Dear Parents and Carers 

This letter is to inform you about some changes to our behaviour policy that will take effect as of Tuesday 14th November 2017 to allow time for you to raise your thoughts with the school should you wish so to do. My Deputy Head, Mrs Lay, who leads on behaviour in the school, will be happy to discuss the plans with you should you so wish and will be available as follows: 

Thursday 2nd November: 1630 – 1730 
Monday 6th November: 1630 – 1730 
Friday 10th November: 1600 – 1700 

Please come to school during those times and report to reception who will let you know where to meet Mrs Lay.

The Staff at Samuel Ward Academy work to make the most of the school day and maximise each learning opportunity for the benefit of every student. However, we have identified a way to tackle more effectively instances of low-level disruptive behaviour in lessons. 
As you may be aware, Ofsted have reported that across the country “children are losing up to an hour a day of teaching because of a damaging culture of low level disruption and disrespect in Schools”. At Samuel Ward Academy, we do not want to see this culture take hold and, in a similar way to other schools within the Trust, we are developing a system of consequences to help us rapidly deal with and thus eliminate low-level disruptive behaviour. 
The Perform rules, which we have had for some time, will remain the same and clearly outline our expectations for behaviour. However, the consequences for not following the rules are being changed. We have devised a clear description of the sort of behaviour which is unacceptable and will result in a consequence, this is attached to this letter for you to see. The main difference is that if a student reaches the level of Consequence 3 it will automatically trigger a detention for 30 minutes after school on the same day. A Consequence 4 will trigger a detention after school on the same day for 60 minutes. We will be send you a text message to let you know if your child has been issued with a detention, it is therefore essential we have up-to-date contact information please.

Detentions will be held at the following times:

Monday and Friday: 30-minute detention: 1500 – 1530 60-minute detention: 1500 – 1600
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday: 30-minute detention: 1550 – 1620 60-minute detention: 1550 – 1650