Detention in yr 7 - harsh?

[SingingGoldfinch]

Hi - my dd has just started in yr 7. New school, new rules, new friends - all the usual stuff to get her head round. The school has a policy that it doesn't enforce any sanctions in first 2 weeks but then they come into full force. In principle I don't have a problem with that approach - until that is my daughter very genuinely forgot to do a piece of maths homework and landed herself an after school detention. No warning, no lunchtime detention just straight into a full on after school detention. She was beside herself and really anxious about it all weekend - she's always been so conscientious and has never been in any trouble at all at school. She's done the detention now and I've told her we just put it behind us and move on, but my question is do you think this was a little harsh? Others have forgotten homework in other lessons and been let off.

I'm not trying to wheedle her out of it. We sucked it up and she did it without questioning it. She fully accepts the rules and will learn from it. We're not dwelling on it or dramatising it either. It just felt a bit harsh to me so thought I'd test out here.

DC once got a detention at the start of Y7 for doing the homework! Teacher had set the homework, even gave out a sheet of paper showing the exact layout she wanted. DC followed the instructions to the letter. When they handed the work in, one child had decided to present it in a different, more 'showy' way. Teacher decided they preferred that to the requested layout and gave every child in the class, except the showy homework one, a detention. When I queried it, I was told that Y7 teachers often did something similar in order to make a point. I complained and said it was unfair, especially as detentions are listed on the school reports. After I said I would refer it to Governors, they said they would ensure these detentions did not appear on reports and would speak to teachers concerned to ensure this sort of 'point making'did not occur again. That was the only detention DC had during their time at school. As a teacher, including Y7s, DC has never handed out detention except when there is a clear infringement of school rules.
I think your dd has been unfortunate, however, the rules were clearly stated beforehand so she knew what the consequences would be. She'll probably be more organised in future.

At ds' school they get an after school detention for not doing homework as well, however the detention is always an after school one two days later and of they hand the homework in during that time they don't have to do the detention. The dentention is still logged to prevent children from getting into the habit of doing it late and i think they get further consequences for being repeat offenders.

I think that is unnecessarily harsh. At dd's school it's three strikes and you get a detention. A strike is for anything really forgetting homework, being late, uniform infringements etc. Parents can see any strikes against their child on the parent app.

My dd has just started in yr7 - the first time they forget homework it's a 20 minute same day detention, the second time they get a 50 minute detention, and a third time means 100 minutes. They have very strict rules - even a minute late for school, or for an individual lesson results in a detention. I think the well behaved kids can feel a bit anxious as a result but on the plus side apparently there is minimal disruption in class.

I think it's too harsh.

I'm afraid I don't comply with most after school detentions. My DS had a few while he was at school. Sometimes he missed the homework being handed out due to being with his TA (he has SEN) and if that was the case I would simply inform the school that he would not be doing it. I've got too much to juggle after school. At the end of the day he obtained excellent GCSE results and A Levels. It didn't go on his personal statement for Uni and he has held down a well paid job to date.

My Ds who has only just started year 7 got one for forgetting his school jumper.

As a teacher I would day that is harsh - not necessarily the detention, but an after school one seems pretty heavy. I guve students until before school the next day, then it's a lunchtime detention if they fail to do that.

Are they allowed to catch-up the forgotten homework in detention? If so, it seems like a good way to get kids into the habit of sitting down and doing homework after school - more 'trying to help them get into good habits' than simply a punishment....

Not harsh at all. Happened to dd in year 7....she never did it again.

DD is in y7, already had a day in isolation 😞 so disappointed in her.. although quietly proud because she got it for standing up for herself on the public service bus.. just not in the best way 😕

But, she won't forget again. Yes, harsh but perhaps it will help her to not make the same mistake again?

I don't personally set detentions immediately for forgotten homeworks as a teacher but I know that other departments do. I don't think its unreasonably excessive. Six missed homeworks before a detention seems very lenient to me. I tend to give them a chance to bring the homework the next day or next lesson and if it's not handed in then set a detention.
Fighting should always be a fixed-term exclusion IMO, and I'd be at a school giving detention for a fight. Our head gave a 1 day fixed term exclusion this week for an extreme case of rudeness. A fight would always be a 5 day FTE at least, children have a right to feel safe in school and physical violence should always be a big red line. Detention is useful to deal with low level poor behaviour, inattention in class and incomplete or poor-quality work ( whether homework or classwork).
I've sat on the fence a bit. Whilst I think it's a little on the harsh side, I don't think it's unusually severe. I wouldn't call in or intervene for that.

