Year 7 is organised into eight mixed ability tutor groups each with their own Form Tutor. The Form Tutor should always be your first point of contact for any issues.

The tutor team and year group is looked after by:

Mr Dawson, Assistant Headteacher, Year 7 & 8 Progress, Conduct & Welfare Leader.

Head of Year 7

Assistant Head of Year

Year 7 Form tutors

Pastoral Support Worker

You are given the opportunity to meet staff who teach your child each year at the Consultation Evenings but please do not hesitate to get in touch with your son’s Form Tutor if you have problems or worries concerning your son.

In addition, the Head of Year and the Assistant Headteacher in charge of Progress, Conduct and Welfare would be happy to discuss your son’s progress with you.

The school day is as follows:

8.40am: EVERYONE is expected to be in Junior Playground by this time having got what they need from their locker and be ready to start their day

8.45am Registration

9.10am Period 1

10.10am Period 2

11.10am Break

11.30am Period 3

12.30pm Lunch time

1.30pm Period 4

2.30pm Period 5

3.30pm School ends

The School Rules are designed to make everyone’s working day safe, happy and productive. They help to create a feeling of calm and order and support the school’s primary purpose: to provide a place in which people can learn and excel.

For the full detail of School Policies and Rules please click here to visit the school website.

Whether or not a particular matter is covered in the School Rules, in order to guarantee good order and safety one rule actually overrides all others and is absolute:

Students accept the authority of every member of staff and follow, without question, any instruction given to them.

The only exception is where a student honestly believes that to do so would put theirs or someone else’s safety or morality at risk.

If a student believes that a rule, the requirement to follow a rule or being given a punishment for breaking a rule is unfair, he must not challenge that at the time because that would break the rule underlined above, but do so correctly by speaking to either the Form Tutor, Assistant Head of Year, Head of Year, Assistant Headteacher, Deputy Headteacher or Headteacher.

In addition to the School Rules the Student Voice group devised a Code of Conduct, a set of principles underpinning the detailed rules – see attached.

The Code of Conduct emphasises taking pride in one’s self, community and school. It asserts the right of everyone in the school to be treated as an individual but it also suggests that, whilst there are rules, each person should take responsibility for his own actions and contribution to the community.

In other words, correct behaviour should be a personal responsibility not something achieved only by the imposition of rules.

The school takes its responsibilities regarding the prevention of bullying, equality of opportunity and inclusion very seriously. These policies and more are all published on the school website.

In Year 7 all boys follow the same broad curriculum. All study French. Most teaching is in tutor groups, where setting by ability begins after the first half term.

From Year 8, the vast majority of boys are offered the chance to study a second language, either German or Spanish. For those who would benefit from extra support in English, they will follow a literacy course taught by the English department.

For more information on the curriculum followed by individual departments please click here

Boys in Year 7 must remain on site at lunchtime. In special circumstances, parents may request in writing that their son be permitted to go into the town at lunchtime on a particular day for a specific purpose as a one off.

Boys may purchase food from the canteen or from the ‘Pod’ where a wide range of dishes are available. The canteen offers a 'Meal of the Day', which includes a vegetarian option, available at a fixed price of £2.50 which provides excellent value. Alternatively, they can choose from a varied range of hot and cold dishes. Please note that payment for food is via our cashless biometric system and all students are encouraged to use this method.

Each student will have a biometric account and parents can ‘load’ money on to this either by WisePay, cheque or cash at regular intervals. All canteen transactions can then be performed without money changing hands. Boys may bring a packed lunch. No notice is required for this and arrangements may be changed from day to day.

Free School Meals - there is an automated renewals process for those already receiving free school meals and there is therefore no need to inform Hertfordshire County Council that your child is moving to a new school. New applicants can apply either online at www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/freeschoolmeals or by phoning the Customer Service Centre on 0300 123 4048 (8am-8pm Monday to Friday, 9am-4pm Saturday).

Boys in receipt of Free School Meals will have £2.50 automatically loaded on to their biometric account each morning; any money not spent that day will not be carried forward.

