Should child be refused GCSE revision session because of detention?

[youarenotkiddingme]

DC year 11 gets a detention for not handing in a piece of homework - fair enough.

Revision session for core subject is announced for same day.

DC asked teacher if he could re arrange detention as thinks revision session would be useful.

DC told no because detention is punishment and they have to learn actions have consequences - again the consequence is fair enough.

This is only 2nd detention has has had in 5 years so isn't a serial offender iyswim?

AIBU to think that considering the change in curriculum and grading and the fact the GCSE's affect their immediate future the teacher should have agreed another day or even said he could attend the session as part of his detention for being mature enough to A) realise the session was important and B) have the maturity to try and rearrange not just get out of it?

This is only part of a whole issue that seems to have stemmed from a change of HT.

Nowhere have I suggested anything about mental health.

I've already said I would make a different call to the school in that situation.

It doesn't change my view that parents dictating detentions, expecting optional classes that are ran by teachers for free to be delivered around detentions, sports etc is unreasonable.

I'd be more than happy to speak to a parent if they called up and spoke to me calmly about the situation (though as I've said I would have given a bit of flexibility in the first place) but if they called me up being all "well I guess I'll not have them in school choir/school teasers etc unless you do X y z" then my view of that parent would drop significantly and I'd be passing any future communication other than parents Eve and reports straight to my manager to deal with. That kind of thing is how you end up with known parents around school.

No you didn't say anyting about mentalhealth I did. A little stress if fine, but there is a fine line till it spills over. The child was feeling stressed. The school's attitude (not yours, the school's) in this instance was ridiculous when the parent queried, something that happened after the fact. She was trying to destress her child by finding a suitable solution. The school chose not to assist in helping to find a solution. She found one that the school didn't like. From the post she wasn't asking for exceptions to the detention. The detention had already taken place. But schoolwork should prioritise a hobby in my opinion and the mother in this case felt the same way.

Sh*t the grammar was awful, hopefully you get gist.

I didn't get the impression the op was saying they won't represent the school unless they do xyz. I think they just decided leaving sports activities was going to be best while studying for gcses as it was causing stress. It was sparked off by what happened but i don't think op was doing to get revenge at all.

toffee
I didn't read it that way. I read it as "well if you can't give him some flexibility then we'll do sport elsewhere out of school". That was why I was I bit huh! about it.

If it's just 'DC is clearly not managing everything so we'll scale back extra curriculars through exam times' then that's fine.

I had some y11s today see me stressed because their extra curricular hobbies have just given more evening/day courses they have to attend! Their exams are in 3 weeks and school is trying to keep them all calm, focused and working hard with reminders to have some down time. Then hobby groups are just piling it on. I wasn't terribly happy about that. Like can they not just wait until June before deciding they must sign of 30 hours if volunteering and a course or 2?

Yes they should definitely wait til June.

My kids aren't secondary school age yet.

Maybe some of the teachers on this thread can explain this to me...

If a revision session is important surely the school should do its best to help children attend.
Surely sitting in detention for a minor infraction of rules is a complete waste of everyone's time and effort. Surely it makes far more sense to reschedule the detention to the next detention slot.
Or is the revision session pointless if the kid can get just as much out of revising for an hour on their own? In which case why is the staff member wasting their time putting it on?

Ok.

Firstly, sitting in detention for minor infractions is completely a waste of everyone's time. Agreed. So hopefully a sensible kid will not prat about in future, learn their lesson, & not waste their or my time with those 'minor infractions'. Honestly, I've yet to meet a teacher who enjoyed supervising behaviour detentions.

If you have several hundred people of whom some - usually a few- are constantly pissing everyone about, you do have to be seen to not tolerate it, or you end up with a lot more not unreasonably deciding that missing deadlines or whatever is ok.

Why wouldn't they? Getting the work in on time requires effort.

However, my lesson on Thursday is often about feeding back to the students re the piece of work they handed in on Monday, & I've been marking the blasted thing since then. If they haven't done it, it's a PITA for me, but more relevantly, they aren't getting that feedback.

So they need to sort it - independently is fine, if not, that is where detentions happen.

Revision sessions are an extra. I'm staying after school to help students who will benefit from that help. It's a privilege not a right.

