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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

Parents remove children because of "excessive" discipline policy

30 replies

EvilTwins · 28/05/2016 14:39

This has popped up on my FB timeline and has been in a couple of national tabloids. School is local to me. Sorry about the Daily Fail link. What's the MN verdict? Having read it in local and national press, I just feel a bit sorry for the children. Being splashed all over the papers by their dad seems a bit unfair.

OP posts:

Bolograph · 28/05/2016 14:42

Makes a change for it to be a sadface father, not a sadface mother.

LittleMissBossyBoots · 28/05/2016 14:46

I think his daughter sounds quite defiant and that's from him painting her in the best light possible.

SaltyMyDear · 28/05/2016 14:46

If she really got put in isolation for having an untucked shirt I think he did the right thing taking her out.

School's not compulsory. Home ed can be brilliant. You should never send your child to a dreadful school if you have options. And they do have options.

KittiesInsane · 28/05/2016 14:49

Hmm.

I looked at the photo and thought 'Bet it's the one on the right who's in trouble.'

Maybe she has that effect on her teachers too.

Catmuffin · 28/05/2016 14:49

It sounds like she does whatever she wants and refuses to do as she is told. I'm sure the children at the school who do as they are told have no problems.

ThenLaterWhenItGotDark · 28/05/2016 14:52

I'm sure the school will be crying buckets at having such an obnoxious group of people get out of their hair.

Mov1ngOn · 28/05/2016 14:54

I opened it thinking it would be the academy near me (also been in national news). WE had isolation for skirt length/ length of ruler etc.

I dont like the idea of sending my daughters to in essense a millitary style school.

I'm not sure what we will do.

Home ed isnt an option for everyone! My daughter is bright and I'd like her to get the full cmpliment of GCSEs taught by specialist teachers.

OTheHugeManatee · 28/05/2016 14:54

I guess if they want to home educate that's their prerogative.

But we only have their sad face side of the story and for all we know this could have been months of low level cheek punished by isolation, but triggered by an untucked shirt, so that it now looks disproportionate while actually being a response to a whole pattern of behaviour. We just don't know.

OddBoots · 28/05/2016 14:54

Well in some ways it sounds like a good way for a school to weed out the stroppy students with parents who won't back the school up. It sounded like this school needed to get lot tougher.

YeOldeTrout · 28/05/2016 14:57

They sound very happy to be home-edding now instead. All's well that ends well.

cruikshank · 28/05/2016 14:57

Home ed is certainly not an option for people who need to work ie most parents. I despair when I read about these ridiculous uniform policies - we don't need uniform anyway - the rest of the world does just fine without sending their kids to school looking like fucking estate agents/Eton wankers. And we certainly don't need our children's educations to be disrupted by frankly batshit slavish obsession with it. What the fuck difference does it make if a person's shirt is tucked in or not?

cruikshank · 28/05/2016 14:58

parents who won't back the school up

cruikshank · 28/05/2016 14:59

Why should anyone 'back the school up' if they actually don't agree with what the school are doing?

Original poster

EvilTwins · 28/05/2016 15:01

I'd be very surprised if the isolation really was just about a shirt being untucked. The school is local to me and I know from others that this new behaviour policy is more of a "three strikes and you're out" thing. There is definitely at least one verbal warning before further action is taken.

OP posts:

IoraRua · 28/05/2016 15:02

Given that the article says kids who talk are warned before being sent to isolation (a completely reasonable strategy), I assume daddy dearest just forgot to mention she'd been pulled up on her bad behaviour and then continued it. It's funny how that can happen.

Given that the school have apparently reduced the number of kids in isolation the policy seems to be working for them. They appear to happy with home edding and the school seem happy they're gone, so it seems to have worked out fine for both sides.