The school library is open throughout the lunch hour. Many extra-curricular activities take place during lunch hour such as Homework Club.

Mr Dawson explains more about HBS's Hitchin Kitchen' and 'The Pod' here

Homework is an essential part of schoolwork. Parents can best help not only by encouraging their sons and stressing the value of homework but also by providing a quiet place to work, free of the distractions of mobile devices, television, radio, music and games consoles. Students may also choose to do homework during the lunch hour or after school in the library (Monday to Thursday).

Year 7 will be set approximately two homeworks’, of around 20-25 minutes each, every weekday; the time spent each evening on homework increases as boys move up the school. If your son appears to be spending considerably more or less time than is intended or if the work seems regularly too hard or not very challenging, please notify the Head of Department if it is just a single subject or if it is a range of subjects then this should go through his Form Tutor.

The homework timetable is published on our EduLink One app in the Noticeboard section and email home at the start of the year. It may also be put on the school website. Departments also distribute homework and other information via GoogleDrive and GoogleClassroom which is accessible to all students using unique logins and passwords at www.hitchinboys.co.uk.

In Year 7 every student will continue their journey to become a better learner that continues into adulthood. We especially want students to learn how to do this both as part of a team (form activities) and independently when needed (homework and revision for example).

We will be focusing on a wide variety of values within the school curriculum but two that especially stand out are those of TEAMWORK and RESILIENCE.

TEAMWORK

Is embedded into the very fabric of the form groups, as each form adopts a letter from TEAMWORK to be their name. This highlights consistently the need for the students to work as a team whether it is in small group activities in the classroom, to the playground, to form and house competitions.

RESILIENCE

Students will be strongly encouraged to learn to be resilient. This takes many forms and is an essential life skill whether it is finding solutions to problems, supporting each other regardless of ability level or accepting our mistakes and how to learn from them.

To easily understand this students will be introduced to and expected to follow the 3 Rs, to improve their learning both inside and outside of school.

The 3 Rs are:

1. Resilient: This is about having a GROWTH MINDSET, staying positive and keeping going when things get difficult.

2. Resourceful: This is about being able and willing to work in different ways, making good use of resources including other people. For example, if you don’t understand a piece of classwork or homework who can you ask to help you.

3. Reflective: This is about thinking what they have learnt or how they have learnt, using their previous experiences, including the mistakes and learning from them.

This begins with getting used to their new form group and with making new friendships that are essential for a healthy and successful time at Hitchin Boys’. We also encourage them to build on their existing friendships from primary schools and outside clubs.

Click here to view links to sources of information and advice relevant to student mental health and well-being plus useful resources for parents.

Staff are always looking to recognise, praise and reward good work or outstanding effort made by our students. This is done in the following ways:

• Verbal praise given in the lesson.

• Positive comments written in the exercise book / folder.

• Achievement points issued and put on your son’s electronic register. If you use the app version of EduLink One on your smartphone you will get immediate notification of these as they happen. Achievement Points contribute to the Inter-House Times Shield Competition and also the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen which runs in conjunction with the Times Shield but every half term. The results of the Inter-House Times Shield are announced on the last day of the summer term. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen begins after the October half term when Year 7 have settled in and results are announced a week or so before the end of each half term with prizes for the winning form such as going into lunch first on a Monday.

• Certificates are issued to individuals at the end of each full term for those students who achieve the benchmark for a Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum award. The number required can change each year and for different year groups but are awarded on a ‘conduct point’ basis (the sum of the achievement points minus any behaviour points).

• Displaying work in the classroom/corridor/tutor rooms on noticeboards.

• Subject teacher contacts parents

• Referral to Head of Year / Assistant Headteacher / Head Teacher.

• Letters of commendation sent home to parents by Head of Year after each termly Progress Report.

• Department rewards such as certificates/prizes presented in lessons or assemblies.

