Schools - LOST THE PLOT?

[Ace Modder]

Hi guys.

My son goes to NCHS high-school in Newcastle under Lyme. He is 12 years old and is in year 7.

This is the school - http://www.nchs.org.uk/

My wife cut his hair last week with my clippers.



The school has put him into isolation during lessons and break time due to his hair cut. Isolation is meant to be a punishment for more serious misbehavour.
The school was meant to call my wife back by 16:30 to discuss this further as we are not accepting this, it is not fair. However no phone call, and at 16:35 we called the school and the lines are now closed! Typical.

This hair is not drastic and the problem they have is because the left side is too short.

 

[Ace Modder]

As a general rule; no shaved heads, no partly shaved heads and no extreme hair styles.[/I]

http://www.nchs.staffs.sch.uk/downloads/letters/Hair Jewellery Make-up.pdf

I would believe that shaved heads or partly shaved areas means grade 0. His hair was cut to grade 2, this is not shaven.

I shave my head using a razer blade myself - this is fully shaved, there is a massive difference.

The point is, why punish a child for a hair cut a parent has given to him.

 

[Ace Modder]

Using clippers = shaved tbh.

Not really.

grade 4 = half an inch or 12mm
grade 3 = 3/8 of an inch or 9mm
grade 2 = 1/4 of an inch or 6mm
grade 1 = 1/8 of an inch or 3mm

All of these are clipper grades. Is 12mm hair shaved?! No!

 

[Ace Modder]

The issue at hand is not whether or the hair should is or isn't shaved, the issue I have the whether punishing him for it when his mother cut his hair this way.

And the fact that his form tutor promised to call us back by 4:30 and hasn't and now the phone lines are closed hasn't helped with the feelings towards the school either.

 

[Ace Modder]

That website

Thanks for the input Dave

 

[Ace Modder]

think yourself lucky they didn't send him home until it grows, involving childcare costs for 3 weeks or more.

Well my wife is a Teaching Assistant anyway and we are not allowing him to be punished for something he has not caused/done.

If he is to remain in isolation until its at an acceptable length for them then we are going allow him to study at home, we have made arrangements for him to be supervised correctly, and will be requesting the work from his school that he would be doing in class and that way he wont be losing out, and as my wife is a fully qualified teaching assistant, working at another local school, she is more than qualified to ensure his education isn't suffering. She will monitor his work and ensure his is learning correctly.

Ultimately it is not fair to punish him. We will go into the school at 8:15 tomorrow morning to discuss this in a calm reasonable manner.

And if we ensure he is learning at home, then he will keep his 100% record, even though his is not physically in the school. It is good having my wife work in a school, so she knows what we can and cannot legally do which doesnt negatively affect his education and attendance records etc.

P.S. At the school my wife works at that hair is allowed and a large number of boys at the school have the same cut. Why can schools not all have the same standards and rules, that is also part of the problem, different schools, different rules, even within the same county/council - both being samepublic school grades and not academys etc.

 

[Ace Modder]

Or alternatively just stop worrying about other people's hair and what 'they' deem acceptable to their tastes and subculture, and just concentrate on education. Perish the thought.

Exactly, the school is an place of education, the haircut is not extreme and doesnt cause offense to anybody. Surely having short hair of the side of his head doesnt mean that he cannot learn safely in class without disruption to others - why punish him for it!

I'm not arguing with the fact that the hair is shorter than what the school deems acceptable, shortness is objective, maybe make it more clear with an objective min lenght for hair, and then everybody knows clearly.

But my point still remains, do not punish him for it.

 

[Ace Modder]

Gobsmacked, she should have known it would cause problems.

Not when the same hair cut is 100% accepted at the school she works at!!!!

As for the rule I was not aware of this rule, my wife was not either.

I have no issue if the school contacted me or my wife and said don't cut it this way again as it's not what we consider suitable then fine we would comply.

But when he is punished and made to sit on his own for something which is not of his doing will do two things. Make him unhappy about the punishment which instantly would cause hI'm not to want to sit and learn his work that he has been given aen.and also he won't learn as well in isolation as in his class. In a class it is interactive and children learn better with interactivity when sat in silence in a "nnaughty room" environment and told to just work from sheets of paper whilst an enforcement person ensures that he is silent means he will be less inclined to want to study during this time. And at lunch/break time he is confined to the isolation room too.

At the end of the day my issue isn't the rule break but how it's been handled. Especially when the rule in question is open to interpretation, and it's a thing that doesn't cause issues for another school in the same area.

 

[Ace Modder]

Been into the school today, discussed it in a rational calm manner and they have agreed that isolation was too much and unfair, he is back in normal classes today, with the same haircut.

