Behaviour management policy

BEHAVIOUR MANAGEMENT POLICY

Aims

To teach, enable and encourage pupils to develop positive attitudes, good manners, care and respect for others, self-control, and the ability and willingness to take responsibility for and to be accountable for their actions.
To create a safe (stable), positive and stimulating environment, free from disruption, violence, bullying, discrimination and any form of harassment where quality teaching and learning can take place.
To foster proper regard for authority and positive relationships based on mutual respect.

Roles and Responsibilities

The governing body will establish, in consultation with the head teacher, staff and parents, the policy for the promotion of good behaviour and review it annually. It will ensure that it is communicated to pupils and parents, is non-discriminatory and the expectations are clear. Governors will support the school in maintaining high standards of behaviour.
The head teacher is responsible for the implementation and day-to-day management of the policy and procedures. Support for staff faced with challenging behaviour is also an important responsibility of the head teacher, senior management, heads of department, year directors and director for inclusion.
Staff, including teachers, support staff and volunteers, will be responsible for ensuring that the policy and procedures are followed and are consistently and fairly applied. Mutual support amongst all staff in the implementation of the policy is essential. Staff have a key role in advising the head teacher on the effectiveness of the policy and procedures. All staff are considered to be on duty at all times during the school day (with the exception of lunch times) and are responsible for encouraging good behaviour and maintaining discipline anywhere in the school.
Good classroom behaviour rests to a large degree on the quality of the lessons and the effectiveness of teaching and classroom management. A good teacher will engage his/her pupils, keep them on task, and gain their respect. Accordingly, staff have responsibility, with the support of the head teacher, for creating a high quality learning environment, teaching good behaviour and implementing the agreed policy and procedures consistently. In addition to quality of teaching, teachers should:

a) arrive on time to lessons and take a register each lesson

b) establish and make clear the routines that classes are to follow

c) follow the Teaching and Learning and the Assessment Policies

d) prepare lessons well

e) insist on silence and full attention from pupils when addressing the class

f) reward good behaviour and good answers with praise

g) not tolerate disrespect or rudeness

h) always respond to poor behaviour and disruption

i) reprimand, punish or reward as appropriate

j) show respect to all pupils by responding to poor behaviour calmly and assertively

The governing body, head teacher and staff will ensure there is no differential application of the policy and procedures on any grounds, particularly ethnic or national origin, culture, religion, gender, disability or sexuality. They will also ensure that the concerns of pupils are listened to and appropriately addressed.
Pupils will not argue with staff as this disrupts the learning and teaching taking place in the classroom. If pupils feel that they have been treated unfairly they may go to their tutor or year director and put their case to them. This must be done in an adult manner and at a time and place convenient to the member of staff.
Parents and carers will take responsibility for the behaviour of their child both inside and outside the school. They will be encouraged to work in partnership with the school to assist the school in maintaining high standards of behaviour and will have the opportunity to raise with the school any issues arising from the operation of the policy. They will sign a home-school partnership agreement when their child enters the school, and will be involved when the behaviour of their child becomes a cause for concern.
Pupils will be expected to take responsibility for their own behaviour and will be made fully aware of the school policy, procedure and expectations. Pupils have a responsibility to choose the correct behaviour. Failure to do so will lead to clear consequences. Pupils also have a responsibility to ensure that incidents of disruption, violence, bullying and any form of harassment are reported.

Procedures

The procedures arising from this policy will be developed by the head teacher in consultation with the staff.
The procedures will make clear to the pupils how acceptable standards of behaviour can be achieved and will have a clear rationale which is made explicit to staff, pupils and parents.
The procedures will be consistently and fairly applied and promote the idea of personal responsibility and that every member of the school has a responsibility towards the whole community and that they are ambassadors for The West Bridgford School at all times.
The procedures will include details on the Code of Conduct, the use of rewards and sanctions, the referral and behaviour management system and the use of outside agencies.

