Rewards and Sanctions
At Northstowe Learning Community, we wish to have a pleasant working atmosphere in which all students adhere to our whole school values of being kind, curious and hardworking.
We aim to equip our students with the values, attitudes, skills and knowledge that bring success in future employment, study and life. Whilst we take academic achievement seriously, we also consider educating the whole person to be vitally important.
We expect that students will demonstrate through their actions that they know what constitutes appropriate behaviour and that they understand what is expected of them and respond accordingly. This is reflected in our college and Meridian Trust values:
Recognition
We believe in recognising all students. Every child is different and in a school it can be very difficult to know, acknowledge and recognise everyone. Our aim is to make every child feel valued and really appreciated for their efforts to demonstrate the school’s values and to try their very best.
Recognition opportunities are our way to identify student effort, progress and achievement, and help to motivate others. They are a key way of building relationships with our students. We utilise a range of recognition opportunities at Northstowe Secondary College that are either given in lessons or celebratory comments that are also shared with home.
We do this by saying it, in lessons and around the school, acknowledging them by name and genuinely appreciating their contributions, or by calling home and telling parents how well their child has done. We write it in emails to parents, telling them when students have stood out, improved or produced great work. We write home via Subject and Northstowe postcards, recognising outstanding work or contributions in class or around the school. We publish students who have demonstrated our values weekly in the newsletter and in assemblies. We celebrate on our Facebook page, academic, sporting and personal achievements as well as in end of term assemblies with certificates and silly prizes.
Our aim is to try and capture something positive and wonderful for every child every year.
We survey our students every term and our parents twice a year, to ensure they feel that we are doing this and that they do feel valued. This is very important to us all and we will reflect on our processes, if we are not meeting our own high standards.
Sanctions
Northstowe staff will work in partnership with families to help students develop high levels of discipline in order that a proper regard for authority is developed. We aim to ensure that students take responsibility for their own actions appropriate to their age and maturity.
We seek to create a kind, curious and hardworking learning environment by:
- Demonstrating good behaviour and discipline;
- Promoting excellent learning and teaching and high standards of attainment;
- Ensuring all responses to positive and negative behaviour are fair, consistent and proportionate;
- Promoting positive relationships amongst all stakeholders;
- Ensuring early intervention;
- Providing a safe environment free from disruption, violence and peer on peer abuse.
We attempt to resolve issues restoratively to promote and protect healthy relationships amongst members of our community and to ensure that those responsible of any harm accept responsibility for the impact of their actions.
Please find below a one-page summary of our behaviour policy. Our full behaviour policy can be found on our Policies and Statutory Information page.
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Whilst the vast majority of students make a positive contribution to the college and meet or exceed these expectations consistently, in some cases there is a need to remind and reinforce the high expectations of the college community. In and around college, students follow ‘Be Northstowe’.
If a student fails to meet our expectations in / out of lessons, there are clear consequences to their actions. We also expect the same high standards of decency and behaviour when travelling to and from college. We do not ignore misbehaviour.
Consequences should be applied consistently and fairly across the college. Tutors will work with students and their families to prevent recurrences. More serious incidents, including bullying, are dealt with by House Links / SLT and sanctions applied at an appropriate level.