Dad’s fury at punishment cell for kids at Doncaster school
12/10/2008
A school enforces a strict code of discipline by sending unruly children to an isolation room.
Punishment for pupils is to sit spotlighted in one of four “cells” created by partitions – the school calls them individual study rooms – and facing one of the isolation room’s black walls.
When a pupil at Ridgewood School in Doncaster, South Yorks, misbehaves parents are sent a letter informing them of the length of sentence.
One parent has likened the set-up to Guantanamo Bay and children at the school reportedly call it “the dungeon”.
Dad Andrew Widdowson found out about it when son Kieran, 11, helped let down the tyres of a boy’s bike at the zero-tolerance school and was told he must spend a day inside the room.
Andrew, 30, claimed: “A teacher rang and told me about the punishment and I went into the school to see for myself what this isolation room was.
“I couldn’t believe it. It was like something out of Guantanamo Bay.
“The room is painted totally black. The walls, the partitions, the window blinds – everything was black.
“The partitions down one side created four cells where school kids are expected to sit at a desk all day.
“My son has never been in trouble. The first time he’s done something and he gets told to go into isolation. The punishment doesn’t fit the crime. I was shocked they were putting children into that room. It’s more like a prison.”
The dad received a letter that said “all the boys involved would serve one day in the isolation room on separate days ... so they can reflect individually on their actions and hopefully decide that they will not be part of doing anything like this again whatever their motivation and degree of involvement in this case.”
Andrew is refusing to allow Kieran, who is academically bright, to be
sent to the room but teachers have refused to let him back into classes until he serves his time in isolation.
The dad claimed: “The school is running a regime of fear. They need to close the room down. I would rather take my son out of the school than see him spend time in that dungeon.”
Kieran claimed: “It’s really scary. I know other boys who have been inside. I’ve heard teachers call it solitary confinement.” The “dungeon” is about seven metres by 2.5m wide and 2.3m high and in a block called the Gresley building.
But the school defended the room and its “cells” or “individual carrels” supervised by a member of staff.
In a statement it said: “It is well lit with a window providing adequate external light and extra ventilation as required, and each individual carrel has separate spot lighting in addition.
“The facility has been in use for over four years and accommodates a handful of pupils each week overwhelmingly for no more than one day and some for less than this. The facility is used at a relatively minor level of the behaviour policy to give pupils a chance to reflect on their behaviour and strengthen their desire to meet expectations in future.
“It overwhelmingly achieves this in terms of pupils not returning for repeated isolations.
“Pupils are supplied with work from current lessons and are free to ask questions of the supervising member of staff as they would in lessons.
“It was fully functional during the 2006 Ofsted inspection and approved as a positive feature of the school’s overall success.
“The school shares the aim of getting Kieran back into education at Ridgewood promptly.
“He is welcome to return at any time, do his day in isolation in line with the behaviour policy for all pupils and return to his full mainstream timetable.” The school added claims the room was intimidating were “comp-letely and wholly appropriate.”
What are your views? Is this the right way to go to punish children, can you think of alternatives?