Rewards

The school’s ethos of encouragement is central to the promotion of good behaviour. Rewards are one means of achieving this. They have a motivational role in helping pupils to realise that good behaviour is valued, and are clearly defined in the procedures. Integral to the system of rewards is an emphasis on praise both informal and formal to individuals and groups.

Sanctions

Sanctions are needed to respond to inappropriate behaviour
A range of sanctions is clearly defined in the procedures and their use will be characterised by clarity of why the sanction is being applied and what changes in behaviour are required to avoid future sanctions. Sanctions include loss of free time (usually breaks and lunchtime), setting extra work, after-school detentions, isolation, exclusion from school and community work.
The procedures make a clear distinction between the sanctions applied for minor and major offences.

For serious offences, strong sanctions will be imposed. The school will not tolerate pupils endangering the welfare or safety of staff or other pupils by dangerous or criminal activity. In particular, pupils selling drugs on the school premises or bringing weapons into school will be at risk of permanent exclusion.

When considering either fixed term exclusions or permanent exclusions the head teacher will give full regard to the DCSF guidance on exclusions (Improving Behaviour and Attendance: Guidance on Exclusion from Schools and Pupil Referral Units Sept 2008). In instances of children with Special Educational Needs full regard will be given to DFE circular 9/94 (The Education of Children with Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties), and DfEE circular 1998 (Meeting Special Educational Needs: a programme of action).

Training

The governing body will ensure that appropriate high quality training on all aspects of behaviour management is provided to support the implementation of the policy.

Inter-relationship with Other School Policies

In order for the behaviour policy to be effective, a clear relationship with other school policies particularly equality of opportunity, additional needs, attendance, drug abuse and anti-bullying, has been established.

Involvement of Outside Agencies

The school works positively with external agencies. It seeks appropriate support from them to ensure that the needs of all pupils are met by utilising the range of external support available.

Review

The head, in consultation with the staff, will undertake systematic monitoring and conduct regular reviews of the behaviour management policy and procedures in order to evaluate them to ensure that the operation is effective, fair and consistent. The head will keep the governing body informed, reporting to them annually.

The governing body will regularly review this policy and associated procedures, to ensure its continuing appropriateness and effectiveness. The review will take place in consultation with the head teacher, staff and parents. The Code of Conduct will also be reviewed by the school council to give pupils a voice in it. The outcome of the review will be communicated to all those involved, as appropriate.

West Bridgford School

BEHAVIOUR MANAGEMENT PROCEDURES

Dealing with good and bad behaviour

How does the school encourage positive behaviour?

This is done by rewarding children, challenging unacceptable behaviour, providing appropriate support and by operating a system of clear and fair sanctions.

What sort of opportunities are taken to reward children?

This is done through praise, both written and verbal. It may range from a simple comment from a member of staff about how well a child has done to a letter of commendation. Displays of pupils’ work are another way in which children see that their work is valued.

The reward system includes the awarding of merits. Merits are given to pupils for achievement, improvement and for the contributions they may make to school life. The accumulation of merits leads to the award of bronze, silver, gold and platinum certificates. Further recognition of pupil achievement and progress takes place within award or presentation ceremonies.

In order to function effectively, the school will respond promptly in dealing with any form of unacceptable behaviour.

What sort of behaviour is regarded as unacceptable?

In a school there are some forms of behaviour that are regarded as unacceptable which in other contexts might seem to be quite reasonable. This will arise whenever the behaviour disrupts lessons or interferes in any other way with the smooth running of the school. The following are examples of unacceptable behaviour:

impolite behaviour
bullying
excessive noise
bringing forbidden items into school e.g. stereos, mobile phones
smoking
insolence or inappropriately challenging language towards a member of staff
untidy appearance or wearing incorrect uniform
the wearing of jewellery (other than ear studs as stipulated in the uniform policy)
forgotten or incorrect equipment
chewing gum and eating and/or drinking in the classroom
late arrival to school or to a lesson

How do we respond to unacceptable behaviour?

