School detentions

[yorkie]

The main form of punishment was the Satis card. You had to hand it in to the teacher at the start of every lesson to have it signed at the end, also your parents had to sign it when you did your homework. It actually seemed to work as people felt a bit ashamed to be on Satis.
.

What does "Satis" mean? This would normally be called being 'on report' surely?

 

[Class 92]

Its called a report at my school.

 

[Welly]

Not me, and not school. My recently retired colleague did his electronics training in a further education college when he was a young man out of school. He played a prank in the laboratory by stuffing wire wool between the terminals of the bench power supplies which were switched on centrally. The wire wool glowed and smoked and a whole class group got detention until the culprit owned up. No one owned up simply because my colleague was not in that detained class group!

He fessed up to his old tutor decades later!

 

[ATW Alex 101]

Its called a report at my school.

Same here. On blue for behaviour, pink for academic (lack of homework/classwork) and white for general monitoring. They are also coded at the top depending on who has set the report, goes from HoD right up to senior deputy. Those who are persistently on it get given theirs in the form of a year long booklet :roll:.

The student must hand it in each lesson and the teacher will give them a grade 1-5, the lower the better, same with work rate. The pupil must then visit whoever set the report at form-time, break and lunch. It then goes home to be signed.

Source: was briefly on academic report for a week in year 8, must say it did help.

 

[Class 92]

Same here. On blue for behaviour, pink for academic (lack of homework/classwork) and white for general monitoring. They are also coded at the top depending on who has set the report, goes from HoD right up to senior deputy. Those who are persistently on it get given theirs in the form of a year long booklet :roll:.

The student must hand it in each lesson and the teacher will give them a grade 1-5, the lower the better, same with work rate. The pupil must then visit whoever set the report at form-time, break and lunch. It then goes home to be signed.

Source: was briefly on academic report for a week in year 8, must say it did help.

We have Subject report (You can guess what that is for)
White for if your behind your target level in lessons
I'm not sure about Green report, someone mentioned it but never seen one
Yellow report is for Misbehaving
Red report is basically a last warning otherwise you get kicked out.

The closist report ive been to is Subject report

 

[fowler9]

What does "Satis" mean? This would normally be called being 'on report' surely?

It would probably be called report in some schools. In our school it was called Satis, I am guessing it was from the Latin or something. To be honest our school did really well at pretty much everything so I guess they never felt the urge to change it to being on report. I think a high point for me was when we beat Manchester Grammar in the English Schools FA cup final.

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

When I was at school I was subjected to corporal punishment.

First had the tawse (belt) at the age of 7 in Primary School in Edinburgh.

Had the cane (in England) on a number of occasions - we used to get the choice between detention and the cane....

Cane every time for me ....short sharp shock that didn't work judging by the number of times I received it. Far better than hanging about for hours after school.

Also teachers used to regularly throw blackboard erasers , chalk and anything else that came to hand in your direction.

Sometimes they would come up behind you and whack you around the back of the head.

Ahhhh. happy days

Yes, I experienced very similar methods in the late 1960s & early 1970s, plus detentions which were for 1 or 2 hours, or sometimes on Saturday mornings and or having to write out large amounts of "lines". The prefects could also inflict lines and detentions as well as the schoolmasters. I was amused recently when a godson complained that he was given a detention, he had to stay behind for just 10 minutes. Hardly seems worth it really. Having to do lines in your best handwriting was so tedious, especially when my handwriting was and still is rather untidy. Sometimes, if the master thought it was too scruffy, I had to do a larger number the next day.

We also has the teachers as mentioned above that threw the chalk and board rubbers, the Geography master was an expert shot. In some ways the lessons taken taken by the strict teachers were better than those taken by the softer ones as you could get on with you work with less interruptions etc.

Mind you having to wait outside the headmasters office prior to getting any punishment was often worse than the punishment itself.

 

[harry42]

We also have a coloured report system. I have once been on yellow which is 'organisation' didn't help at all. although now begginnibg gcses i have become more organised and my behaviour twcird is certainly alit better. I didn't get there through detentions ir people shouting or report. I got rhre by my geography teacher sitting and talking to me.

Out of school, i have been more careful who i hang around wirh, as i live very close to Radford which has alot of knife and drug cri.e what woke me up was almost being a victim of a stabbing. Teachers at school were so supportive, particularly ny geography teacher again. I think this helped by progress in school massively.

