THE head teacher of a York Primary School has defended her right to give pupils detention in spite of parents' complaints. JEREMY SMALL asked heads in York what they thought about the detention of primary school children.

Anna Cornhill, the head of Scarcroft School, said last week she had instituted lunchtime detentions for a small number of pupils who continually break the school rules by running about after the bell at the end of playtime.

The Press and the 320-pupil school - whose pupils are aged between five and 11 - were contacted by concerned parents before we broke the story, after Mrs Cornhill sent out a letter explaining her actions.

Mrs Cornhill has said she would like to allay any fears parents may have and has encouraged them to contact her at the school for reassurance or clarification.

She revealed today: "We've seen a distinct improvement in behaviour around the school since we've done it - my support staff and teachers have said they've noticed a distinct difference in the children's attitude, in terms of the way the children are moving around the building.

"That was the aim of it - it was the health and safety concerns I had that made me put it in place."

Mark Barnett, head teacher at Westfield Primary Community School, said he was "fully supportive" of the move at Scarcroft School. "I don't personally like the word detention', but whatever you call it, if you need to keep a child back to talk to them about their behaviour or attitude, or something that's happened to them, that's what you do at a time that the teacher can manage to see them.

"Whatever the word is, I don't have a problem with it happening, and to be honest I don't find our pupils do, because they do expect rules and guidelines to help them with their daily lives in school."

For Mr Barnett, the age of the child does not matter when it comes to detentions.

"I make no distinction about the age of the child, because sometimes we do have to speak to children, and children of a young age can also do things that could be considered naughty, and do need to be spoken with so they know how to behave, and we've never had a problem with that," he said. He revealed children at Westfield who misbehaved could end up losing some of their play time.

"Children here might be kept in to see the teacher or a behaviour assistant, and these times can be at play time or after school, but can't be during teaching time, unless of course it's of a serious nature," he said.

Carole Farrar, head teacher of New Earswick Primary School, said the school had a special room, called the Think About It Room, where children might have time out as a sanction.

"It might be time out from the classroom or the playground," she said.

"You just ask the children to follow the school code, which is there for everybody's safety and happiness. It was drawn up by the children themselves - everybody's involved in that.

"If they choose not to follow the code, it may be that one of those sanctions is going to the Think About It Room.

"But before we get to that stage, the children get reminders and warnings - it's not a really draconian thing where the first time they've ever done anything wrong they get a detention."

Jane Nellar, head teacher at St Lawrence CE Primary School, said: "In every school there are always reward and sanction systems, because you have to have them.

"But they are balanced in measure with each other.

"Most systems are very straightforward and it just depends on what the child does as to what the outcome is.

"We try to make sure our children know exactly what happens when whatever occurs - they know it depends on the severity of the misdemeanour.

She said children were warned if their behaviour was inappropriate, to give them the opportunity to change it ahead of any punishment.

"We have a very structured disciplinary policy where the children are given a series of warnings if certain things happen, and they are warnings so they can modify their behaviour," she said.

"But obviously if they don't, there are outcomes as a result of that.

"Sometimes it's just that they have to spend one minute out of play time, sometimes they might have to go and sit in another class for a period of time, but we'll always involve parents."