In Years 7 and 8 particularly we will have time given in form once a week to recognise the weekly success of students within each form as part of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. In December, Easter and July we will have a special Awards Assembly where there are also prizes given out to recognise progress, effort and attainment each term. Certificates will also be issued to boys who have excellent attendance each term and throughout the year.

Many Departments award certificates and end of year prizes/trophies to boys who have produced the best work and projects or to those who have made the most progress throughout the year but most notably at the Founders day celebration. At the end of each term the PE Department have an extended sports assembly to celebrate the achievements of teams and individuals. On the last day of the summer term, there is a final assembly when the results of the inter-House Times Shield competition is announced and cups/shields/trophies are presented to the winning Houses.

In the Summer term, there is a Founders’ Day Assembly for Key Stage 3 students where all kinds of work can be celebrated; extracts from stories and poems composed in English are read, there are musical items, artwork is displayed, modern language films are shown for example.

Full details are available on the school website.

Much valuable work is done outside the classroom. Boys are encouraged to participate in clubs and societies which meet during the lunch hour and after school. A Homework Club is open every day of the week in N3 and is supervised by a member of staff.

Instrumental music lessons are taught to a large number of students and evening concerts take place every term.

School trips are organised by many Departments during both term and holiday times, these include; Science, History and Geography field trips, Art gallery visits, Design and Technology industrial visits, the Rugby tour plus the School Ski trip and MFL trip abroad. Further information can be found here

The School is keen to support the Duke of Edinburgh Award and continues to promote this and other expeditions which have taken place in South America (2003), India (2005), Peru (2007), Costa Rica (2009), Zambia/Malawi (2011), Kenya/Tanzania (2013), Malaysia (2014), Thailand/Cambodia (2016), Malaysia (2017, 2018 & 2019).

Drama productions involving large numbers of pupils from all years have included “The Wizard of Oz”, “Oliver”, “Dracula Spectacula”, “Smike”, “Dad’s Army”, “Sweeney Todd”, “The Producers”, “Bugsy Malone, “Hot Mikado”, “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”, “Spamalot”, “Cabaret” and “The Wedding Singer”

Students are entered for national and local competitions, including Youth Speaks, Maths Challenges, Science Crest Awards, Rotary Technology Challenge and Young Enterprise, Race for the Line, Quadcopter Challenge.

Parents have a legal responsibility to make sure that their son attends school daily and that he arrives on time.

Should he be away for any reason, an email to absence@hitchinboys.co.uk or telephone call on the first day and subsequent days of absence is required.

A written request for leave of absence for dental, hospital or doctor's appointments should be made well in advance and should not be on the day of the actual appointment, except in cases of emergency. Where possible, these should be made outside school hours. As the school is ‘in loco parentis' in matters of supervision, your child must have written permission to sign out when he leaves school for an appointment and sign back in again when he returns after the appointment. The Signing In/Out Book is located in Reception.

Any absence from school can affect your child’s academic progress. Students are therefore not expected to take leave of absence during term time. The school will not be able to authorise absence for time out of school for reasons other than illness except in wholly exceptional or unavoidable circumstances. Should requests be made which do not fulfil the criteria any resulting absences will be unauthorised and appear as such on the student’s record. If your child’s attendance is a concern, then the Local Authority Attendance Officer will be informed. We use Fixed Penalty Notices, following the Hertfordshire County Council Guidance for Schools.

Full details of our Attendance Policy is available on the school website.

If your child is taken ill in school, he must report to Reception. If he is not well enough to remain in school, the school will contact parents. Your child must not ring home and ask you to collect him.

Please inform us of any special medical history for which your child needs particular treatment or medication. This information should be sent to PA to the Head Teacher at admin@hitchinboys.co.uk. Your child is not allowed to carry medication etc. in school; these must be handed in to reception for staff to administer when needed throughout the day. The only exception is a student who is asthmatic or has a severe allergic reaction, who may keep his inhaler or Epipen with him. We would also highly recommend that we hold a spare in the school reception.

