Student organization/settings/groupings

In Learning Phases 1 and 2 students will be organized into registration groups based on chronological age of up to 30 children. There will be two classes in each year group. There will be a 27 full time nursery places. During the school day students will be organised into learning groups which facilitate optimum individual development. It is expected that for literacy and numeracy these groups will be ability based.

Children in EYFS will receive an hour break at lunchtime.  During the rest of the school day, the children will have continuous access to outside provision and healthy snacks during the school day. Children in phase 1 will receive an hour lunch break and 15 minutes break in the morning. An afternoon break is at the teacher's discretion. The school day ends at 3:05pm.

The proposed school day permits specialist teaching to take place during sessions 3 & 4 within learning phases 1&2. Primary phase class teachers will be responsible for the welfare of children in their class. The designated child protection officer will be responsible for the specific protection needs of students and the SENCo will be responsible for identified learning and behaviour needs.

During Year 6 a five period day is introduced that is designed to feel more like a secondary school day. Staffing provision permitting, teaching will be increasingly delivered by specialists in core subjects of Maths, English and Science. Year 6 students will still be based in a Y6 classroom but will be able to access specialist facilities such as laboratories.

For Students in Years 7 – 11 a five period day will include a morning break and lunchtime of 40 minutes. Students will be organized into year groups and tutor groups within them. The tutor groups will be mixed ability and around the same size as teaching groups. Students will be placed in two parallel bands and then set into teaching groups which in core subjects will follow a linear system, to facilitate the delivery of literacy and numeracy catch up at the lower end and the greater stretch required to improve outcomes for the most able. Movement between sets will be reviewed at every assessment point to best fulfill student need. For some foundation subjects teaching will be mixed ability with a keen emphasis on the effective differentiation of learning.

Throughout Years 7-11, intervention lessons will provide the targeted and supportive provision and continuity that the most vulnerable students require, and a Learning Support induction team will provide specialized support for those students new to the academy, reflecting the needs of the high transience factor.

The Form Tutor will be the student’s first port of call. The Phase lead will work with the Form Tutors to track students’ progress with regard to attendance, behaviour and academic progress. The Phase lead will have a clear focus on establishing high academic standards and a positive ethos amongst all students in the year group.

Eating Arrangements

All food will be nutritious and freshly prepared where possible and carefully selected to provide the highest possible nutritional standards and to promote a healthy life style. Food will be available at breakfast club, breaks and lunch times. To ensure the best possible safeguarding arrangements, no students will be allowed out of school at break or lunch times. A staggered lunchtime arrangement will enable greater efficiency in the effective deployment of staff. The Academy will operate two kitchens and dining room facilities, one for phases 1& 2, and the other for phases 3&4.

Student Support Services

The Assistant Principal, will manage the behaviour systems and oversee actions taken or strategies developed for the improvement of students’ conduct working to the following guide and reporting to the Head of School.

Aims
  • To establish a culture where good conduct is expected, normalized and respected by all students;
  • To establish the expectation that all students are entitled to be in classrooms with their peers and teachers and in receipt of quality teaching and learning that facilitates their good conduct and professional behaviour;
  • To ensure more consistent involvement of professionals at all levels in securing the good conduct of students;
  • To ensure behaviour issues are dealt with effectively and in a timely manner at the appropriate level;
  • To ensure that all teachers are equipped to manage behaviour in classrooms and all have the same knowledge about the actions and consequences of poor behaviour once it needs to be managed outside the classroom;
  • To enable a smooth transition into the school in all year groups.
Central Principles

Behaviour issues must be dealt with at the appropriate level.

