School Rules

SCHOOL RULES

INTRODUCTION

These rules are designed to help students do the right thing.

Students who break school rules should expect the school, kindly, to impose a proportionate sanction. For serious wrong-doing, or for persistently refusing to follow rules, students may be asked to leave the school.

SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES

Some students are not well-organised; others are poor time-keepers; others have a diagnosed condition which means they struggle to follow some rules or to manage their daily interactions maturely. All possible consideration will be made for these students, but nevertheless poor behaviour will be addressed rather than excused. For such students we will develop a behaviour plan involving some or all of the following: the student, tutor, TLC staff, house staff, parents and others. This will be designed to help the student behave reasonably. Sometimes this plan may include going home for a day or two, or going home early before a half-term or a holiday.

APPEAL PROCESS

All students can appeal informally against a punishment. They do this by speaking with their House Staff or with the Head of Sixth Form. They should do this as soon as they can. If they remain unhappy with the sanction that has been imposed they should speak with one of the Deputy Heads. After that they should speak with their parents who should write to the Head.

BREAKING THE LAW

Breaking the law will always be regarded as a serious breach of the school rules.

The following activities are all against the law: theft; possessing, supplying and cultivating drugs; causing disorder or nuisance; fighting; using threatening words or behaviour; sending offensive or abusive messages; racially-motivated offences; the improper use of IT systems; the possession of fireworks, firearms, knives or other weapons; the possession of pornography or youth-produced sexual imagery; sexual activity under the age of consent; purchasing or supplying alcohol; causing damage to property; and interfering with vehicles. 

Aiding, abetting, counselling, encouraging, assisting others to do these things is also generally a crime.

Students who break the law will almost certainly face a temporary exclusion from school, and they may be required to leave.

SCHOOL RULES

1.    The school code of conduct, and the school rules, apply at all times to all students. This includes those on school trips, and those travelling to and from school. 

2.    A student whose actions affect the school, other students, or staff will always be subject to the school rules, even in the holidays.

A.      ATTENDANCE
3.    All students must attend all their formal commitments. 

4.    No student is permitted to be absent from school during the working week unless the absence has been approved by House Staff, the Head of Sixth Form or the Deputy Heads. Reasons for granting absence are set out in the Absence Policy.

B.   RESPECT AND RESPONSIBILITY
5.    It is the students’ responsibility to follow the school rules.

6.    Students must treat everyone, at all times, with kindness and respect. 

7.    Students must take the trouble to read, understand and follow the Anti-Bullying Policy and the acceptable Use of IT and Personal Devices Policy

C.   TIMES
8.    Students are required to be in the right place at the right time for lessons, activities, fixtures, meals, House Line, congo, games and any other formal school activity.

9.    After 6.40pm, no student, day or boarding, should be outside their house without permission from House Staff. 

D.   ACADEMIC WORK
10. Students must try to do all the work they are set by the deadline they are given.

11. Students must never disrupt the learning of others.

12. Students may not submit another student’s work in order to claim credit for it.

13. Rules relating to the conduct of exams and coursework must always be followed.

E.    DRESS and APPEARANCE
14. During the working day, school uniform must be clean, tidy and properly worn. Sixth Formers must follow the published dress code. 

15. School uniform, CCF uniform, or games kit, may not be mixed with other clothes. 

16. Students must follow the rules about facial hair, piercings, jewellery, nail varnish and all the usual things schools worry about. These are set out in the UNIFORM POLICY

17. Hi-viz vests must be worn by all students travelling between the school and any of the art school, Church Path and Devine. They do not need to be worn to visit the Village Shop, but students must use the pavement and observe the Highway Code.

 
F.    PHONES AND IT
18. All students must follow the school’s policy detailing the acceptable use of IT.

19. Phones must be invisible between 8.30am and 5.15pm - students who break this rule may have their phone confiscated for up to 48 hours. 

 

G.      PLACES
20. Students must behave respectfully and safely in all the spaces they use.

21. The rules for different spaces must always be followed. There are specific rules about the use of the Main House, the Library, the Dining Hall, the Sports Hall, and about the use of lawns.

22. Toilets are not social spaces and should not be used as such.

23. Public displays of affection are not permitted.

24. Village shop:  the rules relating to when students may visit the village shop are posted in each boarding house.

25. At school, students are never permitted to visit: rooms of younger students; rooms of students of another gender; the school kitchens; the dining-hall outside meal times; the astro except during formal games, or with permission; King’s Woods and Barber’s Copse; the Beech Walk; the Prep School; the Staff Common Room; or private rooms belonging to staff.

26. Outside the school, students are never permitted in the village beyond the shop except to visit Devine, to go to chip van or to take part in an authorised activity. This ban includes: the Talbot; the village bus shelter; residential streets in the village; the village cricket pitch – and paths leading to it; the recreation ground – and all paths around it; the children’s playground; the church and the churchyard.

H.      DANGEROUS BEHAVIOUR
27. All medication must be deposited with the Medical Centre.

28. Students may not use bicycles, roller-blades, skates or skateboards on site. 

29. Boxing, sparring, any form of martial arts, and all similar activities, are not permitted anywhere at school, unless under the supervision of a member of staff.

30. No student may fly a drone over school property.

I.         PROPERTY
31. All property, and the school environment generally, must be treated with respect.

32. All personal property must be clearly named. 

33. All cash should be deposited for safe-keeping with House Staff. 

34. The borrowing, buying, selling, and exchange of property between students is forbidden. 

35. Lost property should be handed in to matrons or to Mrs Lockwood.

J.        MOTOR VEHICLES
36. No student may bring a motor vehicle or motorbike to school unless they are in possession of a driving permit signed by the Head of Sixth Form.

K.    POSSESSION OF CONTRABAND
37. The possession of alcohol, tobacco, vaping materials, legal or illegal drugs or their associated paraphernalia, firearms, fireworks, blades, pornography, or youth-produced sexual imagery will always be a breach of the school rules and may also be against the law. 

 Note: the law allows the school to conduct searches and to confiscate prohibited articles or articles that pose a danger to the student or others: DfE Guidance on Search and Confiscation