Possibly better to have a one strike policy but otherwise it's much better that there is consistency and it does mean that there's less chance of children becoming serial attenders. My eldest is a bit scatty so gets pulled down on organisation in her reports : at parent's evening I asked why they didn't give her a detention and was told they were thinking about it ............ I'd much rather she'd had one (or two) than me having to be told she needs to be more organised. A few detentions and I'm sure she'd have had fewer problems with curiously changing deadlines/mysteriously lost homework etc!

Really interesting to read your views. I'm definitely not planning to call in or intervene - Just wondered if I'm wildly off the mark to think it's a bit harsh abc seems views are very mixed. The homework was marked in class so she did it in a different colour pen as they went along. The teacher did thank her for being honest as she probably could've got away with pretending she had it wasn't actually taken in to be marked.

Dumbledore its not 6 homeworks its 6 lapses. e.g. dd forgot her cooking apron last week so got a disorganisation point. Her friend got one for being late back from lunch and someone else got one for leaving their blazer at home. If it was just homework, Id agree with you but given the wide variety of things it covers, it seems reasonably fair

They have a similar set up at dd's school - they get a red slip for e.g forgetting their pencil case/being late/forgetting equipment - 3 red slips and they get a detention - but it seems forgetting homework doesn't come into this category and gets a straight detention (at least with some teachers).

Oh! That makes more sense. I was thinking six homeworks in a subject could be half a term or more without doing any homework but a centralised system that adds up all disorganisation points seems much more reasonable.

It saves a lot of time in the long run. We've just stepped up to doing this - although we do give a lunch detention first. But basically no hw - then you are straight in detention. Forget/fail to go to the lunch one (20 mins) and you are straight into after school for 30 mins.

And it works. It wasted huge amounts of teachers' time giving second chances, letting pupils bring it in the next day because they'd left it on the kitchen table, chasing up, trying to remember who had missed handing it in...who was off ill...who had left it at dad's house...or granny's....etc etc.

It is much easier to have a blanket rule. No hw = detention. No ifs, buts or maybes.

We only got a comment for missed homework and then 5 comments = detention. That does seem v harsh. I remember sobbing to my mum about my first comment because it was the first school punishment I’d ever had. I never got a detention because the comment was enough for me.
Yes rules are rules ... but she forgot. To err is human. They should get a warning.

After school detention would punish me as a parent for disrupting my plans. Also, I think it doesn't necessary help. some are more forgetful than others. I am also one of the forgetful ones...

Haven't read the whole thread but a teacher here who has given out a fair few detentions over the past couple of weeks to year 7s with no homework (30 mins for no homework in my school).

It's a tough lesson to learn for some of them but the rules are there for a reason and if the other students see some pupils getting away with not bringing homework in then why should they bother to do it?

I personally don't do lunchtime detentions, it's generally the only part of the day where I get 20 mins, if I'm lucky, to grab half a sandwich and potentially sit down with some peace and quiet, catch up wth colleagues or try and get some marking done (although 9 times out of 10 I still get lots of students coming to my classroom to ask me something or other).

Just take it as a lesson and hopefully she won't forget again.

Fine to me.

They had grace period and now they have to follow the rules.

I gave my y7s 3 weeks to get used to thinks, teach them how to organise themselves, allow them to get used to being more independent etc. I've given detentions since then. I don't do lunch ones because our lunch is too short for students and me to do a detention and eat (and I've had my fair share of parenting claiming I prevented their child eating when I gave a 20 min detention in a school with an hour lunch). No big telling off as it wouldn't be helpful but a short after school detention and take some time from them and remind them to have it done next time. If there's a 2nd offence they will get a full hour after school.

Haven’t read the whole thread but am slightly rolling eyes at some of the ‘top harsh’ comments. I think it was very kind of them to say no detentions for two weeks! Our ‘after school detentions’ for homework are actually a supportive hour to help get hw done. Not harsh at all. It may be that the OPs school’s homework detentions are like this.

I don't think this is too harsh (but I'm a teacher!). She had two weeks grace. As a pp said, I also don't give out lunchtime detentions as I like to have my lunch in that time. Or I'm on duty. No homework=detention!