Q:
Can anything be done to prevent my son's school from misusing its authority?
Several children in my son's class have reported that the teacher has repeatedly punished the entire class by making them stand outside the classroom and restricting their breaktime play as a consequence of the misbehaviour of a few children during lessons.
Breaktimes serve as important movement breaks that help calm hyperactive children, enhance cardiovascular health, and improve oxygen intake.
It appears that the school does not record/log these incidents or communicate the details to parents. In our case, my son, who is autistic and experiences emotional dysregulation (though he does not misbehave in class), did not inform us about what happened. This is likely because he did not understand why he was made to stand outside the classroom during breaktime.
Apart from EHCPs, are there any other mechanisms to prevent the school from misusing its authority?
Gordon M.
06 Jan 2025
A: SenseCheck
- 2 Yes
- 0 No
- 0 Other
- 06 Jan 2025
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Yes
Simple
Gordon,
Aaron has raised some good points and valid suggestions, and while it is important to maintain a sense of proportion, this approach to behaviour management is inappropriate for several reasons and needs to be addressed.
One additional step to consider would be emailing the teacher in question and copying in the headteacher to bring their attention to the following document from the Department for Education:
Behaviour in Schools Advice for headteachers and school staff February 2024
You might wish to express that this is intended as a constructive effort to support the schools understanding of the inappropriateness of collective sanctions and that you trust the matter will be addressed effectively without necessitating further action.
One would hope that this approach proves sufficient.
Many thanks,
Sean
Sean Kennedy
Talem Law - 06 Jan 2025
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Yes
Simple
I'm assuming the child is in a primary school. Sometimes things like this happen because, for example, a newish teacher uses an approach that happened when they were at school but that the current school practice might not support. Sometimes keeping everyone in is a legitimate sanction if the whole class have been rascals - which happens from time to time (albeit pretty rarely).
It's seems that it's not keeping a whole class in that's the issue here. Sometimes that is a justifiable approach to take. The question is the fairness of sanctioning some children for the sins of others.
1: Chat to the teacher. Explain why you're worried (i.e. fairness for well-behaved children). Ask how long they perceive this approach will be needed. If they say it's likely to only be a couple of times more, it's not worth your time to take it further.
You might need more than one chat to be able to articulate your point.
2: Figure out what your worries are – but also what would a school perceive as important?
- You point on calming effect on overactive children is fair (although for some children playtimes over-stimulate them). However, if an OT has seen your child in the past and written about movement being needed, then this is important to school as they should be following professional advice.
- Your points on cardio vascular health and oxygen intake, whilst well intended, are unlikely to make much difference given that it doesn't sound like it's happened often enough to make much difference yet.
- Also read the behaviour policy. Look at what it says about detentions and whether it allows staff to repeatedly and frequently give out detentions for the behaviour of others (assuming from your Q that it's repeated and frequent). A school leader may view it as important that staff aren’t following the policy that he or she wrote and that governors then set. So, it’s important to know what the school’s policy is.
3: Go to the next level up. This might be a Key Stage Lead, maybe a head teacher, it depends on the size and set up of the school. The school's complaints policy will be on their website (most schools have a policies page on their website). Read it - it will tell you who the next level up is. Then just follow that policy.
External options
External agencies: If your child has an outreach teacher or occupational therapist you might speak to them and, if they’re due to visit the school anytime soon and the movement is something they think is needed for your son’s disability, then they may ask school to not remove your son’s playtime for the sins of others. But, I’d recommend going to the school first as it’s always better to give the teacher and then senior leadership chance to put it right before going to others.
Ofsted? There's no point trying Ofsted right now - they signpost you back to engaging with the school policy. Rightly so - we don't need a national inspector to weigh in on issues that can often be dealt with over a chat in school.
Local Authority (e.g. safeguarding team)? These will probably point you right back at the school's complaints policy or state that this isn’t serious enough for them to get involved. If your child was having seizures from missing playtime - that might be different, but the question doesn't suggest such grave consequences of missing play.
Law: I don't know if there'd be a case for disability discrimination. I guess you'd need to show that the policy had had an unfair impact on your disabled son. @Sean Kennedy might have a view - but I'd recommend that in this case trying to resolve it and work with the school will get an answer sooner and will be less stressful (even if it doesn't seem so at the time).
I hope that helps - it intends to be as unambiguous as possible so that it's clear for readers now and in the future.
Aaron King
9000 Lives SEND Consultancy
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