After school detentions and giving notice/informing parents

[freddiefrog]

Are there any procedures for after school detentions and informing parents/giving notice that should be followed, or is it up to school/teacher?

DD1 (year 7) was given a half hour after school detention on Monday for forgetting her homework - detention was given Monday morning, for after school Monday afternoon.

All fine, she should have remembered, school issue after school detentions for late homework, she knows that, hopefully she won't forget it again (it's not the first time she's handed in homework late for this teacher).

However, DD had an appointment Monday afternoon, the plan was that I would pick her up in the car from school and we'd go straight to the appointment and at no point during the day did the school inform me that DD had been given an after school detention.

School do not allow mobile phones during the day - they have to leave them in a box with their form tutor in the morning, and collect them after school so she doesn't bother taking one and had no way of informing me herself and she says the teacher was quite overbearing when she tried to explain about her appointment

Ended up having a minor panic as she didn't arrive home/we weren't able to find her before finally tracking her down in detention.

School have all our contact details - DH and I both work from home and they have home/mobile numbers, email addresses and we are registered for their parent text service.

Now, I'm not arguing about the actual detention, she behaved in a way that earned her a detention and she has to suck it up, but surely school have an obligation to inform parents if their children are going to be significantly later leaving school.

Our school sends a note home on the day to be signed to acknowledge receipt and returned the following day. Detentions held on Friday after school or, if in serious trouble, Saturday morning.

Yes, my friend's children's high school does the same.

They send out a slip which the parent has to sign, giving a date later in the week, or if the child has an appointment/commitment they'll change the detention date.

It's happened to a few of my DD's friends - given a detention for the same day without parents being informed.

Your way sounds much better

They are not obliged to.

But schools which are good at (and value) communication with parents do indeed inform parents before detaining a pupil outside school hours.

I think I remember my teacher telling me he could keep us after school for so many minutes without notice, but they never really did because so many people had to get the bus.

I don't think they should get after school detention for forgetting homework, they should lose a bit of lunch time or something. Sorry OP know that's not what you were askin. I wouldn't sign the slip unless DD had done something really bad.

Oh and that's not because I'm one of those parents that critisizes the school, just think a lot of year 7 kids walk or bus to school and would rather them be able to come home at a time with lots of other pupils, not on their own

DDs school gives 24hrs notice. I've no idea what happens if you have something on then, but presumably it can be discussed.

I'd be really worried if they were late home from school by that much without knowing why.

Not signing the slip won't make any difference, schools don't need parents' permission to detain. The slip is just for info.
Schools don't have to give notice, however the DofE advice is:

26. School staff should not issue a detention where they know that doing so would compromise a child's safety. When ensuring that a detention outside school hours is reasonable, staff issuing the detention should consider the following points:

Whether the detention is likely to put the pupil at risk
Whether the pupil has known caring responsibilities which mean that the detention is unreasonable.
Whether the parents ought to be informed of the detention. In many cases it will be necessary to do so, but this will depend on the circumstances. For instance, notice may not be necessary for a short after school detention where the pupil can get home safely.
Whether suitable travel arrangements can be made by the parent for the pupil. It does not matter if making these arrangements is inconvenient for the parent.

There used to be a requirement for 24 hours notice but that has now been scrapped.

Having said that, what happens comes across as very poor practice, especially for a year 7.

You sound utterly reasonable and I would be discussing it with the head of year / house as appropriate to explain that whilst you support the punishment it did cause you problems.

At my DC's school they get early morning detentions that parents are not informed about formally. After school and we get a letter informing us. (No slip to sign).

Could your DD not have emailed you from the library at lunchtime though?

DS1's school does not give notice of detentions either. DS1 is 16, so this wouldn't be a problem if he a) made his own way home and b) didn't have aspergers.

Time & time again I have politely asked to be informed of detentions. On a couple of occasions (on normal days, not following detentions) I have been a little late to pick DS1 up from school & he has decided to walk along to meet me - however, he cannot remember which way to go and ended up getting lost on both occasions. Therefore, if I am waiting outside school & DS does not come out I assume that I have missed him (they sometimes get let out a little early) and then spend 20 minutes scouring the neighbourhood for him!

Quite apart from that he totally struggles to understand why he has been given a detention & 24 hours notice would enable me to explain that to him & make him more likely to behave in the detention itself.

My DCs school gives at least 24 hrs notice of after school detentions (because a lot of pupils travel by school bus).
Your DCs school should have a well published policy on detentions.

I would inform your DD that if something similar happens again, she needs to go to see her Head of Year and ask them to contact you. Usually schools are quite happy to postpone detentions for genuine medical appointments (I have known some parents try to get their children out of detentions by always having a "medical appointment").

Thanks!