My wife admitted that she had not seen the rules on the haircut before (neither had I) and she explained that this is allowed at the school she works at, so didn't think it would be a major problem. Anyway the 2 teachers, his head of year and his form tutor agreed that isolation wasnt the best method of dealing with the situation, so they backed down, and we agreed that once it's grown, he will not be having that haircut again.

(for the record its not a style that I like myself lol)

 

[Ace Modder]

As for the people who have said in this thread because the parent cannot be punished the child must, would that go for murder too?

If I murdered somebody and I fled to Cuba and the UK authorities couldnt do anything about it, would it be right to arrest and punish my son for that too?

 

[Ace Modder]

think as punishment Ace Modder should get said haircut

Haha, I wish I could grow my hair that long, some of this forum knows me personally here, and those that do know that I cannot as I'm balding on top!

 

[Ace Modder]

It seems the community it is divided here, so it shows that the rule is questionable? If we knew about the rule we would not have allowed the haircut in the first place, but we didn't know.

Either way I'm not that bothered about the rule itself, but the issue I had was the way it was dealt with.

 

[Ace Modder]

Isolation is meant to be a punishment for more serious misbehavour.

This was the key point for the thread, it was about how it was all handled.

 

[Ace Modder]

I don't agree with the rule, it was broken due to not knowing it existed not because we wanted to rebel.

Now my wife and I know about that rule, we do not agree with it typically, but we will ensure it is followed until a time when it maybe revoked.

The point I've tried to make is that the punishment was not fitting of the crime (for lack of a better word), this seems to have been totally lost in the arguements here.

 

[Ace Modder]

Hi AceModder.

I work at an academy in Stoke so can appreciate your concern at the decision to put your son into isolation, as it's not the way it should be dealt with.

The haircut is deemed in some schools to be too short beause it's blended in quite high from a number 1 to his normal length.

Usually if the blend is from a number 1 to 2/3 then it wont show up as much and there wouldnt usualy be a problem.

This person has spoken reason! This thread isn't meant to be about the merits of the haircut, but merely the action taken by the school as a result of it - the school in question is apparently at risk of being made into an academy school which our son told us yesterday (in staffordshire all schools which are not up to standard are being converted to academys) so I think priority should be the educational needs of the children, not a short hair cut.

 

[Ace Modder]

Its the very same haircut that all the young kids seem to want.

My son has something very similar, his friends all have it.

My son wanted it because Ronaldo (The footballer) had something similar as did many of the top footballers he loves and watches have.

And the school they are at doesn't have a problem with it? I think all state schools should have the same rules, at least then there is some form of uniformity.

 

[Ace Modder]

What would be a suitable punishment?

Contact the parents, explain that it is not acceptable and state that once his hair has grown back then it cannot be accepted again, that way its then clear to the parents who quite frankly have the final say on a 12 year old childs haircut.

The problem with the hair cut rule is there is no defining limit.
The motorway limit is 70mph.
The legal drink-drive limit is x amount of units in blood.
The childrens lunch break is 45mins, between 1pm and 1:40pm

A haircut rule posted on the schools website doesn't have any defining limit.

Should putting a child into isolation and affecting his learning be done for the sake of a "trendy-haircut". As for the people who claim that when in isolation he is still learning, maybe but putting him into isolation for something his parents have done automatically would set his attitude wrongly, also children learn better when in an involved, interactive classroom, just having work set out on sheets of paper working in silence in a small office means he is not taking the work in as well, and also if his lesson is a foreign language and he is in isolation with for example the P.E. teacher and he needs to ask a question about the work he has been give, the P.E. teacher may not be able to help him.

The most important thing is the educational standards are not as high when in isolation.

 

[Ace Modder]

So no punishment at all then?

A single day in Year 7 isn't suddenly going to cause your child to fail school so the impact to his education would be fairly negligible. Being allowed to break school rules and have parents that support him in breaking school rules is more likely to have a longer term impact.

what exactly are the school planning on doing keeping him in isolation til lit grows back?

Originally he was being put into isolation till it grew back, anything up to 2 weeks, until we intervened.

 

[Ace Modder]

LOL typo...

 

[Ace Modder]

I will admit that I didn't know of the rule and neither did my wife.

Whether my son knew it would be unacceptable by the school - maybe he did, maybe he didn't, but he isnt going to admit it is he?

I believe that whilst we didnt do anything wrong intentionally, the rules were broken.

But I stand by the fact that the punishment originally given was unjust and over the top! And a conversation with the people who gave that punishment soon got it revoked.