how common are detentions at secondary?

[Cocostardust]

I know this sounds like a bit of a how long is a piece of string question but I just want a vague idea of how this works.

my daughter has just started at Secondary school. She’s a really well behaved girl, genuinely very sweet and never been in any trouble.

they had a 2 week grace period where they didn’t get detention then on 16th (the day they started) she came home with one straight away. It was for misunderstanding her homework and doing it slightly wrong. She’d spent an hour of the allotted ‘10 minutes’ on it and tried so bloody hard. She was in floods of tears when she came home.

tuesday her friend got one for helping another year 7 yo class who’d got lost then today her best friend got one for forgetting to put her name on her homework. They made her stay and redo the homework even though it had already been done, she ended up not having time to have lunch so went the day without eating, is this normal for schools?

The reason I’m writing is firstly this all seems crazy to me. Of course the schools should be allowed to discipline the children but for forgetting to put their name on the sheet and misunderstanding something?? Surely the teachers should be having a quick chat with the children so they can explain themselves but they’re just handing out detentions like they’re sweets with a total disregard to how much this is affecting the children.

The meaning of detention has clearly changed a lot in 30 years and while I can accept that it doesn’t mean I can force my daughter to.

she has a nervous tic which over the past week has gone through the roof, we were at the point where she had almost got rid of it. She’s also struggling with the insane amount of homework they’re all getting.

as I said I understand they have to be disciplined but shouldn’t that be for when they’ve genuinely done something wrong? It feels like the school don’t give a damn about the kids and how they’re coping.

on a side note they went from outstanding to required improvement over the summer and part of me is wondering if it’s always been like this or if they’ve been told to crack down.

curious about what other think

You are making the assumption that it is only one child that has forgotten.
Try 5, 10 or more.
Try to figure out which homework belongs to who and then add on top the pupils that didn't do it in the first place.

tuesday her friend got one for helping another year 7 yo class who’d got lost then today her best friend got one for forgetting to put her name on her homework.

I'm assuming that the detentions were for being late to a lesson and for not handing in homework, and these things would be in the behaviour policy. It's not unusual to give detentions for these things in schools but usually some leeway would be given for a reasonable excuse. Some are stricter than others though.

The detention for misunderstanding the homework isn't reasonable, neither is the missing lunch and not eating due to having a detention and should be addressed.

The school my 13 year old GD goes to is the same. Strict punishments for trivial things. The school is "inadequate" and has been for a few years - unfortunately, there isn't another school in the catchment area, and the schools further away are full.

Today, one teacher kept the whole class in at break time because 2 pupils were talking. He said "if this were a real lockdown, I'd hope you'd all be killed". Needless to say, GD's parents are livid and are lodging a complaint to the headmaster.

That sounds silly.

DS is in Y9 and is what you would describe as a 'good lad' - he's had 2 since Yr7, one for forgetting homework and one for daft behaviour in music when sat next to a disruptive kid.

CanYouHearThatNoise

Today, one teacher kept the whole class in at break time because 2 pupils were talking. He said "if this were a real lockdown, I'd hope you'd all be killed". Needless to say, GD's parents are livid and are lodging a complaint to the headmaster.

They should complain about the whole class being kept in, but they need to talk to the teacher about what was said before going in about what was said.

This is their behaviour policy (I just went through it on their website), this is all it says regarding detentions. It doesn’t say what the children should/shouldn’t get detention for. Should there ideally be more? It’s quite an open book if it’s just up to the teacher surely as they all vary so much?

That is setting both pupils and teacher up to fail. Whilst at the same time set parents teeth on edge.

Its an amazing piece of writing that means next to nothing.

There it says you can get a detention for non-completion of homework (although turning up to the detention and identifying your work as the one with no name on should have been enough). Lateness is also a detention.

If your DD's detention for misunderstanding the homework was to give her extra support in explaining it, then that's fair enough (but I wouldn't have called it a detention rather 'pop back at lunch and we'll go through it together), but if it was a punishment when she'd actually put a lot of effort into the work, then I'd contact the teacher to clarify.

No, I wouldn’t give detentions for any of those things, especially not for a Yr 7. All of those things could be dealt with by a little chat and a reminder. I give detentions for things like repeatedly not giving in HW, being rude, repeatedly being late without a good reason and truanting - ie I follow my school’s policy. I would be using the time to help get the work done, see if there were issues / barriers to learning and explaining why the behaviour wasn’t appropriate in a calmer time without an audience.