Sorry for my life story there!

 

[fowler9]

We also have a coloured report system. I have once been on yellow which is 'organisation' didn't help at all. although now begginnibg gcses i have become more organised and my behaviour twcird is certainly alit better. I didn't get there through detentions ir people shouting or report. I got rhre by my geography teacher sitting and talking to me.

Out of school, i have been more careful who i hang around wirh, as i live very close to Radford which has alot of knife and drug cri.e what woke me up was almost being a victim of a stabbing. Teachers at school were so supportive, particularly ny geography teacher again. I think this helped by progress in school massively.

Sorry for my life story there!

Blimey mate, thats a harsh story as regards the stabbing. On the bright side you have come out of it well. Keep your chin up and look to the future, the world is a hard place even in the UK at the mo but you can make a life for yourself. It sounds like some of the staff at your school will help and there are plenty of people on this forum who can give advice.

 

[harry42]

Blimey mate, thats a harsh story as regards the stabbing. On the bright side you have come out of it well. Keep your chin up and look to the future, the world is a hard place even in the UK at the mo but you can make a life for yourself. It sounds like some of the staff at your school will help and there are plenty of people on this forum who can give advice.

Thanks. We have now moved to a more desirable area of Wollaton and that event was 3 years ago, so have recovered fully now.

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

Seeing this thread got me thinking about the way the teachers treated the kids when I was at school in the 1960s & 1970s, as well as the above mentioned use of, dententions, lines, the cane and clips around the ear etc., some of them were quite inventive, I did hear that some times a length of rubber tube was used as well a T Square, from the technical drawing class rooms. The PT & Woodwork / Metalwork teachers also used what they called a slipper but was infact a size 11 trainer.

We just accepted all of this as normal school life. Although I do think double standards seemed to apply sometimes as the masters who smoked themselves, used to located the boys who they knew were smokers, confiscate their fags, sent them to the head for the cane and then smoked the confiscated cigarettes themselves. I think a case of "don't do as I do, but do as I say"

I think in some ways we were lucky as all out teachers had to do was to teach us, but these days they seem to have to do so much extra paperwork/reports/stats etc....We just had a report at the end of each school year which could make interesting reading infact..

We did have respect for some of our teachers then and I do think these days teachers do what can not be an always very easy job in difficult circumstances.


Although they could be strict, I do have some good memories of my school days.

 

[Bevan Price]

Seeing this thread got me thinking about the way the teachers treated the kids when I was at school in the 1960s & 1970s, as well as the above mentioned use of, dententions, lines, the cane and clips around the ear etc., some of them were quite inventive, I did hear that some times a length of rubber tube was used as well a T Square, from the technical drawing class rooms. The PT & Woodwork / Metalwork teachers also used what they called a slipper but was infact a size 11 trainer.

Our chemistry teacher very occasionally used a length of rubber tube ("Bunsen tubing" because it was used to feed gas to Bunsen burners) if anyone messed about in the Chemistry Lab. The music teacher occasionally used a slipper on the bum of disruptive boys.

 

[fowler9]

Our chemistry teacher very occasionally used a length of rubber tube ("Bunsen tubing" because it was used to feed gas to Bunsen burners) if anyone messed about in the Chemistry Lab. The music teacher occasionally used a slipper on the bum of disruptive boys.

Ha ha, my music teacher was lethal with a board rubber. He was also in charge of the railway society and I now count him as a friend. Funny how things work out.

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

Ha ha, my music teacher was lethal with a board rubber. He was also in charge of the railway society and I now count him as a friend. Funny how things work out.

Yes, outside of the school environment, some of the school teachers were really nice.
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Nope, people were unnecessarily harsh when you were a lad to the point of being downright abusive. Can you honestly say those four things did anything to help you? At least you got the rum ration at the end of the day though

Yes after enduring those, presumably initiation rites,? the rum ration (Grog) would have been well deserved. (I Think the Grog tradition has now ended in the navy too - shame.)

 

[Butts]

Yes, I experienced very similar methods in the late 1960s & early 1970s, plus detentions which were for 1 or 2 hours, or sometimes on Saturday mornings and or having to write out large amounts of "lines". The prefects could also inflict lines and detentions as well as the schoolmasters. I was amused recently when a godson complained that he was given a detention, he had to stay behind for just 10 minutes. Hardly seems worth it really. Having to do lines in your best handwriting was so tedious, especially when my handwriting was and still is rather untidy. Sometimes, if the master thought it was too scruffy, I had to do a larger number the next day.

