Spring Term 2013
Attendance Please remember that if your son is absent from school for any reason, you must call the school office on 01277 624580 by 9.00 am. If your son is also a boarder, please remember to cancel the taxi as well. New Class Timetable In an effort to put daily rewards in place for those pupils who remain in class all day the staff have decided to alter the daily routine to allow for a special end of school activity. This will involve shortening each lesson by five minutes to allow for an additional period at the end of the day for the activity to take place. Lunch time will also be reduced. Those boys who do not remain in their lessons will be expected to take part in a period of “catch up”. No curriculum time will be lost due to this change. Internal Truancy There are a small number of pupils who are not attending lessons on a regular basis and their behaviour out of class is disrupting the teaching and learning that is taking placing within the school. We will be contacting you if your child is not accessing the curriculum as expected and seeking to work in partnership to address these concerns. Internal Exclusions Some behaviour in school that could be dealt with by the use of exclusion from school will now be dealt with by way of Internal Exclusion. This means that the pupils will be required to work in the Hall, supervised by staff, away from the mainstream of the school. Pupils will be given their refreshments and lunch in this area too. You will be notified if an Internal Exclusion is to take place and we will be grateful for your support during this period. If the pupil does not complete this sanction it is possible that a full exclusion may be put in place. We are hopeful that such a sanction will help to refocus pupils who are not working or behaving as well as we, and you, expect. We do reserve the right to use full school exclusions for more serious offences. Abusive Behaviour The staff are concerned that some boys are being particularly verbally abusive, kicking doors and hurting each other and staff. We would be grateful if you would support us in getting the message through to those boys involved that such behaviour is not acceptable.. Pupils who involve themselves in such behaviour will not earn the right to take part in options and in some circumstances may face exclusion or even police involvement. |
Year 11
These pupils are currently on Work Experience and all reports from employers so far are excellent. It's great that boys who work hard during the school life to improve academic ability and behaviour are now doing so well! We wish them lots of luck in their forthcoming GCSEs. Music Man Sean Lock, Director of Music Unlimited, has been working with us this term to provide therapeutic one-to-one work with individual pupils. The boys involved have really enjoyed this provision and so, finance permitting, we hope to be able to employ him for a further term and involve more boys. Trips There are a number of trips planned for next half-term, including a day out to Chessington. Boys who achieve their daily targets, do not kick through doors and are not abusive will be eligible for these outings. Consent Forms Please ensure that any outstanding consent forms required are returned to school as soon as possible. The most recent forms sent out are for Adventure Activities and the school’s IT contract. Moat The Essex Wildlife Trust will be completing work of the moat and surrounding area during the half-term. This area of the school should look really lovely by the Spring. This just leaves me to wish you all a good break and we look forward to seeing the boys refreshed and back in school on Monday, 25 February. Kind regards Yvonne Goouge Acting Headteacher |