@Wavingnotdrown1ng thanks for this. If you were in my position and this carries on what would you do?

that doesn't answer the OP's question

I’d be asking for a call with the Head of Year to calmly explain your concerns because most of the incidents described aren’t really in the spirit of their policy - which is very wooly- and the lateness one was a bit harsh given that the child probably didn’t know what to do instead or perhaps couldn’t find an adult to help. Keep the focus on your child not the others - you don’t know if your DD has been given the full story- and explain the emotional effect. Like Noble, I wouldn’t have been framing ‘helping someone understand the work’ as a detention in the first place but as a clarification or a five minute bit of extra help and then no upset would have ensued.

If there’s a repeated issue with one subject then either speak to the teacher or contact the Head of Department.

Behaviour points for getting homework wrong?

What?

Why? How does that teach a child anything?

If my child was given a detention for getting homework 'wrong' but had spent time on it, then I'd be speaking to the school.

Some teachers are overly harsh. My child forgot a book in year 11, the only time they'd ever forgot anything and they got a detention. I called the school and they agreed to cancel the detention as this was a child who had never had a detention, had zero negative behaviour points in any year, had completed every homework ever set. Kids aren't robots and mistakes happen.

Talk to the school.

Behaviour points for being late, like mentioned in the OP. Not for getting stuff wrong. (I realise my post was open to misinterpretation)

Utterly ridiculous on so many levels. It will damage the trust those students might have in the teachers, make essentially well-behaved and naturally compliant children feel anxious about future mistakes and potentially breed resentment about disproportionate punishment.

You automatically get a 30 minute after school detention at my sons school if you are late to school, regardless of the reason. My son has to get two buses to school and on occasion they have been late which has made my son late . He's also had detentions for forgetting equipment (pen, book , p.e kit etc), talking in class and running down the corridor 🤷‍♀️

DD goes to an outstanding school.

DDs school allows three minor misdemeanors a week, a few minutes late, a forgotten pen etc before they get a detention.

Swearing, bullying, fighting, forgotten PE kit, truanting gets you a detention straight away.

At DDs school homework is optional and the task are revision based from the knowledge organisers sent out at the start of the term or on Seneca.

My son got tons of detentions. They were for being late for registration (three times and you got one), being gobby in class, repeatedly acting up in games - that sort of thing. The examples you write about are no way deserving of detentions!

Every school has different rules for punishment.
The best idea is to arrange a meeting with head of the year and clarify the situation.
In some situations, reasonable adjustments can be offered to avoid negative consequences.

It's insane. My GS had over 100 in a term. The school were following government guidelines. He actually got another detention for going to the wrong room for a detention even though he was with a teacher who told him to stay. Thankfully he's left now but it's almost a how to get children to disengage more easily manual. He was always polite, etc and the teachers liked him, but rules is rules.....

I get annoyed when teachers overstep on detention lengths. I suggest a carefully thought out, grammatically correct, properly punctuated (it makes a difference) email to the teacher who issued the homework detention and CC in the head of year and maybe the head of faculty. Make the points about her trying the homework, be understanding that it wasn’t completed properly and that you get why the detention was issued, but then quote the 5-10 minute teacher detention from the behaviour policy and ask how the teacher can justify the child missing their lunch. I would consider mentioning her being stressed and upset after the incident. Ask how it happened that the policy regarding 5-10 minute detentions was not followed and for reassurance that it will not happen again. Finish by looking forward to their response.

My 3 have been / are at grammar schools and none have ever had detentions. Youngest is in Y10 and older two are Y13 and uni. They definitely don't give out detentions for such silly reasons at their schools.

Is the school in the Twyford trust?
DSs school gives them out in 15 minute increments for things like forgetting a ruler, doing the homework but not very well, talking in the corridor, etc etc... and I think it's policy to give the year7s an absolute beasting. It's 30 mins for being even a minute late, and if they go over an hour in detention in a week they get an extra hour on Fridays.
Madness and has caused no end of anxiety over the years.

her best friend got one for forgetting to put her name on her homework. They made her stay and redo the homework even though it had already been done, she ended up not having time to have lunch so went the day without eating, is this normal for schools?

I have 30 sheets of homework.

25 have names on, like I asked.

There are 32 in my class.

So 5 people haven't put their names on and 2 haven't done it.

So they all get detention because I'm not a mind reader. Come and sort it and then you can go.