We also has the teachers as mentioned above that threw the chalk and board rubbers, the Geography master was an expert shot. In some ways the lessons taken taken by the strict teachers were better than those taken by the softer ones as you could get on with you work with less interruptions etc.

Mind you having to wait outside the headmasters office prior to getting any punishment was often worse than the punishment itself.

This reminds me of another punishment - ie being sent out of class.

The fear was that the head or deputy head would come ambling along and spot you - leading to an "instant caning"

I remember in Human Biology all the boys got sent out for giggling at the pictures of naked girls "bits" in the text book
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Yes, outside of the school environment, some of the school teachers were really nice.
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Yes after enduring those, presumably initiation rites,? the rum ration (Grog) would have been well deserved. (I Think the Grog tradition has now ended in the navy too - shame.)

Unfortunately it had ended long before I joined :cry: - an RN "Blue Liner" cigarette was the only comfort on offer.

 

[1e10]

I don't be in whole class detentions.

I don't see why an entire class should be punished for the actions of a few individuals. Whenever my class in secondary school was given a whole class detention I would leave, a few others would too. It usually landed myself and the others in trouble but we were glad that we had made our point.

I still have a great sense of being in it together though, I'm not all out for myself. If I see someone struggling on the bus with their luggage I will help them, I will make way for others on a pavement, if I find someone in my reserved seat on a train and feel they need the seat more than I do then I'll let them keep it.

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

This reminds me of another punishment - ie being sent out of class.

The fear was that the head or deputy head would come ambling along and spot you - leading to an "instant caning"

I remember in Human Biology all the boys got sent out for giggling at the pictures of naked girls "bits" in the text book
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Unfortunately it had ended long before I joined :cry: - an RN "Blue Liner" cigarette was the only comfort on offer.

It was trying out a cigarette that got me sent to the head in the first place, I only tried it a couple of times but got caught on both occasions. Mind you perhaps it worked as I did not carry on smoking from then on.
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I've been thinking about my time at school (I only left two years ago, yet it feels a geological time period ago), and definitely one thing that irked me during high school were teachers who'd give an entire class a detention if a few people were messing around. That always struck me as unfair and ridiculous. Why punish everyone for the actions of a few individuals who clearly don't want to learn? It made me think "why should I bother putting the effort in and doing the work in these lessons if it's not gonna be acknowledged?"

Fortunately, only a few teachers ever did that. But still, it was bloody annoying to lose my own time through no fault of my own.

I only experienced getting a whole class detention a couple of times when others were messing about. One time we had to stay back for half an hour when the rest of the school was going home, the other time we were kept in at morning or afternoon break. None these seemed very fair at the time.
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20 minute lunch time detentions? Kids don't know they're born these days. I had two hour detentions on Saturdays!

They tried Saturday detentions when I was at school, they made you wear school uniform if attending these so the whole town knew that's where you were going.

I agree with what you say about 20 minutes being a very easy and short time to be kept back, compared to when I was at school. Then the shortest we had was about 30 minutes, but as you say up to two hours was not uncommon. (Not that I had to stay back that long,)

I was given lines sometimes to do at home and hand in the next day.
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On this subject of entire class detentions when only a few members of the class were misbehaving.

I wonder how many of us got shouted at/told off or even punished for something that we were, on that occasion, entirely innocent of?

I remember getting yelled at by the RI teacher, just for talking in class, when it was the boy near me. Still irks me all these years later.

I don't think it was an uncommon occurrence though.

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

On a similar subject. I just heard on the radio news, that the speaker of the House of Commons ordered the education minister to write 1000 lines during PMQs! (I think with tongue in cheek), but rather ironic as this education minister only recently suggested that schools toughen up behavior problems by bringing back writing lines and having more detentions.

 

[Class 92]

That will be great (I lie) the Spanish teacher will haves lots of fun giving detentions!

 

[Class172]

Same here. On blue for behaviour, pink for academic (lack of homework/classwork) and white for general monitoring. They are also coded at the top depending on who has set the report, goes from HoD right up to senior deputy. Those who are persistently on it get given theirs in the form of a year long booklet :roll:.

