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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

DS1's detention cancelled following my phonecall - does the teacher hate me?

14 replies

Thrif · 07/11/2014 13:43

I received a letter advising that Ds1 (yr9) had an after school detention because of non-completion of homework. Fair enough, I absolutely support the school's attempts to get him to do the work he needs to and he will do the detention and be shouted at by me

However, DS1 apparently knew nothing about the detention and swore blind he'd done all the work set. So, I phoned the teacher, not with the intention of having the detention cancelled but to find out what the work was that DS hadn't done and make sure Ds understood what was expected of him.

Anyway, it turns out DS had done the work, it was in the book he'd handed in, as it should have been apart from the fact that he hadn't written H/W at the top of the page, so teacher couldn't find it.

Teacher has apologised and cancelled the detention but to my mind, DS was still in the wrong. He didn't do what he should have done, which caused extra work for the teacher and me . My call was supposed to be supportive of the school, not interfering or to tell them they were wrong.

So, what does the teacher think? Or does this sort of thing happen so often that he's moved on and forgotten all about it?

OP posts:

VanitasVanitatum · 07/11/2014 13:48

Teacher is probably slightly embarrassed at giving an unnecessary detention, although if course as you say it should have had the H/W at the top. Not worthy of a detention though, so teacher was right to cancel. Not a big issue! Move on.

Notinaminutenow · 07/11/2014 14:17

No. Teacher is too busy.

Move on...you're overthinking this.

stonecircle · 07/11/2014 14:28

Surely it wasn't that hard to find even without H/W written on the top?!

Original poster

Thrif · 07/11/2014 14:33

Well, I imagine when you've got 5 (or so) sets of 30 books to mark, you flick through to find the page marked H/W and move on pretty quickly if you don't find it.

OP posts:

ChazsBrilliantAttitude · 07/11/2014 14:40

Teacher was right to cancel. It would be disproportionate to give a detention for failing to write H/W on the top of a page. However, you can point out your DS that poor presentation nearly led to a detention because the teacher couldn't find his work.

noblegiraffe · 07/11/2014 17:08

Teacher probably hasn't given it any more thought.

cansu · 07/11/2014 19:10

No the teacher will be fine with this. She made a mistake, these things happen. I can imagine that she is perfectly happy not to have supervise a detention. I am a teacher and I hate giving detentions. If a child has done the work then why would I want to waste my time and his on a pointless detention. Forget it.

ChocolateWombat · 09/11/2014 18:47

And teacher doesn't hate you. Is prob a bit embarrassed.
Even if child hadn't done their homework and you were an interfering parent trying to wheedle him out of detention, they wouldn't hate you.

Sorry, but when children make the suggestion that they are hated by teachers, I always say 'don't flatter yourself that they think about you enough to generate hatred' and I'm afraid the same goes for parents. I think teachers are so busy and see so many children, they really do t spend their time developig hatreds, or ways to get at children, as some children imagine.

Coolas · 13/11/2014 19:42

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MrsExcited · 14/11/2014 18:30

Its lovely to find a story supportive of the teacher by a supporting parent.

As a teacher i would also feel embarrassed but the right thing has happened.

gita7007 · 30/11/2014 12:10

you are a nice person and a supportive parent

the teacher is diligent but also accepted they made a small error and quickly rectified it.

Win-win :)

ps the 2 statements above are not always true in schools! - my partner is a teacher and the stories I have heard!

Icimoi · 30/11/2014 22:07

How difficult can it be to find the homework? Won't it be the last piece of work in the book?

Wolfiefan · 30/11/2014 22:12

You called to support the teacher and ensure the work was done? Teacher will be grateful.
You prevented a student doing a detention for no reason. Good stuff!
Nothing there that makes you anything other than a good parent who cares about the education of their child.

afterthought · 03/12/2014 20:55

I wouldn't be bothered by that at all. I set a detention a few weeks back for a child not completing the task set in class. I had a call from mum later to say child was upset as I'd asked her to catch up with something from when she had been absent. It was one of those days and I'd completely forgotten - her daughter didn't argue as she didn't want to be told off for answering back (which isn't my style anyway!). I apologised and cancelled the detention.

I think the teacher seems like a reasonable, fair sort. Your son will remember that his teacher admitted when he was wrong and didn't just make him do the detention for the sake of it.

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