Behaviour, Attendance & Welfare

• All students at the Beacon of Light should be treated with unconditional positive regard.
• Positive relationships are built around kindness, open conversations, and trust.
• Kindness values will help promote and facilitate emotional intelligence skills in our young people.
• Using kindness values and principles to improve emotional intelligence encourages students to become more reflective and self-aware
• Classrooms/learning environments should facilitate activities that are specifically designed to elicit kindness from students, encourage students to complement each other, reward students for caring behaviours and promote a strong sense of community within the school.
• The kindness principle reminds all members of the Beacon of Light community that kindness is not a weakness. Being kind to others is a strength and shows courage that should be celebrated and rewarded.
• Kindness can be seen in brave but difficult conversations which help us grow and strengthen our relationships
• A culture of kindness will strengthen the family feeling that makes the Beacon of Light school an inclusive place for all

• Lesson and Tutor Time behaviour is monitored via our points tracker system. Performance is recorded on individual scoring sheets and scored after each lesson by the member of staff. This is collated daily in our Behaviour and Welfare whole school tracker by staff.
• The Pastoral team analyse daily points per student, across school and implement appropriate interventions.
• Behaviour is the responsibility of all members of the Beacon of Light community. Discussing behaviour with honesty and integrity will empower students to make better behaviour decisions because they understand that this is the right thing to do.
• Honest discussions show courage and should be praised and rewarded. This should also link to emotional literacy and reflection as honest discussions are not always easy and can cause uncomfortable feelings such as anxiety. Helping young people understand and conquer these feelings allows the Beacon of Light to nurture well-rounded, mature young adults.
• High expectations are to be shared with the learners so high standards become a constant within school.
• Allowing the learners to see that everyone makes mistakes and acknowledging our own mistakes as adults helps to model resilience with honesty and integrity.
• Everyone within the Beacon of Light should be honest about having a fair and balanced workload. Honest, supportive conversations create and strengthen the community within.
• Allowing and encouraging people to speak up when upset and making them feel listened to promotes honest conversations that are a key value at the Beacon of Light School.

• The adults encountered by the students at the school have an important responsibility to model high standards of behaviour, both in their dealings with the student and with each other, as their example has an important influence upon the student. These are upheld in the Teachers Standards and Support Staff Standards
• Avoiding confrontation is a key aspect of behaviour management. Staff are trained in the need to de-escalate incidents and provide opportunities for students to engage in discussions about their choices and support students in joint resolutions.
• It is recognised that in some rare situations these techniques will not be effective and physical intervention may be necessary and appropriate. Please refer to the school Restrictive Physical Intervention Policy. All staff are appropriately trained in Team Teach to ensure all students are treated with dignity and respect.
• All members of the Beacon of Light school are entitled to be respected as individuals; this respect is based on the belief that all members should want to maximize their potential and make the most of the opportunities they receive.
• Developing the skills required to respect and understand the views of others helps promote open conversations that will help the young people develop emotionally.
• The respect shown within the Beacon of Light school community is promoted and rewarded throughout the wider Beacon building and out into students’ local communities
• As a school we track British Values across our curriculum. Respect is a British Value at the heart of the behaviours we are trying to instill within our school community, and championed when our young adults are open in their understanding and application of respect

• Before starting at the Beacon of Light School, students and parents/carers meet with key members of the Progress Team. At this meeting, our ethos and approach to collaborative problem solving are explained, and a Home/School Agreement is discussed and signed. Students are encouraged to discuss the reasons why they will be attending the school and are encouraged to make a ‘Fresh Start.’ The student’s aspirations, interests and personal history are discussed and are used as a basis for curriculum pathway planning and timetabling.
• We believe that an appropriately structured curriculum and an effective learning environment contribute to positive behaviour and relationships.
• Through planning for the needs of individual students, actively involving them in their own learning, using appropriate teaching methods and offering structured feedback, we aim to avoid alienation and disaffection which can lie at the root of misjudged behaviour choices.

