after school homework detention

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What Is A Detention In School?

A detention is a common form of discipline that schools and teachers use to discipline students for bad behavior. When a student is given a detention they have to stay after school for a specified amount of time which is usually between 20 and 60 minutes, depending on the teacher and/or the schools detention policy. During detention the student has to stay in a room away from the rest of their peers and is expected to be quiet.

Who Gives Detentions?

Detentions can be given by a classroom teacher or by a school administrator.

The teacher or administrator assigning the detention should also contact parents or guardians so that they are aware of why their student is staying after school.

Students and their parents will also have to arrange for transportation after the detention.

What Do You Do During A Detention?

Really, students don’t do anything during a detention except sit there until the time has passed.

This is their punishment for misbehaving.

There may be some teachers that will allow a student to read or do homework but in my opinion they really shouldn’t because a detention is meant to be a punishment.

When the detention ends the student leaves.

Detentions after school usually last 20 to 60 minutes.

Reasons For Getting A Detention

Some of the most common reasons for a detention include disruptive behavior, swearing/cursing, being  tardy to class too many times, disrespect, and just about anything that you shouldn’t do in the classroom.

Detentions are a last ditch effort after other forms of discipline and accountability have been already been given.

Before a detention a teacher may try contacting a parent/guardian about behavior and work with them to minimize the disruption so that a detention is never issued.

Another strategy to try before giving a detention is giving the student a warning and talking to them about why they are being disruptive.

Honestly, a detention is bad for the student as well as the teacher.

Well the teacher also has to stay with the student in detention after school and can’t go home until the detention ends!

Good grief!

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I (Allen) am currently teaching at a public school in a western suburb of Chicago. My teaching career started in 2004. Some of my interests outside of teaching is being with my family, biking, playing video games, travelling, and making the Teacher Adviser website.

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• Classroom Management

Homework Detention

• Thread starter kms116
• Start date Aug 1, 2008

Junior Member

• Aug 1, 2008

Our school started a homework detention policy last year for 3rd-6th graders. If a student has a late or missing assignment, they must stay after school for 30 min. that same day if possible. Needless to say, this has caused countless problems with parents. Many of them work out of town and have to take time off to come pick up their kids, and most are upset about the short notice we give them. The policy is here to stay, so does anyone have any suggestions about dealing with parents?  

Senior Member

hw See, that's an easy solution to me - the parents need to make sure their child does their homework! Easy enough. Sorry if I sound uncaring, but I get tired of parents acting like we're inconveniencing them by making them become a responsible parent. Of course, I wouldn't necessarily say those words - maybe something like, "I'm sorry it's inconvenient for you. Did you not check their homework last night? Maybe you can come up with a homework routine that works in your home."  

We do ours during the lunch recess time. They eat their lunch without talking and then finish their homework. If they get it done before the end of recess they may go out.  

Full Member

Here is an interesting article you may want to share with your principal. http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6397407.html Here is another: http://teachers.net/gazette/FEB08/kohn/  

thanks Great articles! I'll pass them on.  

detention We have a form that covers missing homework, signed papers not returned, unprepared for class, no supplies, etc., called a Work Deficiency. After 5 of these, the student has to come to a detention on Thursday morning from 7:30-8:00. Doesn't incovenience the parents as much if they are going to work. Your system has immediate consequences (I kind of like that!).  

I too get tired of parental excuses, but given detention the same day AFTER SCHOOL does seem unfair to me, and if I were a parent I would be hot headed over it as well. There are many students I have who occasionally miss assignments, and the parent IS ON TOP OF THINGS. One time a girl who had been so responsible, told her dad she was doing her homework. This had never been an issue in the past, so dad didn't question her. When I pushed the issue a little, she finally admitted the truth. She made herself look busy when she wasn't. Her mom and dad were horrified, she served several days of detention ( ours is held during recess time). The middle schools and high schools here have after school detention, but you serve on certain days the next week for infractions. This allows the parents to make the appropriate arrangements. You say this is here to say, so I would suggest students have homework logs or agendas that get signed every afternoon by you once homework is written in there, and by parents once they have seen the finished product. Other than that, my only advice is make sure parents and students know upfront about the policy. When you give short notices like that, there will be problems not everyone works at jobs were they can rearrange their schedule on a 4-5 hour notice. That most certainly does not mean that parents are making excuses for their children, or aren't doing their part in their children's education. In my district, if a principal made this decision and the parent could not come til 6:00 because of work, then someone at our school would just have to sit and wait til the parents could get there. You have to be reasonable in your policies if you want parental support.  

I hold our after school DT. However, in order to get assigned to an after school, the student has to have missed three assignments and the DT is assigned after the 4th. It is not the same day. Our detention is held on Monday and Tuesday and a form is sent home notifying the parent and making sure the student has a ride home. The parent signs the letter and student returns it. When a responsible student ends up in DT , I get an apology for having to stay and 99.9% of the time I'm told that I won't see them again. The student will do the work. However, I always get frequent-flyers" and generally their parents are late picking them up and they have to be called again..  

• Aug 2, 2008

At our school, detention slips are sent home to the parents. (Our detention is "third strike you get detention" with warning slips sent home after each offense. The detentions does not come as a surprise.) The parents are given a choice between two dates within the next week for their child's after school time. There have been no confrontations on picking up children. Our school has done this for many years.  

