Every academic year starts the same, doesn’t it?

Week 1: Blur…erm, what happened?

Week 2: OK, the classes seem all right; I am vaguely remembering how to do this and, oh yes, better set some homework.

Week 3: Where’s the detention room again?

Ah, detention. It is one of the stalwarts of the education system, executed in a multitude of different forms, from breaktime to lunchtime, after school to Saturday mornings, whole-school to departmental.

Detention decisions

Whether you agree with their use or not, they will never disappear as a punishment for “missing” homework, less than average behaviour in the classroom and corridor misdemeanours.

I’ll be blunt: I am an advocate of using detentions as a form of punishment and I think that, done right and followed up properly, they can be a very effective deterrent for poor behaviours at school.

However, these are five things I think that they should never be used for.

1. Isolation
Detentions work best - in my opinion - if they are conducted with a teacher supervising and ideally a HoD presence, too. It is good for kids to see that the adults are all playing on the same team.

2. Pure punishment
Ideally, detentions should have some form of reflection and restoration involved in them (hence the need for teacher presence). “Pure” punishment with no learning just doesn’t work. This can be a lot easier said than done, especially once the mayhem of termtime really kicks off. However, if you know that you are using a detention as a punishment you should try to have some contact with that student before your next lesson so that they don’t just repeat offend.

3. Surprises
I am a big fan of a “clear verbal warning that the way you are talking to me/behaving is not acceptable and this is your chance to change it”. Furthermore, each year I painstakingly start the year by recapping the rules: one warning, parked, detention. We are all human and all need at a least one chance to remedy our behaviours before being punished for it. This should also apply to parents - if you are going to give a student a detention, in my opinion, their parents or carers need to know. This could just be a note in their planner but, ideally a phone call home. Again, it is good for kids to know that the adults in their lives are part of the same team.

4. Whole class punishment
Just no. Work out who your key players are, adjust your seating plans so that they are right in front of you and then focus on them, not the 27 behaving kids.

5. Writing
I don’t mean writing an essay of reflection, a letter of apology, a bullet-pointed list of what went wrong (all tasks I have come across in schools). I mean copying lines and/or the behaviour policy. Especially because I am an English teacher, but also just because I am a teacher, I can’t abide any situation where writing becomes the punishment rather than part of the solution.

Katie White is an English teacher in Devon