doodling on wipeable-bought-for-that-purpose-anyway surfaces willy-nilly can we??

FFS

Your rant is completely justified foreverblowingbubbles, strong words are required, and maybe some detentions for the teaching staff involved.

With the kids who fight, etc, they get sent to the Head or Deputy Head, and detentions. So same punishment for VERY different 'crimes'.

I would like to speak to her teacher about it, but every time I've spoken to her before (in very polite, non-confrontational way) she has always become really defensive (saying things like "I'm not a horrible teacher" as if I was saying she was!) and has made me feel like I'm being pushy when I know I'm not. I end up apologising.

I'm intrigued by the mini white boards - sounds like re-invention of the slate!

"Detention" doesn't seem to mean quite what it did in my youth - it can just be for five minutes of the lunch break - so may not be as wildly disproportionate as it appears.

Not that far removed from the slate. All depends what you do with it, though.

Just to hijack thread forever....are you a hammers fan???

BTW - silly reasons for detention. Mine don't get detention until Yr 4.

In my DD's class, such behaviour would get a detention if the teacher had asked a child several times not to doodle. Especially if that was distracting them from whatever they were meant to be concentrating on.