Terrence/CA

This year, we are starting an after school homework detention. At the beginning of every period, the teacher marks who hasn't done their homework, and the sheet gets sent to the office. Each class period, the office sends an automated phone call to the parents telling them that the child did not do homework and will need to come to homework detention that day after school. The parents can get up to 6 phone calls a day! I love it because the parents can no longer put it off on the teacher. Plus, the kids are walking distance from home, and there are no buses anyway, so they can stay after school the same day. If they don't come, then there will be further consequences.  

homework and punishment I have been a teacher and i am returning to teaching after being a stay-at-home mom for some years. I disagree with the idea that you need to punish parents for not being responsible by punishing their children. Where is the attitude of "I am here to help children to learn and to love learning?" If my child were in a school where they would be given detention for not turning in homework (do you have any idea what is going on in the home? NO!), I would immediately withdraw my child and homeschool them. They don't need that kind of stress in elementary school. I don't think it's a teacher or principal's job to enforce parental responsibility. What if that child's family has a family member just diagnosed with cancer? Or another child in the family who is in and out of the hospital (this happened to us this year, and my son was so stressed that he couldn't concentrate and I certainly couldn't either)? Or parents going through a divorce? Or maybe the child is struggling and just doesn't want to admit how hard the work is for him? I would not want to be a teacher in that kind of a school either, because I just think it's wrong. I would be as stressed as the kids, and I think this would create a very hostile environment between the school and home. I think home reading, spelling and math fact practice is important, but not to the detriment of family life. People are not irresponsible just because homework doesn't get done. I think the vast majority of "education" should happen in school, with just a little supplementing at home. After all, we have the kids for more than 6-6 1/2 hours a day, add in the 30 minutes to an hour getting back and forth to school and you don't leave families much time to anything!  

Homework club By the way, our school handles this much more positively. We have an afterschool homework "club" instead of detention. It is voluntary. But if one of our students is not completing homework, then we can call the parents and let them know their child is not completing their homework and that I'd love to have him attend homework club where he can get the extra help he needs to finish it. In this context, they're usually grateful to avail themselves of the opportunity. The child doesn't necessarily want to attend of course :-), and if that's the case they'll start doing their work on time so they don't have to go. Again, it's voluntary and presented as a "we're helping you" instead of a punishment and that makes all the difference.  

Lefty you had many good points but your arguing about extreme circumstances, and I think most of us would work with students in those instances. The difficult part of being a teacher is balancing that compassion with the structure that students need. In my school, many students have parents serving in Iraq, however, their parents will be the first to tell you that homework is to be completed every night- no exceptions. They don't want their students to begin to take advantage of the situation. Their are special circumstances like returning home that they student will be excused for the night, but usually it is their parents who make them do it later anyhow. Many students will be able to pick up on what they are to learn from simply participating in class, many more need extra time to work with the material and practice outside of school. I agree family time is important. It's a shame teachers often give so much of theirs up for their students, and no one comes to defend us about it.  

• May 20, 2009

"being responsible" sometimes when you're trying to keep a foor over their head (and their siblings) and provide food on a daily basis its not always possible to check homework every night because when i come in at night i hjave to cook and clean and do washing before bathing smaller children and putting them to bed. sometimes i have to put trust in the other child to do their homework on their own! so sorry if i dont seem to care about what the teacher thinks about me when i am doing my best but i suppose thats me not being a responsible parent!  

• May 22, 2009

School has to be a shared partnership. But, I would hestitate to say that a parent is uninvolved if their child does not do homework, because there really are times when life just gets in the way. However, if work is not being completed in school, then the school needs to provide a time for them to do it. We also need to keep in mind that such short notice can create an unreasonable burden on a parent. The noon study hall pretty much works for us. Before we went to the noon studyhall, we gave them until the next day to finish it, along with a form that needed to be signed by the parents to show that they were aware that homework was not completed. If we did not receive the homework and form back the next day, they had to stay after school that day to catch up.  

• Dec 14, 2009

Working Lunch We conduct a Lunch/Homework time. Students get their lunches 5 or 6 minutes earlier and go to another room within the school and do their homework as soon as they are finished eating lunch. It's a working lunch.  

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Teaching with Detention

Introduction

Far too often, students and educators struggle to see eye to eye. Teachers regularly disagree on methods of disciplining their students. Controversy arises, even, with the question of whether or not teachers should apply any discipline to their students, or leave it up to the parents. One of the most common practices in dealing with misbehaving students is holding after school detention. But by keeping students after school hours, are teachers exercising their rights, or going too far? Is detention an effective solution to class disruptions, or would it spur future problems?

Free resources across the internet allow for teachers to weigh detention and all of its possible alternatives.

• Lesson Plan
•   Behavior Worksheets : Here, Worksheet Place provides dozens of worksheets for students that assist them in assessing their behavior and emotions. The worksheets include behavior contracts, bullying analyses, conflict resolutions, goal setting, and more. The page also includes resources for teachers, including classroom management checklists, and class rules that teachers can display on their walls. These tasks can be used as opportunities for reflection in place of punishment or can serve as activities to be completed during detention. These worksheets are mostly intended for younger students and can be completed inside or outside of regular class time.
• Reflection Document : Pivotal Education provides this reflection worksheet to give to detention-serving students. The document is meant to outline an activity more productive than what is normally presented for students, and to prevent further behavior issues in the future. The questions on the worksheet force the student to identify and reflect on the people affected by their actions and ideas for preventing future issues. The open-ended questions within the document allow for flexibility for the worksheet to be used with virtually any age range.
• Discipline Packet : This online packet from Teacher Beacon provides worksheets and for responding to misbehavior. The packet includes printable warning slips, a behavior contract, and a sample letter to parents. Also included are writing assignments to be completed by students who break classroom ground rules. Most of these assignments serve as consequences for minor infringements such as gum-chewing, tardiness, and disruptive behavior. The writing assignments can serve as lesser consequences to stop the behavior before further action becomes necessary. Teachers can utilize items within this packet to establish ground rules and to keep track of recurring offenses.
• Do Detentions and Suspensions Work? : Here. Education World interviewed Annemarie Hillman, a policy fellow at Connecticut Voices for Children, to analyze whether detentions and suspensions prove themselves effective in schools. She classifies suspensions as ineffective since students tend to view them like vacations. Detentions, however, can work “if done right.” They can serve as an incentive to keep students from repeating misbehavior. When students serve detention during lunch, they miss out on a social opportunity and in turn will be less likely to act up in the future. 
• New Direction : James Paterson from District Administration Media examines ways that adults are trying to implement disciplinary action into their schools. The article establishes that African American and special needs students face disproportionate rates of exclusionary punishment. According to a number of cited studies, students who receive detentions are more likely to drop out of school altogether. This article highlights alternatives that teachers have found to the standard sit-silently style of confinement. Allowing students to reflect on their actions and for teachers to coach struggling students proves much more productive. Teachers can read this article to determine improvements for the established practice.
• Student-Run Courts : This article from The Guardian acknowledges the disproportionality of detentions in school systems and outlines a recent alternative to the custom: mock court systems. Rather than serve detention for certain offenses, students are to stand before a committee of their peers, make their case, and ultimately face fair consequences for their actions. The article praises this new approach, arguing that it prevents student-teacher discrimination in disciplinary systems and consequently fights the impelling school-to-prison pipeline.
• Informational Sites
• Defining Detention : Queensland Government provides a foundational understanding of detention and the common practices associated with it. The site outlines parameters for responsible behavior in a linked study, titled “Safe, Supportive and Disciplined School Environment Procedure.” This page can serve helpful for those who may desire a better understanding of what detention is, or for educators unfamiliar with how to lead a session.
• Responding to Bad Behavior : University of Florida’s College of Education lists possible ways in which educators can respond to bad behavior. The items on this list can serve as alternatives to detention, a practice which may be the first thing that comes to mind. The actions can be applied to students of most ages. The approaches range from keeping a behavior log, to requiring a writing assignment, to revoking parking privileges for older students. While detention is one of the listed consequences, teachers can choose from any item on the list to enforce in their own classrooms.
• Task Ideas : Study.com provides this list of tips and ideas for teachers choosing to hold students after school. The goal of the article and the tradition is to provide students with tasks that will prevent future mishaps and improve classroom behavior. The site lists tactics that teachers can employ, such as dialogue journals and reflection sheets, and links supporting articles for each strategy. The site lists four strategies for teachers, all of which can be stretched to fit students of almost any age range.

