“I was in detention a lot.”
Jake Lloyd
In most schools detentions are a regular part of a teacher’s duties, and form one aspect of any positive behaviour strategy. However, because detentions take place outside of the normal teaching hours (break, lunchtime and after school,) there are implications for directed time budgets and teachers’ wellbeing.
Break detention
Ah, break detention. The gentlest of detentions. Since break time is directed time for teachers, regardless of whether or not they have a duty during it, teachers can be directed to take break detention. It is worth keeping an eye on potential issues with students, though, and make sure that any learner on detention has an opportunity to use the bathroom before the end of break time.
Lunchtime detention
Teachers are legally entitled to a break of 30 minutes between 12pm and 2pm every day, which is normally when they have their lunch period. Teachers are unpaid for this time, and cannot be directed to work during it. Lunch is also not part of the 1265 hours of directed time.
Therefore teachers cannot be directed to take a lunchtime detention, and a school behaviour policy which says that lunchtime detentions are part of a positive behaviour management strategy cannot ask teachers to take these detentions. However, there are two exceptions to this:
A teacher could be given a separate paid contract for lunch supervision, which could involve them taking detention.
Alternatively, a teacher could take a lunchtime detention as an independent decision, in which case it is a voluntary act.
Both the above would not be considered directed time.
After school detention
Usually organised in a rota, after school detention counts as directed time. Since it involves staying in school after normal working hours, sufficient notice should be given. Many schools follow best practice about this and announce when staff will be doing an after school detention at the start of the academic year.
Take care to include any “trapped time.” For example, if school finishes at 3.30pm and a one hour detention starts at 3.45pm, there is 15 minutes of additional time to be added to the DTB. So a time budget should record any detention event as being 1 hour and 15 minutes – not 1 hour.
What if there is no detention?
Sometimes there will be no students on the detention list. However, since a teacher is budgeted to do the detention, and is present and ready to carry out that duty, the time does not get returned into their 1265 pot. Some school leaders will consider directed time which was not needed to be directed time owed. This is not the case. If the staff member was present and ready to discharge their planned directed duties, but those duties were no longer needed, the DTB does not change.
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