At my school, I think we have a system of red papers, which are given out for various reasons (eg late homework etc), then for frequent offenders, there is a blue book for academic monitoring and red book for behaviour - you can request yourself to be put on these also. I will admit though I have never had any of them, nor a detention.

In an engineering project at school I am part of, we are using an industrial heater within a metal stack that can go up to 1000C. Therefore you can probably guess what we (mainly I) did as the stack was cooling down after use... melting/burning things in the vent gases. I put some wire insulation on the top and it started smouldering; at once the teacher in the room smelt it. I then gave the excuse of "oh, I must have accidentally put it there earlier and forgot," to which the teacher replied "what is it with boys and being pyromaniacs!"

 

[ATW Alex 101]

Same here. On blue for behaviour, pink for academic (lack of homework/classwork) and white for general monitoring. They are also coded at the top depending on who has set the report, goes from HoD right up to senior deputy. Those who are persistently on it get given theirs in the form of a year long booklet :roll:.

The student must hand it in each lesson and the teacher will give them a grade 1-5, the lower the better, same with work rate. The pupil must then visit whoever set the report at form-time, break and lunch. It then goes home to be signed.

Source: was briefly on academic report for a week in year 8, must say it did help.

The bold in the above post makes it appear that I am on blue, pink AND white report. I can assure you I'm not, and I was only on pink report for a week in year 8 due to 2 incomplete homeworks .

 

[Roverman]

Our school had 'Red' Slips, get 3 of those in 1 term and you got a 'House' Detention, which was originally 15 minutes after school on a Monday.

They then changed this to a 'Lunchtime' Detention and it basically involved you cleaning the tables off in the Hall! You could also be given a Lunchtime Detention if you were consistently late for school.

The next stage was a 'Faculty' Detention issued directly by a specific Department for continued breaches such as not doing homework. This meant you had to stay behind for 30 minutes.

If you were really really naughty you got a 'School' Detention which meant you stayed behind for 1 hour after school AND your name was written on the school board by the main entrance. I remember these being on a Thursday.

Although its been 15 years since I was at school I remember 2 things clearly;

1-The policy was never applied consistently, if you were normally good and had a bit of charm you could talk yourself out of most things. There was always a list of 'usual suspects' being on 'School' Detention most weeks simply because they didn't improve their behaviour nor did they learn any charm!

2-I remember a teacher finding a torn up slip, having a free hour she patiently stuck it back together (as an Art teacher she would have probably found this a doddle) and then handed it in for the pupil concerned!

 

[Yew]

, if you were normally good and had a bit of charm you could talk yourself out of most things.

Aha, That is something I remember doing, 'Sorry miss, I forgot to put my homework on the pile on the way out last lesson, and I got a letter, here it is. I dont suppose you'd be able to sort it out?'

 

[VTPreston_Tez]

Never had one, and I'm now in Year 11. I think that's pretty good going to be fair. Pupils can be kept behind until 2/3:40 (dependent on the day) and after that some of my teachers say it's a criminal offence! I'm not sure on that though - however whole class detentions are completely banned in our school unless it was literally the whole class, it's really helped by our excellent Behavior 4 Learning system to deal with nuisances in class.

 

[Lampshade]

I had one in Year 8 when the whole class was given a detention and individual pupils could earn their way out of it - unfortunately I was caught talking with a friend about Chinese food so 45 minutes of writing out the times tables the next Monday afternoon followed

Never had one, and I'm now in Year 11. I think that's pretty good going to be fair. Pupils can be kept behind until 2/3:40 (dependent on the day) and after that some of my teachers say it's a criminal offence! I'm not sure on that though - however whole class detentions are completely banned in our school unless it was literally the whole class, it's really helped by our excellent Behavior 4 Learning system to deal with nuisances in class.

It's only a criminal offence if they don't give at least 24 hours notice.

 

[Amberley54]

I had one in Year 8 when the whole class was given a detention and individual pupils could earn their way out of it - unfortunately I was caught talking with a friend about Chinese food so 45 minutes of writing out the times tables the next Monday afternoon followed



It's only a criminal offence if they don't give at least 24 hours notice.

Not that urban myth again

No it is not. The education act 1997 requires a 24 hour notice period if the detention is scheduled to start/ end before or after the school' s usual start/ finish time. This is to allow child care and transport arrangements to be made by the parent/guardian

It is NOT a criminal offence to ignore the 24 hour notice period, merely that the pupil can not be obliged to attend a detention unless their parent/guardian has been given the 24 notice period to allow them time to make the above arrangements.

