How To Add A Detention To A Behaviour Incident
Uploaded by
BCCCSHow To Add A Detention To A Behaviour Incident
Uploaded by
BCCCSHow to Add a Detention to a Behaviour
Incident
Applicable to SIMS .net version
7.78 onwards.
Permissions required
You will need to be a member of any of the following User Groups in System Manager to maintain
detentions:
Administration Assistant, Admissions Officer, Attendance Manager, Class Teacher, Pastoral Manager,
Registration Tutor, School Administrator, SEN Coordinator, Senior Management Team.
Please see your System Administrator/Manager if you are not sure whether you have the required
Permissions.
Introduction
Detentions can be used as a sanction to deal with misbehaviour and can be given as the result of a serious
incident or as a result of persistent misbehaviour.
All schools, with the exception of independent schools and non maintained special schools, have a clear
legal authority to detain pupil/students without parental consent. However, before schools introduce
detention as a sanction, the Headteacher must make all parents and carers, pupil/students and staff aware
that teachers can use detention as part of the school behaviour policy.
Detentions can only be imposed by a Headteacher or another teacher specifically or generally authorised to
do so. They should take account of:
the pupil/student’s age.
any special educational needs.
any religious requirements.
whether the parent can reasonably arrange for the pupil/student to get home from school after the
detention.
Even though detention forms part of a school’s behaviour policy, the school must give the parents/carers at
least 24 hours written notice of a detention scheduled to take place during lunchtime or after school, so that
parents/carers are able to respond regarding any problems that the detention might cause. Written
notification must inform parents:
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1081-001
that the pupil/student has been given a detention.
why the detention was given.
when, where and how long the pupil/student will have to remain at school.
Schools need to keep a record of the detentions that they award because:
by law, schools are required to keep a written record of any detention and the reasons for imposing
it, in case there is a legal challenge brought by parents/carers.
it is one of the ultimate sanctions that schools can use against serious misdemeanours and
persistent misbehaviour.
Further information on detentions may be obtained from the DfES document ‘Detention: The Law and how to
Apply it’.
There are three methods available for recording a detention:
1. Record a detention for an individual pupil/student – record the behaviour incident and add the
detention at the same time. For more information, please see the How to Add a Detention to an
Individual Pupil/Student help sheet (enter Detentions in the Site Search field of the SupportNet
home page).
2. Record a behaviour incident, add all the pupil/students involved, then add a detention to those
involved (covered in this help sheet).
3. Create a detention and add one or more pupil/students to it. For more information, please see the
How to Maintain Detentions help sheet (enter Detentions in the Site Search field of the SupportNet
home page).
IMPORTANT NOTES:
You must have previously set up rooms in SIMS .net so that you can identify the room in which the detention
will be held. This ensures that you can inform parents when, where and how long the pupil/student is being
detained for.
Behaviour incidents must have been recorded for all the pupil/students who will be attending the detention
with an Action Taken of Detention. For more information, please see either the How to Add a Behaviour
Incident to a Pupil/Student Record help sheet (SupportNet Resource Number 11178).
Setting up detentions
Some of the values that appear in the drop-down lists (lookups) when recording detentions can be edited to
meet the needs of your school. In addition, you can amend the types of detention that can be recorded by
setting up Detention Types. For more information, please see the How to Set up Behaviour Management
help sheet (SupportNet Resource Number 11175).
Searching for the behaviour incident
1. Select Focus | Behaviour Management | Maintain Behaviour Incidents to display the Find
Behaviour Incident browser.
If necessary, filter the list using any combination of the following drop-down lists in order to filter the
list of detentions incidents:
Academic Year – defaults to the current academic. Select another year if required.
Type – lists all previously defined Behaviour Types. Select the required type, such as Bullying.
Location – lists all previously defined locations. Select the required location, such as
Playground.
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Action – lists all previously defined actions. Select the required action, such as Detention,
Exclusion, etc.
Status – lists previously defined statuses. Select the required status, such as Resolved,
Unresolved, Further Information required.
2. Click the Search button to display a list of results based on your selections.
3. Double-click the required behaviour incident to display the Behaviour Incident Details page.
Recording a detention
These instructions will need to be repeated for each pupil/student who will be given a detention.
NOTE: Behaviour incidents must have been recorded for all the pupil/students who will be attending the
detention with an Action Taken of Detention. For more information, please see either the How to Add a
Behaviour Incident to a Pupil/Student Record (SupportNet Resource Number 10589).
1. Click the Students Involved hyperlink to display the Students Involved panel.
2. Highlight the required pupil/student in the list, click the Detention button and select Add from the
drop-down menu to open Add/Edit Detention Details for: dialog.
3. Carry out a search to ensure that the detention has not already been added (perhaps because other
pupil/students were involved in the incident and a detention has already been created for them).
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4. Click the New button to display the Detention Details page.
NOTE: Only the Date and Location are mandatory.
5. If required, select a Detention Type from the drop-down list, e.g. After School Detention –
Wednesday. If a Detention Type has been selected, any existing information in the Detention Type
will be automatically populated in the Location, Day, Start Time, End Time, Frequency and Year
Group fields.
NOTE: When adding a detention period it is not necessary to setup Detention Types, as this may not
be appropriate for the detention periods operated by your school. Any detention added without a
Detention Type this way will be displayed as <unscheduled detention> in the Find Detentions
browser.
