School gives hundreds detention for forgetting their pens and pencils

Some families said they would boycott the after-school punishment meted out on the first day of term at Colne Valley Specialist Art College, near Huddersfield.

The school texted parents during the Easter holidays warning of detention for pupils who failed to bring a planner diary, pen, pencil, sharpener, rubber, ruler and calculator.

Claire Norman, whose 16-year-old daughter Anna was given a detention, said: “They went through everyone’s pencil case with a checklist. If anything was missing, they got a detention.

“Anna texted me to say she got an after-school detention because she didn’t have a sharpener.

“There are 22 people in her form group and 20 of them got detention. It’s upsetting because my daughter has never been in trouble and this detention will go on her record.”

Sarah Sykes, told her daughter Hannah, 11, not to go to detention. She said: “Are they running a military school or a high school?

“I think it’s absolutely ridiculous - they are not running an army camp.

“I think they have taken it too far and I told the school that my daughter would not be going to the after-school detention.”

Head teacher Carol Gormley told pupils in assembly that at least 200 children had been given a one-hour detention after school. But the number is believed to have risen during the day to as many as 500 - one in three pupils at the school.

Mrs Gormley said: “During the last term we experienced a huge increase in the number of students routinely arriving at school without the basic items of equipment we expect them to have each day.

“It is extremely disruptive to learning when large volumes of students need to borrow equipment from their teacher or our Student Services bureau.

“We educate our students to be responsible for their own organisation and it is unacceptable to arrive at school without basic equipment.”

In its last Ofsted report, the school was described as “satisfactory”, with inspectors noting: “The students told [us] that behaviour at the school has improved and that fewer lessons were now disrupted, other than by things such as chattering.

The report added: “The senior leaders have secured significant improvements in behaviour, reducing dramatically instances of serious misbehaviour, so that the school as a whole and lessons are generally calm and orderly. The school has demonstrated satisfactory capacity for sustained improvement.”

Inspectors also wrote: “The proportion of good teaching has increased, though not yet sufficiently for teaching to be ‘good’ overall.”

• What do you think: Was the school right or were the teachers heavy-handed? Add your comments below.