Has your child ever had detention?

[Madmog]

My daughter is in Year 7, a reasonably high achiever and lucky to be popular with lots of girls (not sure why he he!), so it came as a shock when she got detention for drawing on someone's collar and making the comment that it wasn't fair someone else had bought a kit to make a castle when everyone else had spent a whole day making them (there were no rules to say they couldn't do that, but I sort of see her point).

Anyway, we were annoyed at the time and she was clearly worried about the detention. Half to laugh though, turned out she really enjoyed it - she had to ready for an hour and chose a book they are studying for English homework - she loves reading and it got some homework out of the way.

Just wondered what other parents experiences are. Why did your children get detention, did you expect it, did they care? Hopefully for mine that will be the first and last detention!

Yes. My eldest had a kit detention once for forgetting his pe kit. He was extremely distressed and it affected him for weeks.

My youngest has been in the school since september and I don't think he's gone a full week without a detention.

They both have autism. My eldest is very anxious about rules. The pe kit thing floored him. My youngest doesn't give a crap about anything and is compulsive including having verbal and non verbal ticks. Which results in him shouting stuff out in class. Including swear words which results in detention. As does his total refusal to work. As does standing up in class and yelling THIS LESSON SUCKS.

He will say exactly what he thinks. At all times.

DD1 had none throughout 5 years - now in a different 6th form
DS is in year 9 and has only had 'whole class' detentions
DD2 is in year 8 and has had two 'late' detentions (15 mins). Second was apologised for as she wasnt late!

On the whole I think that the short detentions are used a bit heavily. Because they are short teachers seem to use them without much thought rather than using warnings and checking facts.

The collective punishments only serve to build resentment.

I think that for my two the effect of the punishment far outweighed the 'crime'. DS likes rules and follows them. Having collective punishments just makes him feel got at. In my opinion the collective punishments are a sign of lazy classroom management. The teacher abdicates responsibility.

Sadly some schools use punishments to set an example. I warned my DCs that because they tend to be well behaved they are precisely the ones likely to be used for making an example of. No one notices if the usual suspects are in detention but people will notice if it is one of the 'good' children.

dd1 (in Yr9) never had one, nor a whiff or a warning - this probably isn't surprising, she's just not the sort to provoke staff

ds - got to Yr11 before he got one, and then they were for being late. He's never had any for behaviour stuff. He's definitely not a 'golden boy' - more the 'loveably rogue' type. I suspect his school has used a lot of common sense and good teaching along the way and not got bogged down in drawing up lists of 'crimes' that must be punished in certain ways, but have left it to the staff to look at intention, provocation, reaction to warnings, etc.