Based on significant research, the SJB 7 helps all our teachers to plan and deliver fantastic lessons that enable all our students to progress throughout their curriculum journey. A significant amount of teacher training and development time is spent unpicking and developing various aspects of this framework so that we can ensure that our students are receiving the very best education.
The SJB 7 underpins all classroom pedagogy and practice.
At SJB, it is felt that work completed at home is an essential part of school work. When homework is used properly, it extends the challenge open to the students and ensures that teaching time is used to maximum effect. It also prepares students gradually for the more independent demands of study as they mature. Equally, we believe it is important that all students have time in their day to ‘play’ and spend time participating in extra-curricular activities. For this reason, our homework gradually increases from 50 minutes per night in Year 7 to around 1.5 hours per night in Year 11 and 2-3 hours per day in the Sixth Form.
In Year 7 and 8 there is a blend of ‘subject’ homework as well as the development of literacy and numeracy skills; every night students will complete 30 minutes of ‘subject’ homework as well as a further 20-30 minutes of homework focused on the development of literacy and numeracy skills as we believe these are fundamentally important in being able to access learning across the curriculum. From Year 9 onwards there is a greater ‘subject’ focus. Further to this, each half term, there will be a minimum of one homework aimed at improving vocabulary and one aimed at improving your child’s reading and comprehension skills.
We set homework for the following reasons:
Please ensure that the homework timetables are followed carefully – they are designed to help the students plan their time each evening and show the night the student is able to do each subjects homework so please make sure homework is set in advance of that day in the fortnight and is due in after it. There is no formal schedule for Year 12/13 homework, it is assumed that you will be setting 12 hours of homework a fortnight (ie. 1 hour per lesson). With the double lessons next year you may need to be a little more flexible than previously with deadlines etc to enable students to plan their time and get tasks done, this is something that will need working out with Sixth Form classes individually so that it works for them.
You might find this blog interesting https://classteaching.wordpress.com/2023/06/16/in-an-ever-more-technological-world-does-homework-still-have-a-place-yes/
Things to consider:
Timetables can be found here
At SJB, we strive to promote exploratory talk in our classrooms by:
1 – Establishing rules for classroom talk
2 – Using sentence stems and talking frames
3 – Choosing the right ‘talking points’ and employing ‘talk roles’
4 – Asking high-quality questions, and expecting students to respond in full sentences
More information about these oracy strategies, can be found on our L&T Website –https://learningandteaching.sjb.school/category/oracy/
Staff and students can access the talk roles via the Learning Tools app on the iPads.
Spending time with the students during their social time is the single best way to reduce negative behaviours. At SJB we do not ‘police’ the students – just spend time with them. All full-time staff are expected to do at least one break/lunch duty per week and are expected to priorities them. You should aim to have five ‘non-work’ conversations with students during your break and where appropriate make reference to our 5 core values (Integrity, Service, Love, Respect and Aspire). It is critical that staff turn up for their duties on time.
Your duty allocation is on your timetable and there is a copy of the rota on the notice board outside Lee Evan’s office. In the event of absence, all duties must be covered. If your absence is planned we ask you to arrange a swap and notify Lee Evans so that he can put it onto Arbor; this helps to keep it fair on staff as there isn’t a ready pool of staff who are available to cover break/lunch duties. However, if Lee has not been notified of a swap or your absence is more last minute then he will arrange cover for you.
Please enforce the school rules when on break duty – the key ones to consider are below:
Circulate throughout the first and second floor (check the toilets) and make sure students aren’t lingering in corridors, using iPads or eating inside.
Please ensure the children queue to get in and control the flow. Ensure students are using the appropriate entrance and exit doors. Keep an eye out for students leaving rubbish etc. Ensure the canteen is cleared 7 minutes before the end of break/lunch.
Position yourself by the covered area and the new snack shack. Please ensure the children queue to get in and control the flow at the snack shack. Keep an eye out for students leaving rubbish etc. Ensure area is cleared 7 minutes before the end of break/lunch.
Please wander across the field keeping students within their designated year group areas. Encourage the use of the litter bins (you may wish to wheel one about with you as you wander!). Please start to clear the field 7 minutes before the end of break/lunch.
