“It’s like a prison”: teenager tells of experience in isolation room

A teenager and his mother have given vivid descriptions of his experiences in a school’s “reset” room, including not being allowed to leave its confines for six hours apart from accompanied visits to the toilet while no-one else is around.

The boy, “Sam”*, described being sat at a desk “not much wider than me,” with blue partitions on either side and in front to stop interactions with other students, and not being allowed to turn around.

Students are held in the room from just after 8.35am to 3.15pm to work from textbooks, with their only chance to leave being up to three toilet visits a day, although they are not allowed to go during break and lunchtimes for other pupils, as the rules are that they must not interact with other pupils throughout the day.

The room has windows, though Sam said that its blinds were pulled down. So pupils did not get to see outside for the day.

Sam’s mother questioned how much education her son was receiving while in the reset room – also known as “isolation” – with children even in the run-up to their GCSEs being put in there. Students have to spend a day in isolation after being suspended by the school.