A school troubled by bad behaviour has introduced Saturday morning detentions.

A letter sent to parents at Caldicot school in Monmouthshire says the two-hour detentions are being introduced to "avoid fixed term exclusions".

The school has recently appointed a new acting headteacher, Alun Ebenezer.

It recently received backlash after pupils said a number of girls were sent home due to the length of their skirts.

Pupils can be given a detention if they collect bad behaviour marks and Mr Ebenezer said the Saturday detention is required where other sanctions, including being held after school, haven’t worked.

He said the sanction has been in the school’s eight-page behaviour policy since September and added the school "haven’t needed to use it until now".

Parents are warned failure to attend the detention will result in the pupil’s exclusion. 

"This is the next step to have to come in on a Saturday morning. I’m told it’s restrictive practice, that young people don’t like them, and to use it sparingly but the vast majority don’t get a detention and once young people start liking detention then let’s get rid of it as it’s not worth doing.

"I have to travel nearly an hour to get here on Saturday and I don’t want to be there.

"Everybody I talk to wants young people to behave and that doesn’t just happen, you have to put things in place but all we seem to get is a backlash.

"People talk about it not being good for wellbeing I would argue it’s not good for anybody’s wellbeing to have young people misbehaving and defiant," Mr Ebenezer added.

Other steps in the policy include requiring pupils to clean tables if they have vandalised them or supervised litter picking.

It also included having parents come into school to sit next to their children during lessons, which the head says has been implemented.

He said most of the school’s 1,300 pupils are following its rules and just a handful of boys had to attend after-school detention on Tuesday, with six pupils required to attend the Saturday morning detention this week.

The letter to parents said Saturday detentions will run once per half term and had been discussed in school assemblies.

In 2023, staff had staged strikes in the autumn term in response to physical and verbal abuse from pupils.

Estyn, education inspectors, noted staff morale and pupil behaviour had improved at Caldicot School since the appointment Mr Ebenezer in its latest report which found the school needed "significant improvement".