It's not a question of refusing to sign a slip or give permission, I didn't receive a slip to sign in the first place. DD knows the rules regarding homework and perhaps it will help stop her being so forgetful

Appointment or not, I'd just like to know where my child is. School finishes at 3:15, we live a 5 minute walk away from school so I expect to see her by 3:30. A half hour after school detention is a fair amount of time for a parent not to know where their child is, especially for an 11 year old

It has had implications. Her appointment on Monday was at 3:45pm (appointment time was given to us and I was unable to rearrange it for later) for something we've been on a waiting list for for about 6 months. As a result of us being 20 minutes minutes late, we missed the appointment and will now have to go back on the waiting list

School aren't great at communication to be honest. I've rung twice about this and each time "someone will get back to me" and I've emailed a couple of times but no response

Sorry, crossed posts.

I suppose she had assumed that school would inform me that she was in a detention, I doubt it would have crossed her mind to email me from school to be honest, although I will suggest it to her if it happens again.

And also to speak to her head of year.

Thanks

For Gods sake was all that fuss really worth it over a bit of later homework from an 11 year old. Ridiculous. Yes your DD probably could have said but I've got to be somewhere or tried to email or whatever, but sounds like her school are pretty strict and she probably didn't want to argue.

Sorry just read last post

She says she did try and tell her teacher that she had an after school appointment but he wouldn't listen. I don't think she would have thought to have spoken to a different teacher about it, but I'll tell her that she needs to speak to her HoY or form tutor if it happens again.

On the whole, she's settled in really well, but stuff like this is all quite new to her and she's still finding her feet a bit. She's never been in trouble before and this is the first after school detention she's had so she wouldn't know the ropes

I think that it is poor practice to give an after-school detention for the same day. Ds1 had a few - mainly for the same thing as your dd - forgetting homework - at his selective grammar school, and it was always done on the basis of sending home a slip, telling us he was due in after school detention on X day. We signed the slip to acknowledge receipt.

On one occasion, that I recall, we contacted the school to ask if he could do the detention on a different day, as he had an appointment after school, and the school agreed.

Of course we as parents should support the school's disciplinary policies - but the school should also respect the parents too. I felt that ds1's school had the balance right, as demonstrated above. I don't think your dd's school has got it right, freddie.

Of course we as parents should support the school's disciplinary policies - but the school should also respect the parents too.

Definately.

I do support the school, I back them up in their discipline procedures, I support their expensive uniform policy, even if I do think making kids wear their blazers in 30 degree heat is mad, I just wish they'd help me out a bit. A quick parent text to inform me that my child is in detention for half an hour won't kill them

24 hours notice here and very sensible too imo.

Thanks!

I'm actually really surprised they're not obligated to inform parents when something like this happens, learn something new every day.

The school still haven't bothered to return my calls or reply to my emails, so I suppose that just shows just how little they value communication and keeping parents on side.

I always give at least 24 hours notice. Many of my students have a long way to travel on public transport and so would need to make arrangements.
I would always rearrange the detention for a student who had an important appointment.

The DSs school does 1/2hr same day detentions without informing parents, but they did inform us that they did this from the very beginning. They're also flexible if it will cause problems with appointments - DS2 says that one time his whole class was being kept behind, his friend had a hospital appointment and the teacher checked with the parents and rearranged the detention for a different day. It might be the case that the OP's school should do that, it's just that that particular teacher was being a bit arsey that day It's definitely out of order that the school hasn't got back to her about it.

After school detentions are only given in more serious occasions at DD's secondary school. Lunchtime detentions are given after two missed homeworks or other issues.

Many children live a long way from the school and many are on school transport, so it really is used only when lunchtime detentions or other sanctions are not work.

The written policy is:
Only Heads of Year and members of SLT may give a formal after school detention. If [a teacher] feel that the girl’s behaviour merits this, please talk to her Head of Year. A slip is sent to parents informing them of the
reason as well as the time and date of the detention.
After school detentions are held in M2, they start at 3.30pm and may finish at any time between 4.15-5.15pm depending on the seriousness of the offence. A member of SLT will supervise this detention.
Pastoral Care must be made aware if an after school detention has been set.
To set an after school detention enter the girl’s details in the detention book at reception and fill in the detention letter, including the reason the detention has been given. Tell the girl to go to the office for her
letter, which she must to take this to the Headmistress for signature and then take it home. Her parents sign it and send it back to school. Allocate the girl a punishment task to be done during the detention and make sure that the girl knows where to go and what she is expected to do.

To be honest, I'm not terribly fussed about notice

I just want to know where my child is when she's not where I expect her to be

If they had informed me, I would have had the opportunity to explain about the appointment

I can't find any policies about it anywhere, nothing on their website