Behaviour

Rewards

We are always delighted to be able to reward students for their efforts and a range of systems is in place to do so. 

In Years 7-11, students can be awarded a merit mark for small acts of aspiration, kindness or resilience. Once they have been awarded 20 merits, they are awarded a Bronze Certificate of Achievement. Further accrual of merits can lead to silver & gold certificates. These certificates are awarded in school assemblies. 

Students can also receive golden tickets for significant acts of kindness or community service, and academic postcards for significant acts of academic aspiration or achievement.

Academic success and commitment are further recognised at the annual Junior Prize Giving ceremony to which parents are invited.

Sanctions

The school uses a staged approach for discipline. For lower level misbehaviour, such as repeatedly talking when asked not to, repeatedly being disorganised or incomplete or missing homework, teachers will issue a verbal warning followed by a private detention if behaviour does not improve.

Any student found in breach of the school’s clear disciplinary guidelines will be sanctioned. Fighting, bullying, defiance, truancy, damage to property and misuse of IT are all treated as serious offences. A range of disciplinary measures will be taken, including:

• Private detentions, run by teachers at break times or lunch times

• School detentions run by the Student Development Office for 30 minutes after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays

• SLT detentions run by the SLT team for 60 minutes after school on Fridays

• Internal exclusions, given for four SLT detentions or very serious misbehaviour, can be served in a variety of ways but most commonly will comprise a removal from lessons for part of the day in addition to an after school detention

• A student may be externally excluded for a fixed term or permanently for a very serious breach of rules such as a drugs offence, serious bullying or dangerous behaviour including possession of an offensive weapon.

Parents will be given at least 24 hours notice in advance of their child sitting an after school detention. Please note that detentions cannot be rearranged and take precedence over other commitments the student may have.

We appreciate the support of parents in upholding high standards of behaviour: we work in partnership with parents towards safe and positive behaviour for all students. Please take into consideration that incidents will have been appropriately investigated by trained members of staff before cards are issued.