• Praise should be used to encourage positive relationship skills as well as academic progress.
• Our emphasis is reinforcing positive behaviour and academic achievement, rather than concentrating upon mistakes. We believe that rewards have a motivational role, helping students to see that good behaviour is valued and is part of our ethos as a school community.
• Our whole-school rewards programme is linked directly to our Behaviour and Welfare tracker. Similarly, to our intervention and support structure, it escalates incrementally. Students are awarded points in every subject from the staff teaching/supporting in the classroom each lesson, and from their tutor twice daily.
• At the Beacon of Light School, we encourage all students to be aspirational, considerate, industrious and to make a positive contribution by recognising and rewarding their efforts and achievements across a range of factors.
• Throughout each day students will be awarded points from school staff which track several areas of performance, including behaviour, attitude, application, and progress. This is collated and reported back to parents/carers on a weekly basis.
• Success, be it academic, social, behavioural, or cultural, will be celebrated in a variety of ways including individual and collective awards where recognition is given for collaboration and working together for the common good.
• All recognised positive behaviour and rewards are recorded in our Points Tracker, on SharePoint with points relating directly to half-termly rewards. These are often reward trips which the students have requested.
• The Beacon of Light School operates a tiered system where all staff and students can participate actively and be rewarded at bronze, silver, or gold level with a rewards session at the end of each week.
• A mid-week reward is given to all young people who have achieved 30 or more positive points over the first two days of the week.
• Points will be awarded for students taught off-site as they are in on-site provision. A range of certificates and other recognitions of success are reviewed with the students weekly and through the sending of postcards home.
• Praise and rewards are key to supporting the young people on their individual behaviour journey, with the goal of recognising the intrinsic reward and satisfaction of managing as part of a community and understanding the value of meeting community expectations whilst still developing their independence and being respected as an individual.

Although rewards are central to the encouragement of good behaviour, realistically there is a need for sanctions to protect the security and stability of the school community. In an environment where respect is central, loss of respect is a powerful deterrent. Therefore, the use of sanctions should be characterised by certain features: –

• It must be clear why the sanction is being applied.
• It must be made clear what changes in behaviour are required to avoid future sanctions as part of a conversation with students.
• Group punishments should be avoided as they breed resentment.
• There should be a clear distinction between minor and major conduct.
• It should be clear that it is the behaviour, rather than the person, that is being addressed.
• Staff must always remain calm.
• Staff must ensure that their tone and volume is not confrontational. The aim of staff involvement is always to deescalate any situation and adopt a collaborative problem-solving approach.

Staged sanctions ensure that any sanction given is justified and is proportionate. Sanctions given to a young person must be well communicated to ensure that multiple sanctions are not given for the same incident.

Any sanction issued must be delivered in a depersonalised and professional manner.

A fresh start is given to all members of the Beacon of Light community as this reinforces the belief that everyone can make a mistake. What is key to an individual’s character is the response to the initial error and this is to be discussed and linked to kindness, honesty, and respect values.

Most instances of poor behaviour are minor and can be dealt with through the points system or initial stages of the tiered intervention system.

Where anti-social, disruptive, or aggressive behaviour is frequent, sanctions alone are ineffective. In such cases careful evaluation of the curriculum on offer, classroom organisation and management, and nature of provision, can help address and remedy underlying causes, in partnership with the Commissioning School. School procedures will take place to eliminate these elements as contributory factors. Additional specialist help and advice from outside agencies can also be accessed.

The Principal alongside the Trustees will make ultimate decisions on next steps which have escalated to beyond the ‘Tiered intervention support’ process. There is gatekeeping at all stages of sanctions and support. The system must remain consistent but must also be flexible enough to adapt to students’ individual circumstances as required.

Consistency is important but our collaborative problem-solving model also provides an opportunity to be flexible around the sanction selected. Gathering the information, and assessing individual circumstances will inform decision making. The most appropriate intervention(s) from each stage will be decided according to the incident and student involved. This will usually follow a discussion with a member of SLT and/or Behaviour Lead. The tiered intervention system is used to support staff judge the severity of the incident and the appropriate duration of support.

We give high priority to clear communication within the school and to building a positive partnership with parents/carers. Quality home/school relationships are crucial in promoting and maintaining high standards of behaviour. Where the behaviour of a child is giving cause for concern it is important that all those working with the child are aware of those concerns, and of the steps which are being taken in response. Strong home/school relations create opportunities to gain deeper understanding of attitudes to learning, rates of progress. Including and supporting parents can have a positive impact holistically but also removes misconceptions parents/carers might have regarding our provision or education in general, whilst reinforcing the kindness, honesty, and respect values within school.

The Tutor has the initial responsibility for the student’s welfare. Early warning of concerns should be communicated during staff briefing or in weekly progress team meetings. This enables strategies to be discussed and agreed before more formal steps are required. A positive partnership with parents is crucial to building trust, honesty and developing a common approach to behaviour expectations and collaborative problem solving.

Every Friday afternoon, Tutors make a phone call home to inform the parent/carer of the student’s behaviour that week and discuss any behaviour improvement targets for them for the following week. Depending on issues arising some parents/carers may be receiving more frequent phone calls. Parent/Carer active participation in school life is encouraged. This participation assists the development of positive relationships in which parents are more likely to be responsive if the school requires their support in dealing with difficult issues of unacceptable behaviour.

The school will communicate the Behaviour Policy and tiered intervention system to parents/carers at induction. Where behaviour is causing concern parents will be informed at an early stage and given an opportunity to discuss the situation to bring the student back on track before issues escalate further. Parent/carer support will be sought in devising a plan of action within this policy, and any further disciplinary action will also be discussed with parents/carers.