Boarding

Newtown School is a three weekly boarding school in that every three weeks (mid-terms and bank holidays permitting) all boarders go home on a Friday afternoon and return on a Sunday evening. We call this a long weekend.

By special permission, some boarders elect to become weekly boarders, going home after study on Saturday and returning Sunday evening.

Bedtimes for Boarders

Living And Working In The School Community

The Principles of the School Community inform every aspect of school life. The Principles describe the community the School aspires to be.

Teachers and scholars make a community living and working together under discipline in friendship and mutual respect.

The whole community should live together in friendship, each one recognising the special position held by the others and the contribution required from each for the perfection of the common life.

The Aims of Newtown School set out the approach to discipline within the school community.

• Rules are kept to a minimum.
• High standards of behaviour are expected.
• Students are encouraged in a supportive and caring environment.
• Adaptability, confidence, the courage to make changes where they are necessary and, above all, the ability to get on with other people are amongst the qualities Newtown School promotes through a sound, liberal education for life.

Newtown School is a relatively small community for a secondary school. The good relations scholars enjoy within years and between years and the positive involvement with teachers in extra-curricular activities and in the boarding context carry over into class work.

The continuing community of students and teachers living and working together generates a distinctive learning environment in which young people can gain confidence and grow in maturity.

Discipline is exercised on the basis of trust and expectation. When shortfalls in achieving expectations are identified, they are discussed and support is given to amend ways and rectify negative behaviours.

Difference in personality and outlook is allowed for so long as it does not impinge adversely or unfairly on the well-being of others.  Disputes are resolved by discussion aimed at achieving agreement through consensus.

Scholars who experience personal difficulties may be referred for specialist advice. Counselling may be arranged for scholars who could benefit from the support of an agency outside school and home.

In dealing with disciplinary situations the procedures traditionally applied follow best practice as set out in the Departmental circular M33/91: Guidelines towards a positive policy for school behaviour and discipline.

If a disciplinary situation arises, the teacher immediately concerned will deal with the matter in the first instance.

If the matter is not put to rights, or if the response of the scholar(s) is unsatisfactory, the teacher may refer the matter to the relevant tutor or house staff.

A tutor or house staff may, if deemed appropriate, refer a disciplinary matter to the Deputy Principal.  Serious breaches of discipline or repeated incidents of misbehaviour may be reported to the Principal, who may invite the support of parents/guardians in rectifying cases of serious misbehaviour and indiscipline.

Strategies for dealing with unacceptable behaviour include the application of an order mark and conduct mark system.

When a scholar lacks order in his/her life, say the scholar who is frequently late for class or who does not have his/her books for class or who may miss games, a teacher may impose a penalty by giving the scholar order marks.

The teacher will write the order marks up after the scholar's name on a list of scholars' names displayed on a notice board opposite the staff room door.

Order marks add up over the week from one detention day to the next. The first two order marks given to a scholar remain a matter of record.  Penalties begin with the third order mark, which brings half an hour of detention.  Every additional order mark brings another quarter of an hour in detention.

Scholars work off the detention on Wednesday afternoons and Saturday afternoons.

While in detention, scholars may be given useful tasks to complete (such as sweeping up leaves, collecting litter, removing graffiti) or the scholar may be given written work to complete in a classroom.

Conduct marks may be given when scholars deliberately break school rules or consciously flout the norms of acceptable sociable behaviour.

A conduct mark carries an hour in detention on the next detention day. (Whereas the working-off of order marks may be deferred by agreement from one detention session to the next, conduct marks may not be deferred.)

Scholars who receive a conduct mark must report the conduct mark to their tutor/house staff and explain the circumstances in which the conduct mark was awarded.

Each scholar's conduct score is recorded on his/her end-of-term report.

Other strategies and penalties to deal with misbehaviour may include:

• reprimand and placing the scholar on report
• prescribing additional work to be completed in free time
• loss of privileges
• gating
• referral to Principal and reporting to parents
• suspension

The breadth and balance of the curriculum and the range of extra-curricular activities facilitate participation by every scholar in positive and worthwhile activity. They offer to all the opportunity to achieve recognition in some aspect of school life that engages their interest.

To promote positive endeavour in class work, a system of effort marks is used.

At regular intervals throughout the school year, subject teachers will award effort marks to recognise scholars' application to their studies and their contribution to class work.  Effort marks are awarded on a five-point scale as follows:
Effort mark of 1: excellent
Effort mark of 2: very good
Effort mark of 3: satisfactory
Effort mark of 4: not satisfactory
Effort mark of 5: unacceptable lack of effort.

When a student receives an effort mark of 4, he/she is placed on report for the subject(s) for which the 4 was given.  Being on report involves presenting a report card at the end of each class in the subject when the teacher will record an effort mark for that class.

If a student receives a 4 on a report card, the student remains on report for a further week.  Students who receive more than two 4s in a set of effort marks are put on report for all subjects for a week.

If anything happens to restrict a scholar's enjoyment of what he/she is doing at school or prevents him/her from doing what he/she enjoys, the scholar is encouraged to seek advice and assistance. A primary responsibility of prefects, tutors and house staff is to support scholars in their life at school.

In the event of bullying behaviour, the foregoing disciplinary procedures are applied as advised in the Departmental Guidelines on countering bullying behaviour.

If a teacher observes anything untoward in students' behaviour at school, the incident is noted in a record book.  If a pattern of misbehaviour is developing it can be identified in the recorded incidents and be dealt with.

In circumstances where the continued presence of a student at school were to become untenable because of wilful disobedience, threatening, abusive or violent behaviour, the Principal reserves the right in the interests and well-being of other members of the school community to ask parents/guardians to withdraw the offending scholar from the school pending investigation or referral to an appropriate authority.

Parents/guardians signing the final application form agree "to remove the child from the school at any time if so requested by the headmaster."

Expulsion would be considered only as a last resort. Procedures leading to an expulsion must allow for due process as required in law and are subject to appeal through the Chairperson to School Committee.