If you miss my revision session because you're in detention for not having met requirements for another subject - well, that is how it's going to be.

Either you aren't really that bothered or you aren't coping with your GCSEs. Your results will obviously reflect this.

We can't just 'reschedule to the next detention slot'. Who is going to staff that one? We are all doing revision sessions every night.

Ultimately, don't get me wrong, I bend over backwards to help students! But if a student is unable to attend my revision session because they are behind in another subject then THAT is their priority. & if they are in detention for behaving badly - well, consequences are a thing. Their behaviour impacts on other students' learning.

Thanks crowy

My school secondary school was very rural and didn't do detentions as everyone travelled a distance on school buses to get there with no alternative public transport. (They occasionally did lunchtime detentions, but that was usually for a whole class who had pissed about)

I suppose I assumed that detentions would be a school thing. As in teachers A and B supervises the detentions on Monday, teacher C and D on Tuesday etc. Until everyone has had a go.
So a kid who had reason to not attend on Tuesday could be swapped to Wednesday without too much stress.
I didn't realise teachers supervise their own detentions. If you have revisions sessions every night. What happens to the next child who needs a detection and why can't the first child attend with the next one?
(Obviously not at the child's choice but in cases like this one?)

So if a child missed a Monday homework deadline (with serious reason, or the kind of mistake which has happened in this thread) and completed it for Tuesday, would they be let off detention? I presumed detention was a punishment for not having done the homework on time, not a way to make them catch-up?

It seems the 'my subject is more important than all the others' attitude still exists then.

Generally, you'd be right. Detentions for poor behaviour are a whole school thing.

With regards to missed work - I just want it in so I can mark it. I'd definitely cut the student the OP the relevant slack. Generally, hand it in before the detention & we are all good.

No one's subject is more important from a teacher's point of view, although realistically some subjects are always going to be more important to a student. You're a bit screwed without English & Maths, whatever your future plans are.

It's the distinction between 'Fred hasn't done the work I need him to do' & 'Fred has been an unmitigated pain in the arse all week. He's about to fail English, French, geography & biology, but also he's been kicked out of all these lessons for disrupting lessons. Therefore, he needs to be sanctioned because he's damaging everyone else's learning.'

In terms of subject detention - I keep saying this! I just want to mark the work.
Without that I can't help the student to progress.

I'd be very happy with a system where we just recorded a 0 for missed tasks. & were able to submit this as evidence in mitigation come the post result post mortem.

Whilst we are accountable, I teach my course in timetabled hours & offer revision sessions which are extra.

If you're attending, you're either behind or keen to punch above your weight. Happy to help either way, so long as you aren't in detention with a colleague.

Thanks crow.

It's really interesting from a parents point of view to find out how schools work.
I think teachers assume everyone knows, because teachers are in that environment all the time.
As a parent I find schools and school values/teacher attitudes unfathomable sometimes, and schools are literally a closed door, so it good to get explanations now and again.

Honestly, I've yet to meet a teacher who enjoyed supervising behaviour detentions.
Boring and annoying because I'm chained to my room and can't nip to the printer etc. However, now I'm established in a school I rarely have to set them because the certainty that I will issue them if students prat around means they don't prat around in my class so I very rarely have detentions.

Often with homework if it's a real mistake I issue a detention and if they get it in by 9am the following day the detention gets cancelled. Students know the nice Miss Pops is there as long as they don't try to take a lend so that doesn't end up happening much.

What some people on MN can't grasp is that just having gone to school doesnt mean you understand school cultute. Its why people can be quick to make flippant comments on revision sessions, behaviour management, detentions etc.
The most difficult schools I've worked in had a culture of inconsistency within lessons and between staff in terms of what's expected.

The child was in the right - Year 11 should have been in the revision session and made up the detention at another time. I would have complained and I have been a long time in the teaching profession in the secondary sector.

Well, no.

The teacher holding the revision session is providing an extra.

It's open to students who don't have other commitments at this time.

OP's friend's ds has a detention to attend. He is not free to go to other activities. His detention is his first commitment.

Great, if there's another way of resolving the missed work, but that's a matter for polite negotiation, possibly, not yah boo sucks, I'm off to revision session, please arrange my detention at a time more convenient!