Sanctions

The School believes in promoting, encouraging and rewarding good behaviour at all times. Where it is necessary to impose sanctions, however, they will be in accordance with the following principles:

• All sanctions should be fair, proportionate and reasonable and take into account any special needs or circumstances that may apply to a particular student.

• Students should not be sanctioned twice for the same offence (unless repeated).

• Students should not be humiliated or demeaned in front of their peers or others, or deprived of any facilities necessary to leading a normal, civilised life.

• The Mentor or Year Head directly responsible for the student receiving a sanction should always be notified that the sanction has been given and record it accordingly.

• Corporal or other similar forms of physical sanctions will not be given.

• Wherever possible, sanctions should be constructive, educational and relevant to the nature of the offence, and should seek to redress the wrong done.

• Group sanctions, where the majority are likely to be innocent of the offence, should not be given.

• Sanctions may need to balance the interests and wishes of the individual with those of the community.

The following list of possible sanctions is neither exclusive, nor prescriptive, nor automatic; nor is it appropriate to lay down a fixed ‘tariff’ for every situation:

• Very often, discussion and dialogue with the student involved will be enough to resolve the issue. Raising awareness of the unacceptable nature of the behaviour may well suffice to put an end to it. Parents can often help in this respect.

• It will sometimes be necessary to add a reprimand, which may in cases of serious concern be followed by a formal letter to parents to be placed on the student’s file. This may warn of future sanctions if the misconduct is repeated.

• For unnecessarily poor or neglected work, a student may be required to re-do it in his or her own time.

• Students guilty of academic malpractice (Policy on Academic Honesty, page 36) are liable to receive reduced grades or even zero for the work in question.

• Mentors or Year Heads will sometimes wish to place students ‘on report’ for either academic or behavioural reasons. This usually consists of a form which the pupils will present to the teacher at the start of each lesson. The teacher is asked to make a written comment at the end of the lesson which will then be reviewed by the Mentor or Year Head and parents at regular intervals.

• Loss of free time (e.g. a detention) during or after the school day or exceptionally on a Saturday. Parents will automatically be informed if this is to occur outside the school day.

• Loss of privilege (e.g. not being allowed to leave the campus during the school day for Y11 and above).

• Community service (e.g. work in the school grounds or in the cafeteria or other means of repaying a debt to the community).

• A contract giving specific undertakings as regards future behaviour and performance signed by the student and monitored by the school.

• Exclusion from an activity, trip or academic course if the student is being disruptive or likely to prevent the rest of the group from learning or taking part effectively.

• Exclusion from an external examination if the student has failed to meet coursework requirements.

• Temporary exclusion from school (suspension). This can serve to underline the seriousness of an incident and its unacceptability. Such exclusions may be accompanied by a warning that a repeat of similar behaviour will result in the student having to leave the school.

• Permanent exclusion (expulsion). In very serious individual cases or an accumulation of less serious cases it may be that the student needs to move to a different school in order to make a fresh start in a new community. It may be that the student is disrupting the school life of others to an unacceptable degree, preventing others from working or carrying on a normal life, or even posing a danger to other students or to the community as a whole. Such incidents may include violence, vandalism, theft, drug-related offences or contempt for the rules and decisions of the community or the law of the land.