Letter to Parents

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March 9th 2022

Dear Parents and Carers,

We wanted to write to you to update you on some of the systems and provisions we have in place at Clarendon to support students. Your child’s happiness and wellbeing are always our top priority. As a school community, we also put kindness at the heart of everything that we do.

At times, our school gets a bad press on social media. It is frustrating for us to read comments on there when we know we do so much. Whilst we know that some parents use these forums for advice, we would really encourage anyone who has a concern or a problem to contact us directly. We promise we will always listen and do our best to help!

Under each of the headings below, you’ll find lots of information on the things we are doing to look after your children whilst they are in our care. If you want to know more about any of them, just give us a call.

School Values

As a school, our aim is that all students demonstrate our three values at all times: respect, determination and excellence.

We support students in developing and demonstrating these values through all that we do.

Despite this, we are of course aware that not all students show respect for each other all of the time. On occasions, students can be unkind to or bully each other. In these circumstances, we do all we can to stop it.

How we deal with bullying

Bullying	Despite all the work we do in schools, from time to time bullying happens. At Clarendon, we have a zero tolerance towards it. We investigate every alleged case of bullying thoroughly. This is led by our Assistant Headteacher in charge of behaviour – Mr Sanchez. This will typically involve talking to the bully and victim and anyone else who may have witnessed what has taken place. The investigation is done thoroughly and discreetly to get to the bottom of what is going on.
How we investigate bullying	Often there are different versions of what has happened, but when it is established that bullying has taken place, the individual who has not met our expectations is punished.
How we punish bullying	This will involve at least a whole day spent in our Behaviour Hub, including break and lunchtimes. During this time, they will complete a training sheet about the impact of bullying. Their parents/carers are invited into the school and we make it very clear that this is not acceptable at our school. Parent/Carer support is key to making it stop.
How we work with the bully	In cases where bullying is homophobic, sexist, racist or similar then the individual will complete some specific training whilst in the Behaviour Hub in order to understand further why what they have done is wrong. Regardless of the type of bullying, the student being punished is worked with to educate them around our values of Respect, Determination, Excellence.
Restorative work	Where appropriate, we work on restorative work between the bully and the victim. Often a breakdown in friendship has led to the bullying and this can be worked on. It is not always the right thing to do this, but is very effective when we do. It often involves both sets of parents/carers too.
What if the bullying continues?	We also have two Enhanced Behaviour Provisions at Clarendon, which we use for students who have repeatedly and severely shown a lack of respect for others – The Link and The House. These provisions support the learning and personal development of students who have made past mistakes, whilst also ensuring all students have the positive lessons and environment that they deserve.
Why it is important to report bullying	It is so important that all students and parents know that we do not accept bullying of any kind. Therefore we would urge students and/or parents to always let us know if they believe bullying has taken place. There are multiple ways this can be done. We can only look into what we are made aware of, and will always get back to students and parents if something is reported. It is vital that this is done in one of the ways suggested below. Please do not use social media to report something that might have gone on – we can’t act upon social media posts. We need students and parents to communicate with us so that we can help.
How to report bullying	Please inform ANY member of staff. This could be a colleague in the Behaviour Hub, a teacher, their tutor, their Head of House, or any adult within the school. Whoever is told will pass on the concern and it will then be thoroughly looked into.
How to do this in a more discreet way	On the Clarendon website we have a facility called Listening Ear (https://www.clarendonacademy.com/645/listening-ear) This allows students or parents to send a message which goes directly to one of the Heads of School and Designated Safeguarding Lead if something is concerning them. This can be used anonymously should you wish, however it is of course easier to investigate something if your name is given. Teachers can always be emailed with a student’s concerns should they feel more comfortable communicating that way.

How we support students with mental health concerns or anxiety

Welfare Hub	A provision for students to talk about issues concerning them. The staff running the welfare hub refer students to further outside support when appropriate (e.g. CAHMS). Students are able to visit the welfare hub for support throughout the day.
Springboard	For students who are struggling to attend school and need additional support to be in. This is a very important provision for us and has increased attendance of our most vulnerable students. It is a safe place where students struggling can learn and receive lots of TLC.
Peer mentoring	Older students, who have been trained and are supervised by one of our Deputy Heads of House, meet some of our Year 7 students once a week to offer support and listen to them. It is aimed at being a “big brother/sister” role.
Heads/Deputy Heads of House	Lead on the support we give to students and their families. They work tirelessly to support students and ensure they pick up on any issues.
Tutors	Available for students on a day to day basis. They offer that daily contact and in-school parenting role.
Beliefs and Values	The lesson in which students develop their Personal, Social and Health Education, as well as their knowledge of world religions. We teach tolerance and kindness through our 3 values (Respect, Determination and Excellence)
Learning 2 Learn	The lesson in which students develop their study skills and knowledge of themselves as a learner. They work directly with their Head of House.
Assemblies and Tutor Times	The study of topical issues, as well as further exploration of the areas studied in Beliefs and Values.
Listening Ear	As explained above, the facility on the school website to report concerns.
Year 7 only area	Knowing the importance of transition to Year 7 students, we have also put in place a dedicated breaktime and lunchtime dining hall that can only be used by Year 7s. Likewise they have outside areas that only they can use. We know from talking to our Year 7 students that they really value this. Some of them have also been allocated peer mentors; students from older years who have been trained to meet and support younger students as they settle into the school.
Binary Behaviour system	Disruption free classrooms. We have a binary approach to behaviour in classrooms. If students are not ready to learn, or disruptive, they are sent to The Behaviour Hub to see Mr Sanchez. This ensures that students are able to learn disruption free in class.

How we reward students

Most students at Clarendon really do embody our three values (respect, determination and excellence) and we give them reward points for this. So far: -

10 students in Year 7 have already earned their respect badge for achieving 150 respect points.
76 Year 8s have reached 150 points
In Year 8, 63 students have achieved their bronze lion, which is awarded for having reached 150 points for each of Respect, Determination and Excellence. This is an impressive achievement.
Throughout the school 345 students have earned their respect badge so far.

I hope that you can see from all of the information above, that on the rare occasion that students do not act as they should, we have lots of staff and systems in place to deal with what has happened.

Should you have any questions about any of the above, as always, please do get in touch.

Yours faithfully

Rob Price Craig Turze

Executive Headteacher Head of School

07732800899 07511700837

rbp@clarendonacademy.com cxt@clarendonacademy.com

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