Young people often rave about how educational institutions take up so much of their time and teach them no real-life skills. They are, after all, full-time students by the age of six. Perhaps by making the time spent with students, detention included, more productive, teachers can allow students to further appreciate their education and apply themselves more in the future. Educators should make sure that any disciplinary measures they take have the students’ best interests in mind. Schools should weigh circumstances to decide what method of discipline would be most fair for the students’ and teacher’s time.

Additional Resources

• Middle-School : This neaToday article criticizes forms of discipline for middle-school-aged children. Author Sabrina Holcomb references the school-to-prison pipeline, a theory that correlates higher rates of suspensions and expulsions with a higher likelihood of those same students becoming unemployed and going to prison. When a student’s learning is interrupted by such punitive measures, they are more likely to drop out of school and rely mainly on government-provided welfare programs. Holcomb acknowledges that the issue is not the fault of the teachers, but rather that of the broader school disciplinary system.
•   Detention Is Not The Answer : This literature review by Stephanie McCann from Northwestern College examines practices of institutional discipline, especially detention, and attempts to determine the most productive method for everyone involved. In the past, the practice has discriminated harshly against certain students. The author gathers that students for whom detention becomes a pattern experience major social and emotional consequences that affect them “for the rest of their life.” She acknowledges alternatives for the penalty and suggests that schools find a consensus for what works for their students. 

Example Guidelines : This site lists the guidelines for after-school detention at Lakewood Junior High School in California. The page delineates the school’s specific regulations, including commonly broken rules, expectations for those serving detention, and principles of conduct for future reference. Teachers can utilize this site to gain a better understanding of how one school approaches its academic disciplinary system. Should they choose to administer detentions, educators can look to these clear-cut guidelines when crafting their own system.

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AFTER SCHOOL DETENTION

After school detentions may be given by teachers or administrators for disciplinary infractions. When the student receives a detention for misbehavior, he/she must make arrangements for transportation. Detentions can be 20 minutes or 40 minutes in length, depending upon the circumstances. All detentions begin at 3:20 p.m. Students who are tardy to detention will not be admitted and this will result in further disciplinary action. Students are to bring meaningful work, computer, pencil, and paper to detention. Failure to do so will result in a 40-minute detention the following day. Students who fail to show up for detention, or who receive excessive detentions, will be subject to ISS or suspension. If a parent has a question about the detention, he/she should contact the staff member who issued the detention. Students must serve a detention the day AFTER it is issued. Teachers may not change detention dates.

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, what happens during high school detention.

Hey guys, I've never been in detention before, and I just got one for being late to class twice. Can anyone tell me what actually happens during high school detention? I'm a bit stressed about it!

Hey there! No need to stress too much about detention. While it may vary from school to school, generally, detention involves spending a set amount of time (usually around 30 minutes to 1 hour) after school or during lunch in a designated room under the supervision of a teacher or staff member. This time is usually spent quietly working on homework, projects, or studying for upcoming tests. Some schools may require you to complete some form of school-related work, while others will let you use the time productively for your own needs.

The main purpose of detention is to serve as a consequence for not following school rules and to encourage better behavior in the future. Just ensure that you're on time for detention, follow any rules set during the detention period, and use this as a learning opportunity to improve your punctuality moving forward. Remember, detention is not a major issue on your record, so just learn from it and do your best to avoid getting into trouble again. You'll be just fine!

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Behaviour in schools: sanctions and exclusions

School behaviour policy.

Every school must publish a behaviour policy. It should be available on their website. If not, you can ask to see it. It explains:

• what’s expected of pupils
• what happens if they misbehave
• what the school does to prevent bullying

It also covers misbehaviour outside of school. For example, misbehaviour when travelling to and from school.

You can ask the school for a copy of their behaviour policy document.

Schools can sanction (sometimes called punish) pupils if they misbehave.

Examples of sanctions include:

• a verbal warning
• a letter home
• removal from a classroom

Schools do not have to give notice to parents for after-school detention so long as the pupil can get home safely after. They should consider individual circumstances.

Mobile phones

Each school will have its own policy on mobile phones. Schools are allowed to stop pupils using their mobiles for all or part of the school day as part of their school rules.

