What are after school detentions given for at your DCs school?

[LynetteScavo]

DS2 has been given an after school detention for not having his book in class. Personally I think it's a bit harsh as it's his first offence, but then I'm the one having to re-organise my plans and spend a couple of hours collecting him.

My friends son in Y11 (at a different school) has been given an after school detention for getting an A on a past GCSE paper, when he was expected to get an A*.

What's normal at other schools?

My dc had detention for forgetting a calculater

Neither of those things would get an after school in the school I teach at.
After schools are for serious misbehaviour or continued disruption, missing a lunch detention, missing several homeworks, defiance, that sort of thing. Not poor organisation or missing a target grade.

At dd's school not having a book in a lesson would be a strike, three strikes would be a lunchtime detention the first time and then after school detention the second time and head of faculty detention if it happened a third time. Head of faculty detention automatically means parents have to attend to discuss behaviour.Strikes happen for missing equipment/ homework/ breaking class rules etc.

At DS's school, after school detention can be given for anything such as: not bringing items of stationary, learning diary, lab coat etc. or even forgetting to add the form name next to their name on pieces of work done during lesson and taken for marking or assessments.

That's harsh, nicp123 - what type of school is it?

The teacher who administered the detention has emailed me to say while it may seem harsh, she was following school policy - school policies are constantly reviewed and I may wish to contact the principle with my views.

I will be contacting the principle.

Maybe spell it "principal" when you do

My little ones don't get them, they're still in the losing break/lunch playtime or similar phase.

I have 3 at secondary (y10 and lower 6th) and it's the teachers/housemasters discretion. It can be anything from a forgotten book, late homework, shirt not tucked in, talking in class, anything, it's up to them.

DS had had one for repeatedly forgetting homework. And DD (different school) got one for bunking off a lesson (hiding in the toilets with a friend discussing a fallout with a different friend.....) Those are the only ones they've had each

My friends son in Y11 (at a different school) has been given an after school detention for getting an A on a past GCSE paper, when he was expected to get an A. *

Pretty shocked at this. It wasn't RGS in Guildford by any chance was it?

My son's school gives out detentions all the time. Breaktime detentions for things like not having compasses in Maths or forgetting PE kit. After-school detentions of differing lengths for things like not doing homework, forgetting homework, answering back in class etc.

It could be that your child really needed the book for that lesson (prep work done) and couldn't properly participate without it?

DC's friends at our local school have received them for: forgetting a ruler, NOT having a calculator in a non calculator maths test!!, and a homework poem only having 4 verses instead of 5!
Both of my DCs schools use after school detentions for multiple or serious offences only.
The local school is a low choice on DS2 CAF despite its good academic reputation because I feel this level of sanction is OTT.(I also have an issue with their uniform but thats another story)

Both of my DCs schools use after school detentions for multiple or serious offences only.

See I do wish my kids school would use them a bit less liberally, the weight of the punishment does kind of get lost if they dole them out for any old thing.

I would agree to a certain point - it seems petty and trivial to give a detention for not bringing a ruler or pen for example. However there are some schools which really really struggle to get students to bring equipment and this hugely slows down what you can achieve in class. In those sorts of schools they have to put in place clear sanction systems. I worked in such a school - it would be normal for half the class to arrive with zero equipment and teachers to have to lend out or sell them stuff. So where do they draw a line? At least bring a pen? What if it's maths? Should they ignore the lack of pen but take issue with the lack of ruler? What it ends up as is a really strong code of bringing a pen, pencil ruler and rubber and a short detention for anyone not doing so. That means the lesson can run more smoothly.

Conversely, in schools where kids are nearly always perfectly well equipped, the sanction system can be far far looser because there is a basic understanding that you have to bring your equipment to school. Therefore, a child in school a) not bringing a pen could get a detention, but in school b) it would be more likely tolerated.

At the school I am contracting at, the first punishment is lunchtime detention for any misdemeanour, eg missing homework or low level disruption. An afterschool detention would be for a second offence of more than low level disruption.

For a parent, a detention is meant to be inconvenient. No sympathy from me.

We would give after school detention for things like repeated failure to complete homework, repeated disruption in lessons, repeated lack of equipment.

So a single missing book every so often will most likely just be growled at and told to hand in the following day, not having it all week would be a lunchtime detention, still not having it means an after school (or buying a replacement). Same for equipment, sharing a friends calculator for one lesson is OK, not ever bringing your own is not.

At my DD's school after school detentions are the only ones they give and they get them for everything; H=forget homework, not wearing lanard, not having planner signed by parent on a friday, broken ruler, forgetting PE kit, skirt above the knee - any reason at all.

They also do them on the same day and text parents at 3 to tell them. Awful. We complain and it makes no difference. Local state school.

"For a parent, a detention is meant to be inconvenient. No sympathy from me." This seems an illogical comment in the context of a detention for a one off offence of forgetting a piece of equipment. Surely most people would accept that the average secondary school child can be expected to take responsibility for packing his or her own bag for school. Why then should parents be punished for a single missing piece of equipment? In any event whether a detention is inconvenient for parents is going to depend hugely on individual circumstances, ie whether child can make own way home after detention, or whether detention means parent having to pick child up from school.

Instill appropriate values in your child.

I got an after school detention three weeks into Y7. We had geography text books and work books and I went up to the teacher at the start of the lesson and said I'd forgotten my work book (had the textbook). She gave me a detention. The fucking thing that gets me (even now 28 years later) is that we didn't use the fucking workbook at all during the lesson so if I'd kept my gob shut I wouldn't have had the detention (or the major bollocking from home that came with it).

What lesson did I learn? Keep my gob shut, and that that teacher was a total bitch (and the reason I didn't take geography - which I was good at - at GCSE).

Oh sod that, Gin. She has values - such as kindness, and a sense of proportion. She's just a ditz.

Luckily our school is a fairly kindly one. Never had to discover what an afterschool detention would be for yet.

GinandJag, if you think that a one off occasion of forgetting a piece of equipment indicates a failure on the part of the parents to instill "appropriate values" then I very strongly suspect your own children have not yet reached secondary school age If they have managed to get through their entire secondary school career without once forgetting a piece of equipment then, believe me, they are the exception that proves the rule!

GinandJag works at a school, it seems, anyquestions. Hey ho.

Luckily, even the harsh detention-hander-outer at our school turned out to be amenable to a friendly email saying, in effect, 'Sorry my child is so distracted at them moment. She's a bit stressed because of her home life - will try to help her get more on top of it.'

Frankly, making her/our home life that bit harder wasn't going to help, was it?

*the moment. I can spell. Sometimes.