  • Low level disruption should be managed by class teachers in the first instance, and by the Department Buddy System, but that repeated low level disruption is escalated to middle management level. The Buddy system allows each teacher to have a paired professional for support or intervention.
  • Severe behaviours (warranting On Call) are managed in the immediate short term by the behaviour team, and might warrant a short term withdrawal, but this is then fed back through management levels in order to create stages of intervention to motivate a change in behaviour in the classroom, not a long term withdrawal.
  • The school will advocate inclusion and use Fixed Term Exclusions as a last resort.
  • Teaching staff must take full responsibility for the behaviour of students in their classrooms.
  • Behaviour outside the classroom, in the corridors or in the grounds, is the responsibility of all staff.
  • Staff through their own behaviour must act as role models to promote respect and calmness on all occasions.
  • The Academy will use the Early Years Provision to provide parenting education, and to support the Academy’s values and objectives by helping parents understand and reinforce our framework of discipline and work ethic in their children.
Behaviour Management

Staff at Armfield Academy will act as role models for students at all times, modeling best practice workplace behaviour and commitment. The Trust is conscious of its commitment to inculcating in Armfield students employability skills of the highest order and thereby preparing pupils for success in the workplace. Such skills include punctuality, attendance, dress and presentation skills, team working and strong interpersonal skills. For this reason, staff and students will be asked to adhere to policies relating to such skills, including dress code, management of their immediate environment and Armfield’s core values as already in operation in other FCAT academies.

Teachers will be trained in a variety of techniques for managing poor behaviour in class to allow the academy to adhere to the principle that low level disruption is dealt with by class teachers, who have the authority and the respect of students to manage this. When students display poor behaviours in lessons, teachers must use the school’s policies and procedures. These strategies form a consequence system which includes visual warnings/clues, followed by verbal warnings, followed by teacher issued sanctions such as demerits, detentions etc.

Teachers will also use positive management of student behaviour; for example, praising the student next to the off-task one in order to remind a student in the early stages of poor behaviour what is expected before having to address directly. Other examples of positive management include Specific Positive Descriptive Feedback – rewarding verbally a student by describing what they are doing well, not simply saying “well done” in a generic fashion that becomes over used and meaningless. The embedding of these behaviour management strategies will be delivered through collaborative CPD, using the strength of the Fylde Coast Teaching Alliance for support in areas such as coaching, peer mentoring or training delivered to all staff.

Standard Operating Procedures will ensure that there are clear processes for the management of poor behaviour, including letter templates for contact with parents and for the recording of any parent/carer meetings. Each stage of the process will have documented and publicized actions for staff at all levels to take, to avoid instances where students are “let off” and thus the perception of inequity develops. Poor behaviour will be recorded (categorized in the case of bullying/racism in particular) and actions taken will be quality assured and checked for consistency under the leadership of the Assistant Principal. Parents will receive information on any incident that involves a sanction being issued, and those whose children display repeated poor behavior, at any level, will receive regular updates.

The Assistant Principal will ultimately track all behaviours in the academy and oversee tailored intervention for all students where behaviours are either too severe, or too frequent, to be dealt with in usual classroom reporting procedures.

Attendance and Punctuality

The Assistant Principal will manage an attendance officer who will track attendance and act as first intervention for students not in the academy. First day calling will be carried out by the attendance officer, as will the production and dissemination of weekly attendance figures. The Assistant Principal will oversee the management of home visits by the PWO (pupil welfare officer) regarding issues of attendance, safeguarding and community issues.

Poor attenders will be tracked in functional ways – daily report, on-site mentors, a reward system – but the academy will also seek to create innovative ways to encourage attendance through earning privileges for participation. A strategy for re-engaging PAs will be developed during year one based around a tailored and adaptable engagement provision which will focus on providing students with an aim for their futures and an educational route to achieving it. This will involve off site visits, co-operation with local partners, targeted work experience placements and additional provision in the academy. The Academy will seek to reduce persistent absenteeism to National Averages and to have attendance of at least 96% in its first year of operation, improving subsequently.

Safeguarding and Student Safety

There will be two fully trained Designated Senior Person, one taking responsibility for Early Years and Primary, and the other taking responsibility for Secondary and the overall school setting. In order to provide effective quality assurance and support improvements and learning from cases the Academy has to deal with, the Academy Council will nominate a Safeguarding Governor and the school will be part of the FCAT Safeguarding Board to review cases and procedures.

Good punctuality will also be viewed as both a key ‘employability skill’ and a route to successful achievement. Staff will be asked to start lessons promptly and late arrivals to class or to primary school will be carefully monitored and followed up. Consistent good punctuality will be praised and rewarded.