Discipline For Learning

Introduction

DfL Rules

Teaching the Rules

Rules and Rewards

Rules and Sanctions

Notification of Sanctions - name and ticks on the board

Notification of Detentions - detention slips and lists

Notification of Departmental Detention

School detention slips

Notification of School Lunchtime Detention

Emergency Call-Out

Introduction

Discipline for learning aims to draw on those methods which have traditionally proved most effective in the management of pupil behaviour. Although punishment and sanctions have their place here, the emphasis is placed squarely on promoting the positive behaviour that we would wish all our pupils to acquire - by recognising and rewarding it promptly and consistently and by providing appropriate feedback to all interested parties on the outcomes of this process as frequently as possible. (Ref. Adrian Smith Discipline For Learning). Punishment is seen as an inevitable but regrettable consequence of behaviour which is agreed to be inappropriate to the smooth running of the school.

Further Reading on Positive Discipline, including case studies
http://www.empoweringpeople.com/
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DfL Rules

The following rules for pupils are fundamental to Discipline for Learning:
1) Arrive on time and enter the room quietly
2) Listen to and follow instructions first time given
3) Come to lessons properly equipped and dressed; no chewing
4) Treat others and their work and equipment with respect
5) Stay in your seat unless asked to move Back to top

Teaching the Rules

The rules (and the rewards and sanctions attendant upon them) are taught by each form tutor during the tutor period on the first day of the school year and by each subject tutor to each teaching group during the first lesson of each year. Subject tutors focus upon the subject specific interpretation of the rules; e.g., what is the right equipment for a Maths lesson. Collectively pupils are retaught the rules during the first tutor period and the first lesson of each subject in each subsequent half-term individually pupils are reminded of the rules each time they infringe them. Back to top

Rules and Rewards

Pupils have the right to expect to be rewarded in each lesson that they abide by all the rules. Once earned, rewards will never be taken away. Infringement of the rules may not always result in sanctions but will always entail losing the entitlement to reward in the lesson in question - only in this way will we encourage the full range of desirable behaviours. Pupils who are absent from lessons on school business - e.g. reception duty, visits - will be deemed to have earned their rewards; pupils who miss lessons owing to their own misdemeanours - e.g. those who are in SOLO - will be deemed not to have earned their rewards. Back to top

Rules and Sanctions

Pupils who breach any rule in a particular lesson will inevitably lose their entitlement to reward. Serious breaches of discipline at any stage of the lesson will be dealt with by the emergency call-out procedures.

Please note:
1) Breaches of the uniform rule will not entail loss of reward, other than in tutor period, as long as the pupil has acquired a uniform permission slip and has shown it courteously at the beginning of the lesson/on request. However, failure to produce a permission slip in an acceptable manner (or breaches not covered by it) will automatically result in loss of reward.

2) Failure to arrive properly prepared or equipped automatically entails loss of reward - but no additional sanction, even if the pupil is unprepared in several different ways.

3) Failure to produce homework automatically entails loss of reward.

4) Late arrival without an acceptable explanation courteously delivered will result in loss of reward and a short departmental detention of appropriate length.

5) Discretion has been built into the detentions on the 'stick and carrot" principle. Prompt arrival and courteous cooperation can be rewarded by a shorter detention (except where the detention is punishment for lateness); dissent of any kind, including failure to attend, should, in the first instance, result in a longer and/or an additional detention.

6) When individual staff/departments have exhausted the sanctions at their disposal they may refer pupils for school lunchtime detention for failure to cooperate with departmental sanctions. In these circumstances, school detention will be additional to, not instead of, the departmental sanction.

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Notification of Sanctions - name and ticks on the board

Sanctions are 'awarded' in a fair and consistent manner. Pupils are informed at every stage that, through their inappropriate behaviour, they have chosen a more severe sanction. By the end of the lesson there be no doubt about which pupils have been 'awarded' which sanctions and why. Back to top

Notification of Detentions - detention slips and lists

Pupils will be notified orally during the lessons in question and subsequently the detentions will be recorded on the appropriate slips - blue for departmental and green for school. Back to top

Notification of Departmental Detention

This may be for reasons such as:
Disorderly arrival at classroom
Leaving seat
Uniform violation
Leaving without permission
No planner
Leaving before end of lesson
Missing equipment
Disorderly departure from classroom
Misuse of equipment
Failure to attend dept. detention
No homework
Failure to bring PE. Kit several times
Failure to listen
Shouting out
Chewing Back to top

School detention slips

School detention slips (green) are completed as soon as possible and no later than the end of the session a.m. or p.m.) in which they have been awarded. Slips will be collected by monitors towards the end of each session. All school detention slips will be entered into the DFL database on a daily basis and, whenever possible, the detentions will be 'paid' the following lunchtime. However, this decision is at the discretion of the Dfl coordinator.
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Notification of School Lunchtime Detention

This may be for reasons such as:
Lateness to lessons
Shouting out
Uniform violation
Leaving seat
No planner
Leaving without permission
Missing equipment
Leaving before end of lesson
Misuse of equipment
Disorderly departure from classroom
No homework
Failure to attend dept. detention
Failure to listen
Disruption of dept. detention
Failure to bring P.E. kit
Leaving before end of dept. detention


School detention lists will be distributed each morning during the briefing to form tutors, who will be expected to remind pupils about their detentions, which will take place at 12.05 p.m. in the main hail and last between 25 and 35 minutes. Pupils who fail to attend school detention without having received permission from either their head of year/school or the Dfl coordinator will be 'awarded' a further detention. If they still fail to comply, more severe sanctions will be applied, but the requirement to 'pay off' the detentions will remain. Back to top

Emergency Call-Out

At any stage of any lesson staff may summon the assistance of a senior member of staff - the duty officer who will be based in the duty office in the main entrance. The means of summoning such assistance are by sending a reliable pupil to the duty office with a completed emergency call-out slip (orange) or by internal telephone.

Emergency Call-Outs may be for reasons such as:

Repeatedly failing to observe the rules
Repeated insolence to staff
Repeatedly failing to follow instructions
Gross insolence to staff
Repeatedly disrupting other pupils/pupils' work
Using foul language
Repeatedly disrupting the work of the class
Directing foul language at other pupil/pupils
Inciting other pupils to disobedience
Directing foul language at staff
Damaging school property
Aggressive language towards other pupil/pupils
Defacing school property
Aggressive behaviour towards other pupil/pupils
Damaging other pupil's/pupils' property
Assaulting other pupil/pupils
Defacing other pupil's/pupils' property
Aggressive language towards
Endangering himself/herself
Aggressive behaviour towards staff
Interfering with fire alarms
Assaulting a member of staff
Endangering others
Threatening staff with parents

The duty officer will respond as quickly as possible and take steps to resolve the problem. Duty officers are required, whenever possible, to resolve the problem at source and leave the offending pupil/s in lessons; whenever this appears to be inappropriate the offending pupil/s will be removed. Discretion will rest with the duty officer, but the wishes and opinions of the member of staff summoning assistance will be taken into account.
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