Useful Information, Documents & School Procedures

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This page provides access to information and documents that parents of students at Sprowston Community High School will find useful.  For all school policies please refer to our School Policies Zone in the main menu on the left hand side.  If there is anything else that we can help with, please do not hesitate to get in touch

Information on Sprowston Community High School

Helping your Child

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Notes on School Procedures

Useful General Information

Holiday Absence Requests

All schools discourage absence due to holidays in term time. There is an obvious link between excellent attendance and excellent academic results and we would all wish our students to achieve their potential in school in order to increase their chance in their chosen career, whatever that might be.

The Norfolk absence request form highlights this:
Please note: taking your child out of school during term time could be detrimental to your child’s educational progress.

It is difficult for students to make up this learning especially, for example, in years 7, 8 and 9 when a two week holiday means missing 6 hours of teaching in English , Maths and Science and in Years 10 and 11 essential coursework is missed as well as examination practice.

The request form also states that the Head teacher has the right to refuse permission based upon:

  • The child’s previous attendance history;
  • The child’s stage of education;
  • The time of year ( exams);
  • Whether the parents are restricted in terms of leave from their employer.


At Sprowston Community High School we have agreed that we cannot authorise student absence at the following times:

  • Year 7 in term 1 when students are coming to terms with a new school and forming friendships.
  • Year 10 in term 3, the summer term, when they will be taking modular science examinations and sitting mock examinations which we know to be a key element in preparing for GCSEs;
  • Most students will also be taking GCSEs in English and some students sitting Maths in November so essential teaching is taking place in the summer term therefore any absence will have this detrimental effect as outlined on the form;
  • No holiday absence is authorised in Year 11 as students are preparing for examinations.

In addition to the reasons above, we feel we cannot authorise holiday absence for those students whose record of attendance is below the school target of 94%.

Please be assured that our response to holiday absence has our students’ best educational interests at heart.

Litter at Sprowston Community High School

As a school we are committed to ensuring that we offer our students the highest possible educational experience. This commitment also includes ensuring the physical environment is of the best quality. One area where we feel we could improve in this respect, is how we tackle the problem of litter.

As a large school we do experience a noticeable issue with dropped packaging and discarded waste, particularly after break and lunch time. We have decided to combat this with a new programme of sanctions and rewards from January 2010.

Our 2010 Litter Strategy

Zones of Responsibility – Each Year group in Key stage 3 will be given an area to take responsibility for. The success of that year group in improving the litter situation in that zone will determine whether they receive a termly year group prize.

Community Service Awards – Students will have the opportunity to earn new “ECO” points by volunteering to spend 10 minutes of their time litter picking or collecting waste material such as recycled paper. Students who are able to collect 30 or more eco points in a term will be entered in a prize draw for a Nintendo DSI games console.

In addition to these incentives we will be taking a more robust approach to the minority of students who are irresponsible in the way they dispose of their litter. Students who are reported for littering will be placed in a 30 minute “Community Service” detention on a Thursday. This detention will be spent collecting litter under the supervision of a member of the school leadership team. Appropriate gloves and bags will be provided for this task.

Students who fail to attend Community Service will receive a day of School Centred Fixed Term Exclusion. Parents will be informed by letter if their child is to be placed on Community Service, but we will be unable to offer “alternative” punishments.

We would like to ask for your support in talking to your child about our Litter strategy and particularly about their joint responsibility for keeping our school clean and free of litter. We believe that all students share the responsibility for clearing away litter and we ask that you join with us in ensuring all students actively collect and appropriately deposit any litter they find in the school. Staff have been specifically asked to challenge students about the litter in the school and students will be expected to pick up litter that is around them regardless of whether they are personally responsible for its presence. Only in this way can we meaningfully teach our students about joint responsibility.

As we hope you can see, we have spent a considerable amount of time planning the most appropriate way to tackle this issue. We hope you will join us in teaching our students about the importance of a clean and safe environment.

 

 

Speaker School Council Awards 2012 International School Award 2012 - 2015 TITAN
Arts Council Arts Mark Gold Quality in Study Support Sports Parnership Mark University of the First Age - Sprowston Community High School Norfolk Chamber of Commerce Eco Schools
Financial Management Standard in Schools We care for our staff Healthy Schools Work Related Learning Investors in People