- March 23, 2023
Dear Parents and Carers,
This letter is to make you aware that after the Easter Holiday, we will be making a significant change to our behaviour management system, which reflects our high expectations of all students here at Fred Longworth High School. The changes are being communicated to students in assemblies. These new rules will apply to all students in Years 7, 8, 9 and 10.
We’re very proud that the vast majority of students here at Freddie’s always demonstrate exemplary behaviour by default. The changes we are making are designed to further support all students to be the best version of themselves, to maximise their time in school and to ensure a calm and orderly learning environment for all.
Following the Easter break, any student who is late to school or who is late to a lesson will automatically receive a 30-minute detention after school. Students who are late to school and/or lessons on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays will be given a same day poor punctuality detention. Students late on Tuesdays and Thursdays will be placed on detention the next day. Students who do not turn up for their detention will be collected for the next available detention and their detention time will increase to 60 minutes. This system is fully in line with the latest government guidelines for managing behaviour in schools. These guidelines can be found here. In any case where a student still refuses to meet our expectations, they will either be placed on an Off-Site Direction at another local school or suspended from school.
We do understand that, on occasion, students can experience genuine and unexpected delays in the mornings on the way to school and in getting to lessons during the day. If there is a genuine reason why your child will be late to school in the morning, parents will need to contact school and a late detention will not be issued. Staff have also been instructed to give passes to students if a student has had to be kept behind in a lesson for a genuine reason.
Our aim in implementing this detention system is to improve punctuality; however, it is also to eliminate the impact of anti-social behaviour that can sometimes take place during lesson changeover times, and to end the disruption to learning that inevitably occurs when students do not arrive on time to class.
It is important that I remind parents of how we have to manage the school toilets during the day. It is often misuse of the toilets that is a reason for lateness to lessons. Some students will use going to the toilet as an excuse to avoid a certain class or to engage in anti-social behaviour. When these students do eventually arrive to class, this then disrupts the learning for the majority. Our toilets are open and easily accessible to students at break and at lunch and so as a general rule, use of the toilet will not be accepted as an excuse for poor punctuality; however, we do recognise that at times there will be exceptions. As a general rule, students are also not allowed to leave a lesson to use the toilet. We make an exception for those with a toilet pass and in other cases, we encourage staff to use their judgment as to when the need to leave is genuine.
Please be reassured, if your child arrives to their lesson on time and behaves appropriately around our school site, they will not receive a detention. This system simply ensures that your child is educated in a calm and positive environment with minimum disruption, and in which they will thrive.
At the start of the school day please make sure that your child arrives to school on time. To be clear, a student arriving to school after the bell rings at 8:35 will be marked late for school and will receive a detention. If you foresee genuine issues, please communicate with your child’s Head of Year.
Yours sincerely,
Mr P Davies
Headteacher