Code of Behaviour
The one rule for all staff and students at this College is ‘Everyone will show courtesy and consideration at all times’.
Student Code of Behaviour
Our courtesy and consideration code translates into the following expectations for students:
Courteous In speech and conduct
Show good manners
Respect for other people
Considerate Exercise patience
Care for the College
Care for other people and their property
Prepared Correctly dressed
With the proper equipment
Ready for work
Punctual For College
For all lessons
Be at the right place at the right time
Tidy Neat and clean in appearance
Take pride in work
Care for the environment
Safety Walk quietly
Conscious Observe all College safety practices
Use equipment properly
There is a copy of this code in:
• Student Planners
• All classrooms
We hope that by encouraging students to adopt caring and responsible attitudes at school, they will behave sociably at all other times in their lives, too. If a student has done something well, tried especially hard or offered a service to the College, they will be rewarded on the Behaviour Watch computerised system. They will be given points, which will be continually totalled. Every half term there will be a celebration assembly, at which Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum Ultimate certificates are presented. E-mails may be sent via Behaviour Watch to form tutors, year Behaviour Policy leaders, curriculum managers and parents, to inform them of a student’s achievement. Points will be taken off, however, for poor behaviour.
We expect a very high standard of self discipline and behaviour from all students at all times. We encourage students to adopt caring and responsible attitudes both in and out of College.
If a student fails to meet our expected standards of work or behaviour, sanctions may be appropriate.
Sanctions
Behaviour which is a concern to the classroom teacher may be dealt with in a number of ways:-
• Students may be verbally warned
• Students may be moved to a different seat in the classroom
• Students may be moved to a different classroom for that period
• Students may be set a detention
• Students may be referred to the Curriculum Manager or Year Leader for persistent poor behaviour
• Students may be put on report card
• Students may be placed in the Support Unit
Recently introduced legislation allows teachers far broader rights to restrain, detain and remove unruly students, confiscate mobile phones that are being used in a malicious or disruptive way and punish students for poor behaviour, not just in school, but also on the way to and from school.
The core principles of this new legislation are:
•Strong statutory powers to punish students for unacceptable behaviour; this can include weekend detentions
• A legal duty on schools to make provision for measures to tackle all forms of bullying
• The legal right to reasonably confiscate mobile phones and inappropriate items from students
• Reaffirming the legal power to use physical force to restrain or control students where there is no alternative way of reventing them causing major disruption in schools or harming themselves or others.
Further information can be found on the DfE website.
Communication
• Teachers may write a comment in the Student Planner for Form Tutors and parents to see
• When students are put on report by Curriculum Managers, Form Tutors or Year Leaders, a letter will be sent home or a phone call made to parents
Detentions
• Teachers may keep students in at break and for ten minutes at the start of lunch or at the end of College, without prior notice, unless students catch a bus to get home
• Parents and students will be given 24 hours notice for longer detentions (up to one hour). Students will be given a green student slip which they would be expected to show to their parent/guardian at their earliest opportunity. The College does not legally require parents’ permission to keep a student in detention
• Students may expect a detention if they are late for College on three occasions
• Senior Leadership detentions take place after school on a Friday
Report Cards
Students are sometimes placed on report if there is cause for concern. The lowest level of report card is the Blue Card, which a classroom teacher may use. Parents would not necessarily be notified that their child is on report at this stage. Students move up the levels of report cards if their behaviour is not showing signs of improvement.
Students work their way back from red to yellow to green as their behaviour improves. Parents are asked to check and sign report cards and, when completed, a copy of the card is retained on the student’s file. The length of time that a student stays on card varies with the individual and the circumstances attaching to that individual.
Isolations/Internal and External Exclusions
• The aim of excluding students from College is to give staff and students space to develop strategies for coping with the situation
• A student may be required by a Curriculum Manager to work away from his/her normal class for one or a series of lessons, if the student is being persistently disruptive in the lesson
• Students may be required to work in isolation by a Year Leader for a lesson, part of a day, or a day, as deemed necessary (eg for not responding to a Year Leader report, to calm a situation, or for a series of misdemeanours)
• More serious incidents of behaviour (eg verbal or physical abuse to staff, fighting, bullying, acts of violence, and deliberate defiance of staff authority) may result in either internal or external exclusion, depending on the student’s record and at the Principal’s discretion. Parents are notified of both internal and external exclusions, and are invited into the College to discuss re-entry conditions and further action. Students are put on red report upon re-entry
• Copies of exclusion letters are given to the Chair of Governors
• Isolation and internal exclusions take place in the Support Unit