The 24 hour notice can be waived if the parent/ guardian is happy to do so, and in my experience many are more than happy to, regarding the walk home in the rain an additional punishment.

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

Not that urban myth again

No it is not. The education act 1997 requires a 24 hour notice period if the detention is scheduled to start/ end before or after the school' s usual start/ finish time. This is to allow child care and transport arrangements to be made by the parent/guardian

It is NOT a criminal offence to ignore the 24 hour notice period, merely that the pupil can not be obliged to attend a detention unless their parent/guardian has been given the 24 notice period to allow them time to make the above arrangements.

The 24 hour notice can be waived if the parent/ guardian is happy to do so, and in my experience many are more than happy to, regarding the walk home in the rain an additional punishment.

I am sure when I was at school, they did not always give notice for detention, I remember a few times being kept late on the same day. I used to tell home afterwards that there was a last minute choir practice

Another thing that sometimes happened if we were misbehaving, was that the PE/PT Masters would make us run several times around the playing fields which were huge, around 9 acres I think, in rain, sunshine, or snow, and or, do loads of press ups/push ups. (I could never and still can't, keep a straight back when doing the latter, I tend to sag in the middle!)

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

It is now 48 years since I left St Bede's College (a grammar school) to go to Manchester University and my only infraction there (according to the Rector Headmaster) occurred in 1958 at the age of 13 when the Bishop of Salford visited our Classics stream Upper Fourth form and was discussing matters of theology and made a statement that no-one could give a perfect example of the co-equal parts of the Trinity and I put my hand up and said that I could give an example. Deathly silence occurred and glares from the teaching staff came in my direction.

The Bishop, to give him his due, took my interruption in good heart and asked me to give my example, to which, being the "star-lad" in Mathematics even in those days, I responded was the three perfect 60 degree angles contained within a perfect isosceles triangle.

This "triumph!" whilst receiving a commendation from the Bishop, led me to being summoned to the office of the Rector Headmaster the following morning for an admonition.

 

[Martin1988]

I went to two different primary schools. The first one which was a state school didn't give "detentions" as such but if the class was particularly disruptive the teachers would take time off of playtime/lunchtime. The second school I went to was a private school which set higher standards of behaviour and the punishments included detentions at breaktime, lunchtime and after school. I had to take part in a couple of "whole class detentions" due to other pupils misbehaving and in one of these we were made to sit and write lines. I also remember how for most pupils in my class, being kept back after school was of huge inconvenience to them due to the fact that they took part in football club and having an after school detention meant that they couldn't attend.

I only remember getting one official "whole class detention" when I was at secondary school but there were a number of instances where a few people in the class disrupted the lesson by talking/misbehaving and everyone either had to stay back at the end therefore making us late for breaktime, lunchtime or going home.

I did get a few individual after school detentions during the time when I was at secondary school. One for not completing homework, one for deliberatley leaving my PE kit at home to avoid having to take part in the lesson, one for a reason I'd rather not disclose and the other for scratching a desk with a compass. I didn't deliberatley set out to cause trouble in any of these instances, they were things I did on the spur of the moment without thinking of the consequences.

In the first detention, I was made to complete the work I hadn't done, in the second two, I was made to sit at the back of the classroom in silence for an hour and in the final one I was made to spend an hour scraping chewing gum off of desks. I was rather suprised though that after the "PE Kit" incident I wasn't made to spend an hour doing something physical like running round the field or doing press ups though.

 

[Strat-tastic]

It is now 48 years since I left St Bede's College (a grammar school) to go to Manchester University and my only infraction there (according to the Rector Headmaster) occurred in 1958 at the age of 13 when the Bishop of Salford visited our Classics stream Upper Fourth form and was discussing matters of theology and made a statement that no-one could give a perfect example of the co-equal parts of the Trinity and I put my hand up and said that I could give an example. Deathly silence occurred and glares from the teaching staff came in my direction.

The Bishop, to give him his due, took my interruption in good heart and asked me to give my example, to which, being the "star-lad" in Mathematics even in those days, I responded was the three perfect 60 degree angles contained within a perfect isosceles triangle.

This "triumph!" whilst receiving a commendation from the Bishop, led me to being summoned to the office of the Rector Headmaster the following morning for an admonition.

You'd have thought that a school would encourage lateral thinking.