Important Points requesting your support

Mobile phones

We have huge issues regarding mobile phones.  We therefore request that you support us in not allowing your child or person in your care to bring in their phone. 

We have several reasons for imposing this rule:

Cyber bullying            

Facebook and other social networking sites cause us massive issues. Often issues occur outside of school but are brought into the centre. This causes disruption to the day with vulnerable and volatile children reacting to outside issues.  Cyber bullying is a serious concern as increasing number of suicides are recorded following social media incidents.  We therefore request your support to enable your child to have a break from their phone just for the short hours they are with us.

If pupils bring in their phones they must hand them in to their form tutor first thing in the morning and they can have them back at the end of the day.

Should a pupil need to contact home or they need to be contacted the centre are happy to allow or accept essential calls to be made.

Refusal to accept this rule will result in consequences (detention at break/lunch). This causes huge issues with pupils which often is blown out of all proportion and creates disruption to their learning throughout the day.

Leaving the Building

If pupils leave the site without authority we do not pursue them as we are surrounded by very bust roads. We do not want to be in a situation where we may be perceived as pursuing the pupil which may result in a road accident.  We allow 15 minutes for the pupil to return.  If they do not we phone home to inform.  The police may be contacted to describe the young person who has left the building.

Damage to Property and Equipment

We are aware that we work with volatile young people and do everything that we can to keep situations calm and de-escalate our pupils emotions.  However, we have spent large amounts of money improving security in the building, improving the buildings and resources and equipment. 

Should a pupil cause damage or destruction to the building, fixtures, fittings or equipment the parents/carers will receive an invoice from the Local Authority requesting payment for the repair (where possible) or replacement (where necessary) of this damage or destruction.

Medication

If your child is prescribed medication please inform us to ensure that we can keep the medication secure

If your child is on regular medication and the medication or dosage changes please inform us to ensure that we can record this.

Exclusions

We DO NOT want to exclude our pupils. We genuinely want to resolve issues rather than punish. We have introduced the Wellbeing Intervention Centre and use Restorative Approaches to do this. However, if a child persistently refuses to follow rules, acts in a dangerous manner and refuses to engage in learning we must consider the other pupils. All of our pupils are very aware of FAIRNESS and if one pupil doesn’t follow a rule then all pupils feel the same and learning will not take place plus dangerous behaviour begins to become increasingly difficult to manage.

We must also stress that violence will not be tolerated.  Pupils are given every opportunity to seek support and given opportunities to find places to calm their emotions.  If a member of staff is assaulted they have every right to contact the police and press charges.  As the Head of Centre I would also be seeking county advice to seek an alternative placement for the pupil.

We want this to work

I must stress that all of the staff have a great deal of empathy and passion to work with our pupils and make a difference. We all want our pupils to enjoy coming to the centre and we all want our pupils to succeed and learn.

We enjoy having close and positive relationships with parents and carers.  Please do not hesitate to contact the centre to speak to Mrs. Jo Antoniazzi to discuss concerns or issues and we will seek to resolve issues and provide appropriate support.

Please encourage your child or person in your care to speak to staff so that we learn together and hopefully make their school life a happy experience which provides them with not only learning experiences but also friendships and positive relationships with adults who want to not only educate but help and support.

Kind Regards,

Mr. N. Lloyd – Head of Centre