The school policy on the administration of medicines is based on guidance provided by the Department for Education and is available on our website or from the school reception. If a parent wishes the school to administer a prescribed medicine, they will need to complete a ‘Request to Administer Medication’ form that is available from reception. No medication will be administered without prior written permission from the parents. The school can only accept medicines that have been prescribed by a doctor, dentist, nurse practitioner or pharmacist and which are in the original container as dispensed and include the prescriber’s instructions for administration.

Please note that work is not usually sent home if your child has a period of prolonged absence due to illness. This is to allow him to rest and help him return to school as soon as possible. Arrangements can be made to assist him in catching up with missed work on his return. However, parents are encouraged to keep the school informed of his medical progress and discuss his educational needs with his Tutor.

A punctual start to the morning is expected. Your child must be in the junior playground by 8.40am at the latest, ready to be registered and to start the day's activities.

If he arrives after this time he will be marked as late and should sign in at Reception and enter his name in the Signing In/Out Book.

Parents will be informed if their child persistently arrives late to school without good reason and he will receive a detention. Please encourage your child to leave home in good time in order to be prompt for registration and ensure that you call school if you know that he is going to arrive late.

If there is a change in family circumstances, or if there are any other problems that may affect your child, please do not hesitate to notify your child’s Form Tutor via email or please pass on your concerns to our Reception team.

Parents receive termly progress reports detailing their child’s progress and attitude to learning. These are communicated via our Edulink app and are found in the ‘Reports’ tab. In addition, students are actively involved in assessing their own progress and setting realistic and achievable targets for improvement.

Year 7 Parents/Carers will be invited to meet with your child’s teachers at the Parent Consultation Evening during the Spring term to discuss their academic work and progress. We are, however, always pleased to discuss concerns and your child’s academic progress at any time. Should you feel there is an issue with a subject please contact your child’s class teacher in the first instance, or Head of Department if needed. They will be in the best position to deal with any concerns you may have and will be very happy to discuss them with you.

Appointments are booked through our EduLink app.

We strongly believe that all our students have unique abilities, strengths and interests. We strive to support each and every one to fulfil their potential. However, students who excel in a subject and consistently work at an exceptional level will need extra support and/or encouragement. When appropriate we will target opportunities towards students to support them to realise their potential; throughout our students' greatest opportunities will occur in their day to day lessons. Departments will track their high attaining students allowing for a fluid, continual assessment of their needs in order to provide the right level of challenge, guidance and to ensure inclusion. Where specific programmes or opportunities beyond the classroom are available, relevant staff will ensure that they are targeted at students who would most benefit, whilst ensuring that there is opportunity for self-selection. Students and parents will be contacted throughout the year if their child has been invited for an opportunity that may support the development of her strengths and interests. Through parent consultation meetings and regular reporting, parents will have the opportunity to share in and support their child’s progress. Parents will be encouraged to communicate knowledge they have about their child’s strengths and interests outside school to relevant subject staff or our Pastoral Team.

Please click here to see our recommended reading list for year 7s

Your child’s personal belongings must be clearly named and expensive items should be left at home. Your child is responsible for all his belongings, including mobile phone, and is expected to make a thorough search as soon as it is realised that something is lost. Items found in school are put in the lost property collection in the school reception with the exception of items of PE kit that are kept in the PE changing rooms.

Please note that the school cannot accept any responsibility for money or personal property brought on to the premises.

Items unclaimed after 1 month are recycled.

Please name all clothing and equipment.

Smart watches should only be used for checking the time. Any repeated use of a smart watch for other purposes during the school day including at break and lunchtime may result in confiscation of the watch.

Any mobile phone or electronic device must be switched off and in a bag at all times during the school day including at break and lunchtime and at any time when the owner/user is on the school premises.

Any mobile phone or electronic device may be turned on after school once the owner/user has left the premises.

Emergency contact between student and a parent/carer during the school day must be carried out via reception only.