Online behaviour

Schools may sanction pupils if their online behaviour is threatening or causes harm to another pupil. They may also sanction a pupil if their behaviour online impacts the school environment.

Use of reasonable force

School staff can use reasonable force if necessary to protect pupils or others from harm. They can also use it to stop pupils from causing damage or disruption.

Reasonable force includes physical restraint such as leading a pupil by the arm out of a classroom.

Complaining about a sanction

If you disagree with the way your child’s been sanctioned, first talk to the headteacher. If you’re not satisfied, ask for a copy of the complaints procedure.

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Should teachers be able to keep pupils in detention after school as punishment?

Detention has long been a part of school life, but what are the rules on keeping pupils after the bell?

• 19:39, 15 SEP 2019
• Updated 13:32, 23 SEP 2019

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We're well and truly into the new school term and for some fresh starters it can all take a bit of adjusting to.

Parents of high school pupils face particular challenges as children are given more independence.

And with secondary school comes the prospect of detention too, but with schools choosing to punish pupils in different ways, mums and dads aren't always clear on what to expect.

We've been asking parents for their experiences and views and it seems not everyone agrees on what sort of punishment is acceptable.

We're launching our Manchester Family newsletter, which will bring all the latest family stories and events straight to your email address once a week. Sign up here .

Legally a teacher can give a child detention without giving parents any notice, or explaining why the detention has been given.

They do, however, have to take the welfare of children into account so they're not being put at risk.

In reality most schools do give advance notice to parents and Manchester families told us this is the least they would expect.

Mum-of-two Jenna Carter said: "Parents should be given at least 24 hours' notice as they may have other children to collect, may have paid for a child minder to collect their child, or asked another parent to walk their child home.

"If I'm running late due to traffic on my way home I call my hubby so he doesn't worry, if my child got kept back and I didn't know where they were I'd be phoning people going mad."

Katie Berry wasn't notified when her son was given a detention for forgetting his homework and said: "It’s very wrong in my opinion. I think it’s wrong not to tell the parents first, furthermore my son isn’t allowed to use his phone on school premises, which is understandable, but how is he supposed to let me know he’ll be late home."

Debbie Nield said she too would expect at least 24 hours' notice, saying: "As some children are reliant on school bus for transport, on the day detentions are tricky, and would be unfair to treat the children differently."

And Natalie Titherington agreed: "It's a nightmare if you are collecting children for pre paid clubs or on route to work. A system for following day minimum would be better."

Mum Jodie Ditcher's son Cody, 12, was given a detention just last week for forgetting his reading book at Alder Community High School in Hyde.

She feels it's a fair system as it's 'more effective' to have the detention on the same day, but says it's easier for them as they don't live too far from school.

"I have an app on my phone which connects with the school, if he is getting a detention it sends a message to my phone," she said.

"It means he misses the school bus but that's half the punishment as he has to walk home."

Jodie, from Hattersley, added: "I think it's better to have the detention when it's all fresh. He didn't have his book, even though I had told him. If he would have had another warning he probably would have forgotton again, but after his detention he came straight back home and the first thing he did was put a book into his bag so he didn't forget again."

Mum and teacher Rebecca Wood say her school recently got rid of after-school detentions as they were having little effect.

She said: "Now pupils are given a half-hour lunch detention for poor behaviour and non-completion of homework.

"They hate this far more, as they lose social time with their friends.

"They obviously still get half an hour to eat lunch. We’ve found the threat of lunch detention makes them knuckle down more in class and detention numbers have dwindled.

"As a parent I also think I’d prefer this as it’s dealt with in the school day and does not impact on the rest of the family for pick ups and after school clubs."

Another teacher from a high school in Bury said her school gives parents 24 hours' notice via a letter and believes it's a 'very effective punishment' - initially acting as a deterent but then helping to tackle any deeper issues.

"The detention often gives the teacher time with the pupil to talk about how they got the detention, how to avoid it in the future and the opportunity to mend any fences," she said.

"It can also give the young person an opportunity to talk to the teacher about anything they may be worried about.

"Also, if any other pupils are involved, they feel the matter has been addressed and been taken seriously. We don't like giving detentions out."

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So what does the law say?

David Connor, a director and head of family law at WHN Solicitors, which has seven offices across Greater Manchester and Lancashire, said: “Schools have the legal right to impose after-school detention, without telling parents the reason for the detention or giving advance notice.

“Each school has its own behaviour policy to regulate the conduct of its pupils. In here it’ll be outlined how students are expected to behave, punishment for bad behaviour and how the school will enforce these disciplinary procedures, including detention.

“By sending children to a school, parents are effectively agreeing to its behaviour policy, so it’s important to be familiar with the document. Parents can request a copy of the policy document, and if the school is owned and funded by a Local Authority, the policy should sit on its website too.

“While it’s not a legal requirement for schools to give parents advance notice of out of hours detentions, it’s a broad policy and doesn’t take individual circumstances into account.

"If detention puts your child’s welfare at risk - for example they miss the last bus home - you may be able to challenge the school and ask for any future detentions to be deferred to a later date, but this is at the discretion of each school.”

The M.E.N approached Alder Community High School for a comment.

For more family content follow Manchester Family on Facebook at www.facebook.com/familymanchester or on Twitter and Instagram @familymanc.

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School sanctions – what’s legal?

October 2023

We regularly hear from parents whose children with special educational needs (SEN) have received a detention and want to know if the school has acted legally.

On this page, we explain what power a school has to issue a sanction, such as a detention, what it needs to consider first and what action you can take.

Sanctions include loss of privileges, missing break times, being put into internal exclusion (sometimes called “reflection” or “reset”), setting written tasks as punishment and detentions.

If your child is suspended or excluded please see our page on exclusions instead, because different rules apply.

What are schools allowed to do?

Every school will have a behaviour policy. It should be available on the school’s website, and if you can’t find it you should ask to see it. It will say what the school rules are, what it expects from pupils, and what happens if they misbehave (including outside of school, for example, when travelling to and from school).