Please can you wander between the DT corridor (check toilets) back through the hall (check for litter) and back in the Year 11 cloakroom checking toilets there too). Please do this on a constant loop. Please clear the Hall and Year 11 Cloakroom 5/7 minutes before the end of break/lunch.
Please can you be on a loop from maths (checking the Year 9 toilets) all the way down to music, round to English and back round. Please check for eating in corridors and clear children out as necessary; students should not be lingering in corridors.
Please position yourself inside the MUGA looking out int the playground. Please ensure no one is eating in the MUGA, check for litter and avoid being hit by any balls! Please begin to clear 7 minutes before the end of break/lunch.
Please control the line to the snack shack by the sports hall to ensure there is an orderly queue. Check for litter, and where possible also cover the stairs up to Media and English. Please begin to clear the line/quad 7 minutes before the end of break/lunch.
Please can you be on a constant loop through the main section and along the corridor where the changing rooms are. Please check on the toilets as you pass. Students can eat inside but all litter must be put in bins – this is a privilege that will be removed if abused. Please also pop up stairs periodically as students tend to hide up there! Please begin to clear the foyer 7 minutes before the end of break/lunch.
Position yourself outside the entrance to the Art block and discourage students from wandering in there. Roam into the Art block checking the toilets regularly and ensuring no eating inside. Please also ensure students are not lingering/sitting in the training suite car park. Check for litter etc. Please begin to clear the area 5/7 minutes before the end of break/lunch.
Our Catholic ethos requires and inspires us to seek to develop our young people to be of service to God, one another and wider society. To achieve this requires:
These are the 5 core values we seek to instil in all our students. They are:
You can find out more about each of them here.
Our curriculum:
Delivery of our curriculum:
These are 7 learning behaviours that we actively seek to develop and reward in all our students – the Student SJB 7.
Everything we do at SJB is rooted in our 5 core values:
All staff and students are required to live out these 5 core values daily and openly discuss them with one another. This can be in the form of praising positive behaviour as well as bringing all conversations back to these values when needing to have conversations with students who have not met the high expectations we have of them.
Praise and positive reward can be given in many ways both formally and informally and should be given as often as possible. Students who work and behave well should be rewarded for their efforts and achievements frequently.
Positive behaviour management in central to working with the students and building strong relationships. Please ensure the praise and rewards system is used more frequently than the sanctions system.
All praise incidents must be formally recorded on Arbor.
Praise can be recorded on Arbor as a House Point or as a Nomination (worth 5 house points).
You can award students House Points through Arbor for anything positive that should be recognised. The behaviour implementation guide provides ideas and suggestions as to how many house points to award for a variety of things. They are a fantastic way to recognise all the little things the students do really well.
The Student SJB 7 was devised by the students and is made up of seven learning behaviours they feel are important to enable our students to leave us as successful 21st century learners. Teachers and LSAs should encourage, recognise and reward the 7 attributes outlined on the Student SJB 7:
At SJB we recognise and reward students’ effort and attitude to learning firstly through nominations. Nominations are awarded on Arbor – it is really simple to do and takes no more than 30 seconds; parents also can view this portal. When the students have earnt enough nominations in any one of the Student SJB 7 they will either be awarded a ‘STAR Badge’ to wear with pride on their blazer (Yr 7-11) or given a stamp on their ‘Free Hot Drink Card’ (Yr 12-13).
We ask staff to award two nominations per taught lesson.
All nominations are worth 5 house points.
Please commit to recognising the students through Nominations and House Points as well as other mediums – a postcard, an email a quick phone call to parents are all excellent ways of making the students see just how well they are doing. We encourage all staff to finish their week making at least three positive contacts home – this goes a very long way to build positive relationships with the students and means that we as staff finish the week on a positive!
Students in Year 7, 8 and 9 are rewarded for reading outside school via the Sparx Reader scheme. This is run by Sam Rowan our Literacy Coordinator.
The role of a form tutor is extremely important; you are the first teacher your form sees each morning and the first link in the pastoral chain of support. The relationship a child has with their form tutor is often very different to that of any other teacher, it’s a vital relationship for students and their future successes. It is important that you take the time to get to know your tutees; their strengths, the things they like doing, who they are friends with, what they enjoy doing outside of school, where they struggle, and what their biggest challenges are. Your role in the morning is to set them up for the day and ensure they are ready to learn.