BackforGood · 28/05/2016 15:09

You have to take ALL of these stories with a large pinch of salt. You are only hearing the one side. As IoraRua says, even in the article it says that there are rules, then warnings before the consequence kicks in. My dc would love there to be a firmer line in their school, and then maybe their learning wouldn't be disrupted so much.
It's not about if it's important to wear the uniform correctly or not, it's about constant low level disrupting of lessons for everyone.

cruikshank · 28/05/2016 15:11

I don't see what is 'disruptive' about not tucking a shirt in.

OTheHugeManatee · 28/05/2016 15:11

Well in some ways it sounds like a good way for a school to weed out the stroppy students with parents who won't back the school up. It sounded like this school needed to get lot tougher.

I reckon this outcome is probably a win-win. I'm picturing the conversation between Daddy and the head about all this:

D: If you can't be more reasonable I will have no choice but to remove my PFB and her two angelic sisters from your horribly oppressive Colditz school.
H: I'm sorry you feel that way, Mr PFB. But I'm afraid there is nothing we can do.
D: Right. We're leaving then.
H:

katemiddletonsnudeheels · 28/05/2016 15:13

To put it another way, she wouldn't comply with the uniform policy, walked out of a lesson and repeatedly disrupted a lesson by talking.

Je m'en fous re uniform personally but walking out of a lesson is extremely rude and defiant.

Original poster

EvilTwins · 28/05/2016 15:13

Agreed BackForGood. I do feel sad for the girls though - we had a girl at the school where I teach whose mother had pulled her out of a different school for something similar. It was on the front of the local paper. When she started our school, all the kids knew who she was from having seen it in the press. I guess that's not going to happen here if the parents intend yo home school indefinitely but one of the articles (not sure if it's the one I posted or not) refers to not finding a new school for them "yet".

OP posts:

Original poster

EvilTwins · 28/05/2016 15:15

I don't feel sad that the disruptive one was punished, btw, just sad that their dad feels the need to make it so public.

OP posts:

noblegiraffe · 28/05/2016 15:21

The girl sounds like a pain in the arse and no surprise with a dad like that.

Wait till she gets a job and is asked to do something she doesn't want to.

I expect the dad thinks he is socking it to the school with the DM sad face article but actually it's a good advert for the school - lots of parents approve of schools that don't pander to piss-takers.

WhoTheFuckIsSimon · 28/05/2016 15:23

We've only got his side of the story.

The article also talks about verbal warnings prior to isolation. So I suspect there's more to it than an untucked shirt. If she would have had a verbal warning does this mean she refused to tuck her shirt in?

If dd was put in isolation (especially more than once) for an untucked shirt I would give her a bollocking for not following school rules. Some people might see uniform infringement rules as draconian but it's a big like the New York zero tolerance crime policy in the 1990s which cut crime dramatically.

Cracking down on all infringements will help to ensure lessons become less disruptive and make it easier for kids to learn. Don't like the rules then take your kids out as he has done and everyone is happy. But I don't think it's fair to moan about rules 99% of the time.

WhoTheFuckIsSimon · 28/05/2016 15:27

Not having a shirt tucked in isn't disruptive as such.

However there is a school,rule (as most schools have) to have it tucked in. Pupils represent the school and the school expects them to look smart. There's also the argument smarter pupils have more pride in themselves and work harder (not sure how evidence based that is).

Plus the fact getting used to rules is a way of life. At work I have to wear plain black tights with no pattern, I am not allowed to wear crocs and I am not allowed to wear even small hooped earings and stud earrings must be metal coloured. I can see no reason for any of that but I accept I must abide by the rules.

So refusing to abide by the rule is the disruptive thing.

cruikshank · 28/05/2016 15:42

If any of my kids had their education stymied by the school for anything uniform related, I would bollock the school, not them. They aren't at secondary yet and I am dreading it mostly because I just can't support a school that acts in such a ridiculous manner, and they all seem to. Sure, the talking when told not to and walking out of class - for that, I'd bollock the kids. But not tucking a shirt in? It's ridiculous for the school to insist they miss a day's education for that.

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