Refocusing on standards and behaviour around school

7^th April 2022

Dear Parents and Carers,

Re: Refocusing on standards and behaviour around school

I am writing to outline our basic expectations and standards that we are sharing with all students this week and next week in school. As we return to more normal school life, after close to two years of disruption, it is important to share this information with you.

We believe that excellent behaviour and high personal and interpersonal standards are crucial to building good relationships with those around you. They are the foundation of care for yourself and others, build resilience in taking responsibility and lead to successful, happy, healthy people. To this aim, we are ensuring all students and staff focus on basic respect and standards as the foundation to all we do.

In school, our expectations are that we:

1. Talk politely and with kindness to everyone, at all times
2. Politely follow instructions given by adults in the school
3. Listen to others by being silent when others are speaking, and carefully consider what has been said
4. Are actively engaged in challenging lesson activities at all times
5. Are prepared with all we need for lessons, including stationery/books, pens, pencils and ruler, calculator, PE kit, ingredients, etc.
6. Wear the correct uniform smartly, without question
7. Use equipment that is provided by the school carefully and make sure it is ready for use by others when you have finished with it
8. Respect personal space and boundaries
9. Walk calmly and talk quietly while moving around the school
10. Mobile phone use by pupils, inside and outside the school building, within school grounds is not permitted. This included break and lunchtime.

These are simple expectations, and all students should follow them without question.

We expect all students to come to school in the correct uniform. Occasionally, if students forget an item of uniform, or arrive wearing incorrect footwear without a valid reason, we will endeavour to provide them with the loan of the correct uniform item on arrival. We expect this to be returned to the pastoral office at the end of the school day.

Although we recognise that mobile phones allow students to feel safe travelling to and from school, and that this reassures parents too, on arrival to school, a student’s mobile phone needs to be switched off and not used in school. Our school office will happily contact parents should a student need to get in touch with them, but we do not expect students to use their mobile phone at all in the school day. If a student takes out their mobile phone in the school day, they will be asked to put it away immediately. If this is repeated, their phone will be confiscated and stored safely in a tamper-proof bag until they collect it at the end of the school day. Details will be logged, and if this happens repeatedly, we will contact parents/carers to collect the phone from school. Please support us in reinforcing this from home. As a school, we do not wish to waste valuable time tackling issued that arise from mobile phone use, especially in school, and want to focus on ensuring the highest standards of education for our students.

Respect for the environment and equipment, as well as for each other is vital for success at school. We have recently invested a lot of money in refurbishing some of the toilets in school. Sadly, a very small number of students have vandalised our school toilets, which means that the money we were going to use to carry out further refurbishment has to be spent on repairs and hiring contractors to fix problems. I have listened to the students’ and parents’ points of view on the condition of the previous toilets, and want to ensure they are all overhauled and brought up to date. I agree with the views on the previous toilets, and want to overhaul them all. Unfortunately, we only receive a set amount of money each year, which we want to spend on refurbishment, not repairing deliberate and malicious damage.

Please can you speak with your child about the content of this letter, so they support us in making Budehaven Community School as nice an environment as it can be, and reinforce the school rules on the use of mobile phones. Please also support your child further by reiterating the need for them to ensure their work is high quality, and that their books are always kept neat and tidy.

The way students speak to each other is testament to their respect for each other. We all believe that everyone comes to school or work to be treated with respect, listened to, and supported. We do not tolerate disrespect, harassment, racism, sexism, homophobia or any other act of unkindness.

To this aim, we are actively seeking students to join our “kindness army”, which will be a group of students and staff who carry out targeted acts of kindness and generosity throughout the year. If your child would be interested in joining this group, please ask them to contact myself, or any member of the Senior Leadership Team, and we will be delighted to instantly add them to the group.

Thank you for your support in ensuring our standards are maintained, with the aim of ensuring all children are happy, healthy and succeed in all they do.

Yours faithfully,

Mr Wilkes

Headteacher

.

Download this letter (166Kb PDF)