Teachers can sanction pupils whose conduct falls below the standard which is reasonably expected of them. When poor behaviour is identified, sanctions should be implemented fairly and consistently in line with the behaviour policy. Sanctions can include issuing detentions to pupils under 18 years old.

Your child’s school does not need your consent before issuing a sanction - including a detention. Detentions can take place during school hours and in some circumstances (and if reasonable to do so) outside of school hours.

My child has SEN. Shouldn’t the school consider this?

Your child’s school must make sure any sanction is lawful. One of the requirements is that:

• the sanction is not in breach of any statutory requirement or prohibition (for example in respect of disability or SEN), and
• it is reasonable in all the circumstances.

  When deciding if it is reasonable, schools must consider whether the sanction is a proportionate punishment in the circumstances. It must also consider any relevant special circumstances which are known (or of which they ought reasonably to be aware), including the pupil's age, their SEN, and any disability. In addition, all schools (including independent ones) must comply with the Equality Act 2010 and make sure they do not discriminate against disabled pupils.

What can I do?

If you feel school did not take into account any underlying causes such as unmet SEN, or whether your child’s SEN or disability contributed to the situation, then you should highlight this to the school and if this does not resolve matters, then you can take action.

If your child is receiving lots of sanctions, this may be a sign that they are not getting enough support from school or college and it should be doing more to identify and meet their SEN. You could also ask for an EHC needs assessment , as this will make sure all their SEN are fully understood and may lead to an EHC plan if necessary. 

If your child already has an EHC plan, lots of school sanctions could mean that they are not getting the right level or type of special educational provision. You can try to change the provision set out in Section F of their EHC plan by appealing it to the SEND Tribunal if it has been recently issued, or during the annual review . You could also ask for an early annual review if you feel this is needed.  

If you would like more support, you can book an appointment to speak with us .

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To think that After School Detention these days is classed as more serious than in our time.

Georgianattiude · 25/10/2023 18:25

When I went to school some 30 years ago after school detentions were seen as nothing really. These days they tend to involve SLT's taking them, letters home follow ups about the Pupils conduct and it requires a pupil to generally have misbehaved quite badly to get one. The difference in approach or meaning of after school detention, can be compared with my 20 or so through my secondary schooling and DD1s who is in year 11 1. DD 1 was distraught when she got a after school detention in year 10 whereas my year group used to laugh and actively seek to be the first one to acquire one. It sounds silly but an a after school detention was seen as a badge of honour with the highest value going to the girl with the most. This was by the way a Girls Grammar in the late 1980s early 1990s, so not really difference from DDs1 current school inn character. However, DD2 year 9 goes to a non grammar school where there does appear to be a group of girls who get regular detentions . These girls have dragged DD2 in to detention on three occasions because she thinks its cool to engage with their stupidity at times. Therefore, are detentions today seen more of a serious sanction today, than when they were given out by bored teachers who had to stay late. This was said to me and four friends one day in Physics!

Am I being unreasonable?

18 votes. Final results.

Not in my school. We used to get lunchtime detentions for things like not doing homework on time/at all, but a Friday Night Detention (ie after school on Friday) was for really naughty stuff. I actually think it's the opposite now - there seems to be too many detentions/isolations for minor things like school uniform infractions, which our teachers told you off about and moved on from. Nowhere near as much phoning home, either.

I left school 11 years ago...afterschool detention was totally normal and not seen as a big deal..it was just stay back for an hour, no parents involved. Saturday morning detention was the nuclear option and generally happened if you skipped your midweek detention or maybe for something drastic. I never got a Saturday detention so not sure how long you had to stay for but definitely got afterschool detentions a fair few times!

I'd have been distraught to get an after school detention when I was at school 35 years ago. It was absolutely considered a big deal at my school.

I was at school in the late 70s, I didn't get a single detention because they were absolutely not something to aspire to. DD and DS were at school in the early 00s and again, detention was not regarded as cool or something to be desired but maybe that's because most of the kids lived a way from school so used school transport so detention meant your parent/carer would have to go out of their way to pick you up from school. I don't remember either of them having a single after school detention.

Detentions are not a big deal at my kid's school, they seem to get them constantly - forgotten pens, late homework, chatting in class.

I think everything is more closely documented now with arse-covering processes to follow so it all sounds very official.

It's quite a big deal at my DC's school but a lot of that is to do with the fact that a substantial proportion of the pupils travel fairly long distances on dedicated school buses and can't easily get home on public transport. After school detention means missing the bus, and missing the bus for the majority means a parent having to come to pick them up. The staff recognise that an after school detention can be extremely inconvenient for parents so lunch time detentions are used first and seversl days notice are always given if a pupil is going to be kept behind after school. Most of the pupils I know would view an after school detention as a fairly severe punishment, probably at least in part because their parents are likely to be pretty cross about having to come and get them so there are likely to be further sanctions at home. I guess in schools where the majority of pupils walk home it doesn't have quite the same impact!

I left school over thirty years ago and work in a school now. I think that they are taken less seriously than they were back then. They seem to be given for very minor infractions these days. My very rule abiding dc had a lunchtime detention last week for the first time. Whilst they had done their online homework they had forgotten to click the turn in button on Teams and so it was showing as outstanding still. When so many children are getting detentions then they are no longer taken seriously.

They were rarely given out when I was at school in the 80s because the teachers were usually working to rule and not doing any after-school 'activities'.

Nope not in my kids school my son got a detention for being 3 minutes late, also demotions are given for forgetting PE kit, forgetting home work etc

Being put 'on report' was the main sanction once the cane was abolished in second year (old money); head of year, head of house or headmaster depending on severity. After each class the teacher had to sign to say the pupil had behaved themselves and they had to present the report to the relevant head at the end of the day. The only boy I knew to have received the cane was on almost permanent report from third year onwards.

The other girls aren’t making your child misbehave. That’s her choice.