6. Specify the location of the detention (if not already populated) by clicking the Browser button
adjacent to the Location field to display the Room Browser dialog.
7. Search for the required room then highlight the room name and click the OK button to select it.
8. Enter the Date of the detention or click the Calendar button and select the required date.
9. The Day, Frequency and/or Year Group fields will be automatically populated with any information
stored for the selected Detention Type. If no Detention Type was selected, these fields will be blank
and read-only.
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10. The Start Time and End Time field will be populated with any times defined in the selected
Detention Type, but can be amended or added if required by selecting a time from the drop-down list
or entering a time in hh:mm format.
11. If required, assign a member of staff to take the detention by clicking the Browser button adjacent to
the Staff Assigned field to open the Select Person dialog.
12. Search for the required member of staff, then highlight their name and click the OK button to select
them.
Adding activities to the detention
During some detentions, you may wish to set specific activities to be carried out by the pupil/student
attending the detention. The available activities are set up via the Detention Activity lookup (Tools |
Lookups | Maintain). For more information, please see the How to Maintain Lookups help sheet
(SupportNet Resource Number 10588).
1. From the Linked Activities panel, click the Add button to open the Select Activity(ies) dialog.
2. Highlight the required activity then click the OK button to select it.
3. Repeat for any other required activity.
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Attaching notes/documents to the detention
It may also be useful to attach one or more notes/documents to the detention, such as a copy of a written
assignment to be completed during the detention.
For more information, please see the How to Add Notes/Attach Documents help sheet (SupportNet
Resource Number 9076).
Generating detention letters
Detention letters can be produced from the Detention Details page (via Focus | Behaviour Management |
Maintain Detentions). For more information, please see the How to Maintain Detentions help sheet (enter
Detentions in the Site Search field of the SupportNet home page). Alternatively, you can run the Detention
Letter Mail Merge report which is used to produce letters for multiple pupil/students due to attend detentions
within a selected time frame. The report should be run from the reporting area (Reports | Run Report).
Saving the detention
1. Once all the required information has been entered, click the Save button on the toolbar to save the
detention.
NOTE: If the Date entered does not fall on the Day specified in the selected Detention Type, a
warning message dialog will appear when the record is saved.
Click the Yes button to change the day. You must select another date before the record can be
saved. Alternatively, click the No button to clear the Date field and select the correct date.
2. Click the OK button to close the Add/Edit Detention Details for: dialog and return to the Behaviour
Incident page.
Clearing detentions
Once a detention has been entered, the pupil/student attending that detention can be cleared as long as the
detention has not yet occurred. This process removes only the highlighted pupil/student from the detention.
1. Search for the required behaviour incident as described in Searching for the behaviour incident on
page 2.
2. From the Behaviour Incident page, click the Students Involved hyperlink to display the Students
Involved panel.
3. Highlight the required pupil/student then click the Detention button and select Clear from the drop-
down menu.
4. A warning dialog will open prompting for confirmation that you wish to delete the associated linked
detention. Click the Yes button to confirm the deletion.
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Reporting on detentions
Detentions can be reported on using SIMS .net reporting, with a range of pre-defined detention reports
available. To see a list of the very latest pre-defined reports, double-click Reporting Catalogue in the
Documentation shortcuts panel.
The following are two examples of some useful detention reports:
Detention Letter & Detention Letter Mail Merge
These reports can be used to advise parents of a detention. The Detention Letter should be run from the
Detention Details page for single/highlighted pupil/students and produces a report for any pupil/student due
to attend the selected detention.
The Detention Letter Mail Merge report is used to produce letters for multiple pupil/students due to attend
detentions within a selected time frame. The report should be run from the reporting area (Reports | Run
Report).
NOTE: Schools are advised to edit the letter to their own format and to include a school logo, etc.
Detention Non Attendance Report
This is a report of pupil/students who have been recorded as not attending a detention.
For more information, please refer to:
Managing Pupil/Students in SIMS .net handbook (double-click Managing Pupils on the
Documentation shortcuts panel in SIMS .net).
How to Maintain Lookups help sheet (SupportNet Resource Number 10588).
How to Set up Behaviour Management help sheet (SupportNet Resource Number 11175).
How to Add a Detention to an Individual Pupil/Student help sheet (enter Detentions in the Site
Search field of the SupportNet home page).
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How to Maintain Detentions help sheet (enter Detentions in the Site Search field of the SupportNet
home page).
How to Add a Behaviour Incident to a Pupil/Student Record help sheet (SupportNet Resource
Number 11178).
How to Maintain Behaviour Incidents help sheet (SupportNet Resource Number 11177).
How to Add an Achievement to a Pupil/Student Record help sheet (SupportNet Resource Number
11180).
How to Maintain Bulk Achievements help sheet (SupportNet Resource Number 11179).
For access to all available help sheets, please select Documentation from the Resources drop-down list on
the SupportNet home page (http://support.capitaes.co.uk), then select Help Sheets from the Categories
drop-down list.
Training courses
For information on training courses, please contact your SIMS Support Provider.
Providing feedback on this help sheet
If you have any suggestions or comments about this or any of our other help sheets, please email
helpsheets@capita.co.uk.
Help sheet revision history
Doc. Version Change Description Date
1081-001 Initial Release 02/08/06
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