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.

You should definitely be told if your child is not going to be home when you expect. Our school sends a text, usually for a next day detention.

Can I just mention that when school lunch only lasts 1/2 hour, it's not very practical for either student or staff to lose time then really.

Our school does same day detentions but they usually last about 10-15 mins if it's same day, most students walk to our school so buses aren't a massive issue and we 'finish' early (due to stupidly short lunch!!). Students also can access their phones to let parents know or ask reception to phone home.

If I'm teaching all lessons, there's currently no set-up for me to inform parents and only SLT have permission to send texts out anyway.

I can keep kids for 15 minutes without notice - however, I always let a child text their parent if they need to let them know - especially if their phone rings during detention and it is a parent. Any longer than 15 minutes and a note goes home, although I suspect many notes never make it home! Not suggesting that is the case for your daughter, as I can see it was the same day. Also, if she had had a detention with me and told me she had an appointment, I would reschedule for the next day - I know what a pain it is if you miss appointments. I know not all teachers would agree though.

I don't agree with whoever said about hw detentions being done at lunch - I only get half an hour, it is a struggle to eat, go to the loo and set up the next lesson as it is!

DD got an after school detention once. I was given 24 hrs notice and the teacher kindly swapped the day, as DD had an appointment, but I know she didn't have to. DD had to do the detention, miss her bus and sit in the library til I finished work at 6. She hasn't had a detention since ??.

If she got same day detention I would hope she would have got reception to call me, so I knew she would miss her bus.

Schools r allowed to keep children for as long as an hour without informing parents if they/ the teacher wishes

I am a teacher.
We are legally able to keep a student for 10minutes at the end of the school day without notice, after that we must either give 24 hours notice through a note in planner or letter home, or we can phone a parent to inform them. We are not allowed to keep a student longer than 10 minutes unless the parent has been informed.

DD's school does lunchtime detentions rather than after school, as mentioned below. But they have over an hour for lunch, as many children go home on school buses. Almost all clubs are at lunchtime too, for same reason.

We always get notice of an afterschool detention and have to sign an acknowledgement. Generally we get a couple of days notice. A fair number of pupils are collected by car or take school buses and have to make alternative arrangements to get home.

School can keep a child for up to 20 minutes after school with no prior arrangement with parents (if I recall rightly).

Detentions have to be logged by 3pm if we want them to do them on the same day. That said, our school have a large team of behaviour mentors who do the admin work contacting parents. Our school has an extended day too so they wouldn't be finishing til at least 4.30 anyway.

If there are appointments, when the BM contacts home they arrange a time later in the week.

I personally feel that is unacceptable.

I'm a teacher and may keep a student for 5-10 mins at lunch or break for a minor infringement. For anything that requires 30 mins I would call home to inform the parent. They are invaluable to support us as teachers so communication is vital. I'd discuss the issue and find the best way to ensure there is no future repeat. Usually parents hold the key! They will suggest their own sanctions such as not going to the match on Saturday etc!
I feel so sorry that the teacher's actions have given you such a headache with regard to your appt. I assume said teacher wasn't a parent themselves!
Being a mum myself it seems automatic to me to chat to the parents if their dc has done something that warrants a 30 min detention.

Thanks!

I still haven't had any response from school, I've called again a couple of times and resent my email daily but no one is responding. I'm going to go in on Monday and speak to someone at reception.

We get a letter (the third in two weeks from the same subject) and they stay behind the second school day after it being dished out by the teacher.

I do think this is right in terms of allowing for those who use public transport to be collected. In my sons case, travel is not an issue so they could keep him behind on the very day if they wanted. In fact, they could keep him there all week until he had done it as far as I am concerned. Lazy blighter.

This had better be the last. He has been warned. XBox goes for a week next time.

I'd be writing to the Head.

On x date my dd was kept behind for x no. of minutes as a detention for a forgotten homework. My dd was unable to explain to the teacher that she had a medical appointment for which she had been on the waiting list for six months. Regrettably we were unable to make the appointment on time and have now gone to the bottom of the waiting list.

In the circumstances I think there are three options. The first is that you write to the consultant - the details are x and explain what happened and why and reassure this medical professional that the reason for missing the appointment was the responsibility of the school. The second is that you accept the fact that the school is responsible and I make an appointment privately and the school accepts responsibility for the consultants private consultation fee. The third and what should be done as a matter of urgency is that the school reviews its policy in relation to detentions for minor infringements of the rules.

I look forward to hearing from you and would be very happy to come and discuss the consequences of the actions of a member of your staff with your directly.

Yours sincerely

OP

cc: Chair of Governors
Consultant for appointment.

Oh and I'd send by registered delivery and I would require a written response within seven working days. In my experience going in when they don't respond is ineffective. I'd also add a paragraph: I telephoned the school on x, I have sent follow ups e-mails on x, y and z, and telephoned again on x1. To date I have not received a reply and feel it would be helpful if you could explain why this is.

We do same day detentions. Parents get a text before 2pm. We defer for one day for anyone who travels by bus, and at the request of parents.

I also think it is poor practice. I am a teacher, and i know the rules have changed, but we only give after school detentions for 3 offences, and would always give at least 24 hrs notice, in practice often longer as they are only on 2 nights a week. Minor infringements get a negative comment, if particularly awful they can go straight to isolation during the school day. Our lunchtimes are only 40 mins, but if needed i can and do run detentions during that time - i tend to make it easy on myself and run them on a day when i also doing a lunchtime club or drop in so would be in the lab anyway.
Also your dd is only y7, i personally would have been frantic if my y7 child had been uncontactable for 30 mins after school, and that is the issue i would really push with school.

It seems however she didn't explain it and chooses not to take a phone so the school can only work with what they know and OP or perhaps DD wrongly assumed parents would automatically be informed about where she was.

She did try to explain it, but the teacher was quite overbearing and kept speaking over her/cutting her off when she was trying to talk to him.

She had assumed (wrongly) that school would inform me (and they didn't tell her otherwise) and that I would deal with it. She's a new Year 7, it was her first detention, no one explained the detention policies or procedures to her so she didn't really know the ropes and she felt uncomfortable speaking to her form tutor/HoY as she felt she was going over this teacher's head

She's not allowed a mobile phone in school during the day, they all have to hand their phones in to their form tutor in the morning and they're kept in a locked box until they can collect them when they leave. A couple of phones went missing and she only has a 5 minute walk so she doesn't take hers, she wouldn't have had access to it until after the detention anyway.

We've since spoken to her and she will go to ICT/library at lunchtime and send me an email should it happen again, but like I say, she had assumed school would inform me - as did I to be honest.

I've been into school this morning and asked for a copy of their after school detention policy as it's not published anywhere on their website, which they're going to email me later, along with a phonecall from her Head of Year.

I have no problem with the detention, she behaved in a way that earned her a detention. 99% of the time it wouldn't cause any issues, but I would like to know when my 11 year old daughter has been detained at school for that length of time.