I'd disagree. Very serious at my school. They didn't use it often, but if they did it was considered very serious. Getting two in one week was so almost unheard of, I can remember the odd times when someone did because everyone was talking about it. Now it does depend on the school, but of the local ones, I don't think any have it that seriously. One hands out detentions like smarties, so even the best ones get a few a year, so they treat them as an occupational hazard. Another is much rarer, but even so they're generally treated more as an extra lesson than punishment, and the other gives them the choice between lunch time and after school.

I’m only half a term into secondary parenting and after school detention seems to be a big deal at my son’s school - there’s a whole route of warnings, formal report and lunchtime detention before an AS detention would be given. I have no idea what you had to do to get after school detention at my school but I never had one and neither did my friends or siblings.

I went to school in the 90s and detentions were practically unheard of at my school. You would have been close to a permanent exclusion to get one. Nowadays, children seem to get them for even minor things. My nephews don't seem to take them seriously at all. They aren't common at my current school (we're an independent through school) at all. We sometimes have the secondary-age kids "sent down" to us to spend the day with the primary kids to learn how to behave. They usually aren't fond of that at all. Their audience has gone and the little ones just want them to play with them. Not cool, apparently. They also have to help out the maintenance team sometimes to make it up to the school community, usually because they broke something or climbed on a roof or whatever other silly thing they did to show off. It means they help clean or do planting or whatever. (Don't mess with our facilities manager. Never a good idea.) Detentions, though, not usually.

We sometimes have the secondary-age kids "sent down" to us to spend the day with the primary kids to learn how to behave. They usually aren't fond of that at all. Their audience has gone and the little ones just want them to play with them. Not cool, apparently. Out of interest @Busyhedgehog is it a boys', girls' or mixed school you teach at?

I left school in 96. I can't remember anyone ever getting an after school detention. There was threats of it, but I can't recall anyone actually getting one.

My DS gets them for breathing I think so it literally has no affect on him whatsoever. Whereas I would have been mortified.

Not a big deal at DDs school really compared to my school... at mine the vast majority did 5 years without an "afterschool". DD got one for two pieces of late homework (and I'm meaning 30 minutes late, not majorly late!). However we had lunchtime detentions etc, whereas they only have 35 mins for lunch so no time.

DD2 is quite an academic child just she tends to turn her self off and graduates to those she thinks are having a better time. This is a reason why she deliberately flunked the 11+ because her friends told her she would have a better time at the non grammar. The school are getting increasingly disappointed in her attitude and perception about school. The school are constantly ringing me up about her behaviour and putting in different pathways for her complete lack of focus or interest in subjects. She has had five after school detentions already this year and the school are threatening Suspensions and Managed Moves. The school are particularly anxious because she should be the most academically able year 9 pupil at the school. She is as capable as her sister who is line next June to get all 8s and 9s at GCSE. She does things without thinking of the consequences and afterwards is very sorry for her actions. Getting her to Do any Homework is impossible. This is completely different to her year 7 brother who has additional SEN needs but loves doing his homework that the school give him. I know this is different from the initial posting put it has given me the chance to vent my anguish !

I don't know OP. If I dared get a detention that meant I missed the school bus which meant a 5 mile walk home on country roads in the middle of nowhere and ended up with a massive (and painful) punishment from home too. I only did it the once 😂

"Gravitates to"

We had two kinds of detention. Lunchtime ones were pretty minor. After school ones were both a big deal and a badge of honour. I got one once in third year for sneaking out to the shop at lunchtime. There was also being gated and being on report, both of which involved having to get a form signed by a teacher at regular intervals. Can’t remember the difference between the two. This was a comprehensive in the early 90s.

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If DD2 keeps going the way she is, she will not be "Graduating" anywhere.

There are way too many detentions and not enough just telling off and that's an end of it. The only time I got detentions was a whole class detention (which was infuriating). I was very well behaved but if I went to school now I'd probably get several detentions for minor things and I'm sure it would make me perpetually anxious and less able to learn. School is like a Professor Umbridge regime these days. Boring, no fun, tons of rules and rigidity, learning by rote, loads of testing, far too much homework (largely as the teacher don't even mark it now - I can't imagine tgere would be half the homework set if they had to mark it all) no questionning anything, hardly any school trips, field trips or enrichment. I used to be a massive cheerleader for state education but now I can't wait until DD2 is out the other side and done with it.

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Largest housing provider for migrant children engaged in pervasive sexual abuse, US says

FILE - A Southwest Key Programs sign is displayed on June 20, 2014, in Brownsville, Texas. Southwest Key, the largest housing provider for unaccompanied migrant children has been accused of “severe, pervasive, and unwelcome sexual abuse of and harassment” of children in its care, the Justice Department said Thursday, July 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

FILE - Buildings that house juveniles and operations on the grounds of Southwest Key Campbell, a shelter for children that have been separated from their parents, is shown June 28, 2018, in Phoenix. Southwest Key, the largest housing provider for unaccompanied migrant children has been accused of “severe, pervasive, and unwelcome sexual abuse of and harassment” of children in its care, the Justice Department said Thursday, July 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Employees of the largest housing provider for unaccompanied migrant children in the U.S. repeatedly sexually abused and harassed children in their care for at least eight years, the Justice Department said Thursday, alleging a shocking litany of offenses that took place as the company amassed billions of dollars in government contracts.

Southwest Key Programs Inc. employees, including supervisors, raped, touched or solicited sex and nude images of children beginning in 2015 and possibly earlier, the Justice Department said in a lawsuit filed this week. At least two employees have been indicted on criminal charges related to the allegations since 2020.

It was not immediately clear how many children are currently in Southwest Key’s vast network of shelters across three states, which have room for more than 6,300 children. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment beyond the lawsuit announcement when asked whether the department recommended that children be removed from the shelters or that the the nonprofit’s contracts be terminated.

“In some cases, Southwest Key employees threatened children to maintain their silence,” the lawsuit states. “In harassing these children, these Southwest Key employees exploited the children’s vulnerabilities, language barriers, and distance from family and loved ones.”

In a statement, Southwest Key said it was reviewing the complaint and disputed the portrayal of its care for children.

