[Lilly]

I would have thought that any decent parent (and there are obviously several contributing to this thread) would have backed the teacher on this.

Would you want your child to be able to while away the hours in a butty shop when they should be in school?

I wouldn't. I'd want the teacher who'd seen them to haul them into school, punish them as they see fit and then inform me. I would punish them at home also. I would be thanking and apologising to that teacher and would ensure my children apologised to her too.

Too many parents have a laissez faire attitude these days.

To end up with our kids becoming decent, law abiding, employable adults we need to work with the school not against them.