The response to these behaviours will be the imposition of an appropriate sanction. The following are examples of the sanctions which may be used by staff at the school:

verbal reprimand from a member of staff
detentions (break time, lunchtime or after-school)
contact with parents by letter or telephone
reprimand by a senior member of staff and ultimately the headteacher
placement on report
exclusion from lessons
exclusion from school activities

What is the West Bridgford School’s policy on exclusion from school?

West Bridgford School has a Code of Conduct that stresses the importance the school places on self-discipline and good behaviour. Sometime students breach the Code and the school has an escalating scale of sanctions it employs in response to breaches of the Code.

The most serious sanction is exclusion from school. In the first instance this will be a Fixed-Term Exclusion i.e. removal from school for 1 to 45 days. The length of the exclusion is based on a professional judgement reflecting the severity of the incident.

The ultimate sanction of any school is a Permanent Exclusion when a student has to leave and move to another school.

West Bridgford School uses the exclusion sanction (usually fixed-term) for the following serious breaches of the Code of Conduct:

failure to comply with the school’s drugs policy
theft
physical assault
defiance of the instructions from a member of staff
disruptive behaviour in lessons
bullying (including racial and sexual harassment)
deliberate damage to property
refusal to comply with the sanctions of the school
obscene language to a member of staff
verbal abuse to any individual, including obscenity and the use of offensive language
extortion and/or intimidation
bringing any item into school which may be regarded as an offensive weapon or any item with the intent to use it as an offensive weapon

7 stage intervention strategy

Where there is persistent and continuing disruptive and uncooperative behaviour then the exclusion of a child may be the only option. It is therefore necessary in some cases to set in train actions that will either lead to the improvement in the behaviour of the individual child or ultimately the permanent exclusion of the child from the school.

A letter will be sent to parents informing them when their child is on report and the importance of the report and its maintenance.

Breakdown of report

a. Mentoring by tutor and director of learning.

b. Inform parents and pupil of the concerns and arrange a meeting (director of learning and tutor).

c. Agree Personal Support Plan (tutor, director of learning, parent and child).

Further breakdown

a. Letter to parents arranging meeting.

b. Issue a formal exclusion warning (Head Teacher or Deputy

Headteacher).

c. Consider other forms of support.

Further breakdown

a. Fixed term exclusion – 1 day

b. Review Personal Support Plan and consider changes to the support provided to the child.

Further breakdown

a. Fixed term exclusion – 2 or 3 days.

b. Update Personal Support Plan (tutor or director of learning plus parent and child). Identify any additional support.

c. Review support structures, and identify any appropriate changes.

Further breakdown

a. Fixed term exclusion – 5+ days.

b. Meeting with parents plus disciplinary panel.

c. Refer to Learning Centre

Further breakdown

Permanent exclusion.

In the event of exclusion, parents will be informed either by telephone or via the delivery of a letter to the home on the day of exclusion.

How does the school support children?

Pupils who misbehave will be punished, but we will also provide them with support in order to help them avoid such problems in the future. The support structures include the following:

counselling by staff
circles of friends/peer mentoring
guidance from tutor and director of learning
support from the education welfare officer
access to the Learning Centre and support staff
advice and guidance from the school nurse and outside agencies
behaviour record/targets
contact between parents and teachers
curriculum support through teachers and heads of department

At certain times throughout the academic year it may be necessary to impose additional short term measures to ensure the maintenance of good school discipline. In such situations the head teacher and staff reserve the right to exercise discretion in the adoption of additional measures.

Pupils may become vulnerable through events such as bereavement, divorce or separation and the school will use a range of strategies to support pupils at such times. Special care will be taken to ensure that the more vulnerable pupils such as those with additional needs, those with physical or mental health needs and looked after children are supported and included.