The nonprofit organization is the largest provider of housing for unaccompanied migrant children, operating under grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It has 29 child migrant shelters — 17 in Texas, 10 in Arizona and two in California. The company’s largest shelter in Brownsville, Texas, is at a converted Walmart with a capacity for 1,200.

The provider has been a major but somewhat low-profile player in the government’s response to the arrival of hundreds of thousands of migrant children traveling alone in recent years and during the separation of thousands of families in 2017 and 2018 under President Donald Trump’s administration. The government awarded the provider more than $3 billion in contracts from 2015 to 2023.

The Border Patrol must transfer custody of unaccompanied children within 72 hours of arrest to Health and Human Services, which releases most to parents or close relatives after short stays at Southwest Key or shelters operated by other contracted providers.

Health and Human Services reported 6,228 children at all of its facilities on June 17, according to the most recent data on its website, which does not break numbers down by shelter or provider. The department declined to say how many children are currently in Southwest Key’s care or if the agency continues to assign children to its facilities.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Austin, where Southwest Key is based, provides extensive details, saying authorities received more than 100 reports of sexual abuse or harassment at the provider’s shelters since 2015.

Among the lawsuit’s allegations: An employee “repeatedly sexually abused” three girls ages 5, 8 and 11 at the Casa Franklin shelter in El Paso, Texas. The 8-year-old told investigators that the worker “repeatedly entered their bedrooms in the middle of the night to touch their ‘private area,’ and he threatened to kill their families if they disclosed the abuse.”

The lawsuit also alleges that an employee of the provider’s shelter in Mesa, Arizona, took a 15-year-old boy to a hotel and paid him to perform sexual acts for several days in 2020.

Children were threatened with violence against themselves or family if they reported abuse, according to the lawsuit. It added that testimony from the victims revealed staff in some instances knew about the ongoing abuse and failed to report it or concealed it.

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said Thursday that the complaint “raises serious pattern or practice concerns” about Southwest Key. “HHS has a zero-tolerance policy for all forms of sexual abuse, sexual harassment, inappropriate sexual behavior, and discrimination,” he said in a statement.

Southwest spokesperson Anais Biera Miracle said Thursday that the provider is still reviewing the complaint, which she said “does not present the accurate picture of the care and commitment our employees provide to the youth and children.”

Texas, like Florida, revoked the licenses of facilities that house migrant children in 2021 in response to an extraordinary influx of people across its border from Mexico, creating what some critics said was an oversight void.

The lawsuit comes less than three weeks after a federal judge granted the Justice Department’s request to lift special court oversight of HHS’ care of unaccompanied migrant children. President Joe Biden’s administration argued that new federal safeguards rendered special oversight unnecessary 27 years after it began.

Special court oversight remains in place at the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Border Patrol.

Leecia Welch, an attorney for unaccompanied children in the case for court oversight, said the allegations against Southwest Key are “absolutely disgusting” and blamed Texas’ revocation of licenses for “a powder keg waiting to explode.”

“While I applaud the efforts to right the grievous wrongs these children have experienced, I hope the federal government will also take some responsibility for the role it played,” said Welch, deputy legal director of Children’s Rights.

Neha Desai, another attorney involved in court oversight, called the allegations “profoundly disturbing and shocking.”

“I hope that the government takes the most aggressive measures possible to ensure that children currently placed at Southwest Key facilities are not in harm’s way,” said Desai, senior director for immigration at the National Center for Youth Law.

The Associated Press left email messages Thursday with the offices of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton. The attorneys general of Arizona and California declined to comment on the litigation.

Southwest grew as unaccompanied children began crossing the border in large numbers in 2014, overwhelming U.S. authorities.

The company has found itself in the middle of controversies over immigration and has steadfastly maintained that its mission was to provide quality care for children. It names its facilities “casas,” Spanish for home.

“A typical day for children in a Southwest Key Casa includes breakfast, school, lunch, dinner, homework, snacks, and bedtime,” the Justice Department said in its complaint.

This story has been edited to correct that the HHS numbers are for all children in migrant shelters, not Southwest Key specifically. This story was also corrected on July 19, 2024, to correct the age of an alleged victim and the location of the suspected abuse. The alleged victim was 15 years old, not 11 years old, and the reported abuse happened in Mesa, Arizona, not Tucson, Arizona.

Gonzalez reported from McAllen, Texas. Associated Press writer Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.

Fact-checking Trump's speech accepting the GOP nomination

Former President Donald Trump pitched a familiar worldview Thursday night: an administration that would stop wars, curb inflation and end illegal immigration.

But his third Republican National Convention speech — the longest nomination acceptance address in modern history, at 93 minutes — included a series of false claims on topics from taxes to crime to foreign policy.

Here's what Trump said in Milwaukee and the facts behind his claims.

Do Democrats want to ‘destroy’ Social Security and Medicare?

“I’m going to protect Social Security and Medicare. Democrats are going to destroy Social Security and Medicare," Trump said.

This is misleading.

Trump has  waffled on the issue for years , but now says he wouldn’t cut Social Security or Medicare. President Joe Biden advocated for cuts decades ago but has opposed them for more than 10 years. 

Before he ran for office, Trump called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme” in 2000 and endorsed then-Rep. Paul Ryan’s plans to restructure Medicare in 2012. As a presidential candidate, he positioned himself as the protector of those programs in 2016, but he took aim at some retirement spending in his White House budgets (which never became law).

Biden has repeatedly pointed to an  interview with CNBC in March , when Trump said, “There’s a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting.” During this campaign, Trump has mostly insisted he wouldn’t cut Social Security and Medicare. After the CNBC interview, Trump sought to clean up his remarks, saying in an interview with the  conservative website Breitbart , “I will never do anything that will jeopardize or hurt Social Security or Medicare.” 

In the 1990s, Biden spoke about trying and failing repeatedly to cut government spending, including Social Security and Medicare. But he turned firmly against Social Security cuts more than a decade ago, as the Democratic Party moved toward supporting expanded retirement benefits. In the last week, Biden has embraced calls among progressives to back an expansion of Social Security benefits if he’s re-elected, although neither he nor the White House has offered specifics about that.

