Anti-Social Behaviour
Senior 1 · English
Anti-Social Behaviour
Lesson 3 of 5
25 min
Let's begin
When something goes wrong at school, the first job is to find out exactly what happened, and when. A clear, fair report protects everyone: the students involved, the witnesses and the school. Many Rwandan schools now handle discipline cases with a restorative approach: instead of only punishing, they ask the students who did wrong to face the people they harmed and to repair the damage. Here is the report the Dean of Discipline wrote about one case.
Before you read: If a student breaks something by accident, what should he or she do first? Why do some students hide what they have done?
INCIDENT REPORT
School: a boarding secondary school, Muhanga District
Written by: Mr Nkusi, Dean of Discipline
Date of report: Monday 26 October1. What happened. On Thursday 8 October, at about 8.15 p.m., during evening prep, two S2 students, whom this report calls Student A and Student B, left their classroom without permission. They played football in the corridor outside the science laboratory. The ball hit a laboratory window and broke it. The students ran back to their classroom and said nothing.
2. How it was discovered. The laboratory technician found the broken glass at 7.30 a.m. on Friday, before lessons began. At break, an S2 student came to my office and said that she had seen the two boys in the corridor during prep. At 10.00 a.m. I spoke to Student A and Student B separately. At first Student B said he had been in the library, but after a few minutes both boys admitted what they had done.
3. The meeting. On Monday 12 October at 2.00 p.m., I held a restorative meeting in my office with the two students, their class teacher, the laboratory technician and one parent of each boy. The technician explained that the chemistry practical for S3 had been cancelled because the room was unsafe until the glass was replaced. Both boys apologised to him and to the S3 class. Student B said he was ashamed that he had lied.
4. What was agreed. The families agreed to share the cost of the new glass, and they paid it in full by 19 October. For two weeks, from 13 until 23 October, the boys cleaned the laboratory after lessons every day under the technician's supervision. They also wrote a short article for the school magazine about honesty.
5. Follow-up. Since the meeting, neither student has broken any school rule. The student who reported the incident has been thanked privately, and her name is kept confidential. I will review the case again at the end of the term, in December.
| Word or phrase | Meaning | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|
| incident | an event, especially an unusual or bad one | The Dean wrote a report on the incident. |
| discipline | the rules for behaviour, and the actions taken when they are broken | Mr Nkusi is the Dean of Discipline. |
| without permission | without being allowed | They left the classroom without permission. |
| witness | a person who saw something happen | A witness reported the two boys. |
| admit | say that you did something wrong | Both boys admitted what they had done. |
| deny | say that you did not do something | At first, Student B denied it. |
| apologise | say you are sorry | They apologised to the technician. |
| ashamed | feeling bad because you did something wrong | He was ashamed that he had lied. |
| restorative | aiming to repair harm, not only to punish | The school held a restorative meeting. |
| confidential | kept secret; told only to people who need to know | The witness's name is confidential. |
Definition
Preposition of time: a word that shows when something happens or how long it lasts. It comes before a time expression: at 8.15 p.m., on Thursday, in December, for two weeks.
| Word | Use it with | Examples from the report |
|---|---|---|
| at | clock times; meal times; night, the weekend; the start or end of something | at 8.15 p.m., at break, at the end of the term |
| on | days and dates | on Thursday, on Monday 12 October, on 19 October |
| in | months, years, seasons; parts of the day | in December, in 2026, in the rainy season, in the morning |
| during | inside a period or an activity (+ a noun) | during evening prep, during the meeting |
| for | a length of time | for two weeks, for a few minutes |
| since | from a point in the past until now (with the present perfect) | since the meeting, since 12 October |
| until | up to a time, then stop | from 13 until 23 October |
| by | not later than (a deadline) | They paid by 19 October. |
| before, after | earlier than, later than | before lessons, after lessons |
At, in and on work for time as well as place (Lesson 2): at the bus stop at 7 a.m.; in the laboratory in October; on the second floor on Monday. The same idea helps: at a point, in a longer space, on a day as a "surface" on the calendar.
Worked example
Analyse the sentence: For two weeks, from 13 until 23 October, the boys cleaned the laboratory after lessons.
Warning
Tip
From small to big: at, on, in. A clock time is the smallest (at 8.15), a day is bigger (on Thursday), and months and years are biggest (in October, in 2026).
Prepositions of time, from BBC Learning English's Prepositions with Georgie (3 minutes). Listen for the rule for at, on and in, then check each example in the timeline above.
In pairs, use the timeline to retell the case aloud, as if you were Mr Nkusi reporting to the head teacher. Use at least six different prepositions of time. Your partner ticks each one as you use it.
On Thursday the eighth of October, at about quarter past eight in the evening, during prep, two S2 boys broke a laboratory window. The technician found the glass on Friday before lessons, and at ten o'clock the boys admitted it. On Monday, at two o'clock, we held a meeting. For two weeks after that, until the twenty-third, they cleaned the laboratory, and their families paid for the glass by the nineteenth. Since then there have been no problems.
Write an incident report of 120 to 150 words about an invented incident in a public place: for example, a fight at a football match, graffiti on a market wall, or damage to a bus shelter. Use the headings What happened, Action taken and Follow-up. Don't use real names. Include at least six prepositions of time.
INCIDENT REPORT: Graffiti at the sector market
What happened. On Saturday 7 November, at about 6 a.m., a trader found red paint on the market wall near the main gate. Someone had written insults about a football team on it during the night.
Action taken. The market committee met at 9 a.m. on the same day and informed the sector office. By Monday a guard had seen two young men with a tin of red paint, and on Tuesday they admitted the damage. They apologised to the traders at a meeting in the market hall.
Follow-up. For three Saturdays in November the two young men repainted the wall with the traders. Since then the wall has stayed clean. The committee will check the market again in January.
Practice
Sources and credits