In unforeseen circumstances, such as arranging transport after out-of-hours practices or rehearsals, mobile phones may be used with the express permission of the supervising member of staff. Photographs, video or audio clips must not be taken using mobile phones or any other electronic device. The school retains the authority to access and delete images and data held on a mobile phone or electronic devices if it is reasonable to suspect that they have been misused in school or during school activities. The only exception to the above will be if a member of staff authorises the use of such devices in a lesson to support the learning in the classroom. For example, to photograph a finished product in order to upload the image for the purposes of coursework or to conduct necessary research.

Breaking the rules covering mobile phones and any other electronic devices will result in immediate confiscation of the item. Students will not receive a warning. If a mobile phone or other electronic device is seen or heard, the student is required to hand it over straight away. The item will be held in school in reception until the end of the school day. The owner of the mobile phone or electronic device will be able to collect it from reception from 3.35pm to 4.15pm and no later. If a student has had a mobile phone or electronic device confiscated on three different occasions during the academic year, he will no longer be able to collect the item at the end of the school day. Parents/Carers will be notified and reception staff will ring home to arrange a suitable time for parents/carers to come in and collect the relevant item on their child’s behalf. As with all personal property, mobile phones and other electronic devices are brought into school at the owner’s risk.

Please click here for further information

Here at HBS, we are very proud to be able to celebrate and support a diverse community of both staff and students. We are committed to ensuring that anyone who identifies as LGBTQ+ is treated fairly and has the same opportunities and school experience as anyone else. For further information, please click here.

If your son is entitled to free school transport, the Transport Department of the County Council will notify you before the start of the Autumn Term.

Boys may cycle if they receive their Head of Year’s permission (a parental letter is required). All bicycles must be marked to show ownership, padlocked during the day and left only in the cycle park. We would encourage students to wear safety helmets when cycling. Bicycles must be kept in good condition. They may not be ridden in any part of the school grounds. The School cannot accept any responsibility for loss of or damage to bicycles however caused.

Students must remember that when in school uniform they are representing the school and as such must behave in a manner inline with our school behavior policy.

Further information about home to school transport including savercards can be found on the Hertfordshire County Council website by clicking here

Parents are asked, for reasons of safety, not to enter the school grounds when dropping off or collecting their sons before or after school. When attending Consultation Evenings or other school functions in the evening, parents should use the car park in Grammar School Walk or the APCOA car park 10 metres from the school gates. Parents are asked NOT to bring cars on site unless these car parks are full.

An exception to this restriction is made when parents are transporting sick, injured or disabled pupils or when delivering or collecting heavy or bulky equipment. At such times, parents are asked to obey the speed limit of 10 m.p.h. and to drive with utmost care. There are speed bumps in the main driveway and a pedestrian crossing five metres inside the main gates. Disabled parking is available for Parents near the main entrance.

Please be aware of the double yellow line parking restrictions in Grammar School Walk.

The School Fund supplies needs which cannot be met out of the finances provided by the Government. Parents are urged to contribute to this fund by completing a Standing Order Mandate to make regular contributions to the Hitchin Boys’ School Charitable Trust. The further information including the mandate can be found here

We are well aware that the cost of keeping a child in school is considerable but we want all boys to be able to take part in the full range of opportunities the School can offer. Financial assistance may be available for school meals, uniform, music fees and school trips and visits.

Further information can be found on the school website

Free resources for Year 7 Students (Click on the link and then scroll down to this section)

BBC Bitesize: Starting Secondary School Campaign Trailer

BBC Bitesize: Starting Secondary School - Packed with videos, interactive games, tips and advice, Starting Secondary School will help your child during their last term in primary school and through their critical first weeks at secondary school.

Starting Secondary School has lots of content hosted on BBC Bitesize, including peer-to-peer advice from the stars of CBBC series Our School who have first-hand experience of making the move to secondary school.

It also has practical tips for you as a parent on how to prepare your child for secondary school, as well as resources to help start discussions around transition, produced in partnership with YoungMinds.

BBC Bitesize: Are you Secondary School ready?

Oxford University Press: A Parents guide to starting Secondary School

Young Minds: Top ten tips for Parents

Supporting Your Child When They're Starting a New School - Creative Education