Does the school call you if your kids are kept behind late?

[doorkeeper]

If your kids are kept behind after school, does the school call you or let the kids call you?

My kid was kept behind today for nearly an hour for a catch-up session - his friend told me so I didn't worry, but that was luck. I think the school should call, so you know the difference between "kept behind at school so will be late child" and "missing child to freak out about", but I wondered what other schools did.

Your DC probably knew about the catch up session beforehand. Was it a detention or a revision session?

He didn't know about the catch-up session beforehand - it was to re-do some corrections to a piece of work that the teacher thought wasn't good enough. (Ie: you could go as soon as you'd finished it.)

He's never had one of these before, or a detention, so don't know what is the done thing.

We let parents know of it's an after school detention. If it's anything else, we expect students to let parents know themselves.

No but then dcs have mobiles and would ring or text me themselves.

All pupils know about catch up sessions at my school - they are old enough to tell their parents beforehand.

Ah, some catch-ups at my DC's school are apparently ad-hoc on the day, as this was, and it's in the school rules that all phones have to be switched off at all times whilst on school premises, so he couldn't call himself from the classroom.

Phones are off on school premises at my DCs school as well.

But when asked, no teacher has refused to let my DC text home to say that they are staying late for something.

It is their job to tell me, not the schools.

I've instructed my kid that he must insist that the teacher allow him to call, either from her phone or his. He tends to take school rules very, very seriously and literally (possibly over-seriously, because the school is very very strict), so would not dream of switching his phone on until outside the gates unless I explicitly tell him he must, whatever the rules say.

If it's a detention, then the school serve notice on the child and also the parents by post and at least one copy has to be signed by the parents and be returned on day of detention. If it's something that wasn't expected and mine was likely to be more than 15 mins late leaving, then I would hope she would ask to quickly phone home.

no, they send a text to my old mobile number. Are they hell getting my new one.

You could ring the school and request they ring you when he's being punished... i can't see it being that hard to set up.

At ds' school they would be told about catch up sessions or detentions in advance. The onus is then on the child to inform parents.

Wow, Madmog, that sounds like a very efficient school!

most of the children come in on a school bus from rural areas s0 are never unexpextedly kept late after school

A school can legally keep a child for 10 minutes without notice at the end of the day. If it is longer they must give notice. This can either be done by a phone call or as in the case where I teach a message in the planner sent home the day before. It is therefore somewhat the child's responsibility to show that message.
If it is a revision or catch up session it is the child's responsibility again to ensure parents know.

sunshinemeg (and everyone else) this is useful, thanks. The thing that seems to be different about Ds's school is that there isn't a notification period - they are told on the day.

Schools no longer have to give 24 hours notice though. At my school, if an after school detention is issued, it's always done on the same day provided parents have been informed - usually by phone call or text message from the school office.