Is most of Trump’s pledged border wall built?

“I will end the illegal immigration crisis by closing our border and finishing the wall, most of which I have already built," Trump said.

Not according to Trump’s past promises.

A government report from 2023 found that the Trump administration installed about 458 miles of wall . The vast majority of that replaced existing structures —  estimates from 2021 pegged  the total new construction at just 47 miles of wall where none had existed before.

But even if that full 458-mile figure is what Trump is referring to, he had repeatedly promised during his 2016 presidential campaign that the wall would be  about 1,000 miles long .

Did Trump stop North Korean missile launches?

“We stopped the missile launches from North Korea,” Trump said.

This is false.

North Korea continued to launch short-range ballistic missiles during Trump’s tenure, even when the two countries held talks to try to negotiate a possible agreement that would have eased sanctions in return for North Korea’s curtailing its nuclear missile program.

Early in his administration, Trump warned North Korea not to threaten the U.S. or “they will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”

Was there peace abroad under Trump?

“I was the first president in modern times to start no new wars. ... Under President Bush, Russia invaded Georgia. Under President Obama, Russia took Crimea. Under the current administration, Russia is after all of Ukraine. Under President Trump, Russia took nothing," Trump said.

President Jimmy Carter didn’t declare war or seek any authorization of force. No U.S. troops died in hostile action during his administration, while at least 65 active-duty U.S. troops died in hostile action during the Trump administration.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began in 2014 with the seizure of Crimea, continued under his presidency. Pro-Russian separatists backed by Moscow continued to wage war in eastern Ukraine against the government in Kyiv during Trump’s administration.

Is the crime rate going up in the U.S.?

“Our crime rate is going up while crime statistics all over the world are plunging,” Trump said.

This is misleading, according to the most comprehensive data.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said last month that the latest crime statistics showed  a significant drop in violent crime , an overall dip of 15.2%, in the first three months of 2024 compared to 2023 (with larger drops in murders, robberies, reported rapes and aggravated assaults).

Preliminary data shows the crime rate also  dropped significantly in 2023 , according to FBI data that covers law enforcement departments with jurisdiction over 82% of the American population.

There are limits to what the data can tell us, it’s incomplete, and not all crime is properly reported. But the indications we have don’t support the picture Trump is painting of crime in America.

As far as the crime rate’s “plunging” all over the world, there’s a lot of world. A 2023  United Nations report on homicide  found an increase from 2021 to 2022 and no evidence crime rates were falling in Africa but a decline in homicides in South America, significant decreases in Europe since 2017 and a relatively stagnant rate in Australia.

Is Biden planning to raise taxes ‘by four times’?

“This is the only administration that said we’re going to raise your taxes by four times what you’re paying now," Trump said.

This is false, according to Biden’s budget and campaign promises.

Trump has  made this claim  before. Biden’s fiscal year 2024 budget would raise the top individual income tax rate from 37% to 39.6%, and it called for a 25% minimum tax on the highest earners, according to the  Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget . There are also other taxes, including those on those making at least $400,000, but nothing in the budget would suggest people’s taxes would be raised by a factor of four.

Biden has  pledged not to raise taxes  on anyone making less than $400,000, and he hasn’t proposed anything on the campaign trail that would raise taxes that high for a broad cross-section of people.

Did Trump end ‘catch and release’?

“We ended all ‘catch and release,’” Trump said.

Trump didn’t end “catch and release,” the practice of releasing migrants into the country with court dates while they await court hearings. The U.S. doesn’t have enough facilities to detain every migrant who crosses the border until they can see judges, no matter who is president, so Trump — like Barack Obama before him and Biden after him — released many migrants back into the U.S.

Did Democrats ‘use Covid to cheat’ in the 2020 election?

“The election result, we’re never going to let it happen again. They used Covid to cheat," Trump said.

Trump is referring to changes made during the Covid pandemic, largely to make it easier to vote by mail or absentee, as congregating at the polls posed a health risk. Democrats embraced the changes and turned out many voters by mail, while Trump slammed mail voting. There is no evidence the changes led to fraud, even though Trump and his allies filed  more than 50 lawsuits  challenging some facet of the 2020 election. All were denied, dismissed, settled or withdrawn, including  multiple that made  it to the  Supreme Court .

Are groceries 50% more expensive under Biden?

“It’s not affordable; people can’t live like this. Under this administration, our current administration, groceries are up 57%, gasoline is up 60 and 70%, mortgage rates have quadrupled,” Trump said.

This is exaggerated.

Some grocery items  have had huge price hikes, but overall grocery prices have risen 21% during the Biden administration. Gasoline prices are up 58% under Biden, while mortgage rates have more than doubled, not quadrupled.

Did Trump sign the biggest tax cut ever?

“We gave you the largest tax cut ever," Trump said.

The GOP-sponsored tax bill that Trump signed into law in December 2017 doesn’t amount to the “biggest” in U.S. history, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. According to its estimates, the tax cut  is the eighth biggest in history .

Does immigration spread disease?

“We also have an illegal immigration crisis, and it’s taking place right now as we sit here in this beautiful arena, some massive invasion at our southern border that has spread misery, crime, poverty, disease and destruction to communities all across our land," Trump said.

Studies have found that migrants don’t spread disease. Instead, many help fight it, as migrants make up a significant proportion of health care workers.

A 2018 study in the  Journal of the American Medical Association  found that 16% of health care workers in the U.S. were born somewhere else, including 29% of physicians, 16% of registered nurses, 20% of pharmacists, 24% of dentists and 23% of nursing, psychiatric and home health aides.

“There is no evidence to show that migrants are spreading disease,” Dr. Paul Spiegel, who directs the Center for Humanitarian Health at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, said in 2018. “That is a false argument that is used to keep migrants out.”

Jane C. Timm is a senior reporter for NBC News.

Ben Kamisar is a national political reporter for NBC News