The form tutor should check uniform, jewellery, equipment etc. at the start of the day to make sure the students are sent off to their first lesson prepared, punctual and presented smartly.
Students begin each day with their form tutor from 8.50-9.15am. We ask form tutors to be in their rooms and open them to students from 8.40am.
Registers should be taken on Arbor at the start and any late students added as they arrive in form time. Students late to form should be marked as such on the register so that sanctions can be issued appropriately.
Each year group has one assembly a week, either a Year group assembly or a Key Stage assembly. The rota is below:
| Year Group/Key Stage | |
|---|---|
| Mon | KS3 or KS4 or 5 on rotation |
| Tue | Year 12 & 13 on rotation |
| Wed | Year 10 & 11 on rotation |
| Thur | Year 7 |
| Fri | Year 8 & 9 on rotation |
N.B Where a rotation takes pace it will not always follow a week A/B order due to the way holidays/INSET days fall. HOYS: Please follow the running order of the above table. Ea. Year 10 will run one week Year 11 the next, Year 8 one week, Year 9 the next etc.
Promoting oustanding attendance for all students really is the responsibility for all, with the role of the form tutor vital in it’s success. As a form tutor you will be expected to complete the register every day during registration at 8.50am using the correct codes as well as updating the register if a student is late or has an appointment. You will also be expected to work closely with your head of year and the pastoral support manager to implement the attendance policy accordingly to help improve the attendance of students in your tutor group.
On the days when there is not a key stage or year assembly, all forms must begin the day with the Pause for Prayer resource provided (this will be sent weekly via email from Megan Hodgson). These resources will be themed around one of our five core values (Service, Integrity, Aspire, Love, Respect) on a fortnightly cycle. Megan will weave in an activity from “The Day” once a week so that our focus on literacy aligns with the theme.
Pause for Prayer is a power point linked to the theme of the week and includes a reflection, video clip, Bible passage and prayer all timed to take under 5 minutes. Slides can be presented by the tutor or students. There are optional ‘Pause for Thought’ questions if there is time to develop discussion.
If you are concerned about delivering the Pause for Prayer resource or leading Prayer in Form Time then please speak to Megan Hodgson our Chaplain who will support you.
PSHE helps children and young people stay healthy, safe and prepared for life – and work – in modern Britain. PSHE aims to equip students to:
PSHE is important because it gives every child and young person an equal opportunity to develop the skills and knowledge they need to thrive now and in the future.
PSHE is a sequenced programme that builds on prior learning as pupils progress through school and like any other subject it needs regular curriculum time. PSHE is delivered to all students at SJB, every Thursday morning (Period 1), by their form tutor. Tutor groups at SJB create a sense of togetherness and belonging. This provides an environment where students feel safe to share ideas, confident enough to challenge what they believe to be wrong and take responsibility to support each other. This model of delivery improves behaviour, reduces bullying and provides relief from peer pressure.
Professional Development is provided for all form tutors to help equip everyone with the skills and confidence to deliver an outstanding provision to every student within our care. Laura Kern is the CL for PSHE; she will circulate resources one week in advance to give you time to prepare. If you have any concerns please see her in the first instance.
The Day is a brilliant subscription that is available to all our students via the special link on their iPads. The Sixth Form can also access it using the school username and password – this will be given to them by the Sixth Form Team.
It provides a wealth of news articles for the students to engage with; every day a handful of new articles are added. The brilliant thing about this resource is the the majority of articles can be read at different levels, meaning that students of different reading abilities can engage with the same article and be fully involved in class discussions and activities surrounding the articles. The are also accessibility features that can be turned on/off such as a dyslexic font, screen overlay etc. All articles are stored historically and categorised by subject as well so you can link them into schemes of learning to draw on.
The following guides go through how the resource can be used in class.
Staff Presentation – How to use
Form Tutors will be given further information as to how and when to use it in form time in September during Year Meetings, it will also be linked in with Pause for Prayer in the resources sent out each week by Megan Hodgson.
Our mission is to be a Catholic School where every individual is highly valued and where care and concern for others is central to our work. All our students are expected to achieve their full potential and leave ready to make a positive contribution to society.
At SJB everything we do is guided by Gospel values.
Love ~ Forgiveness ~ Reconciliation ~ Justice ~ Faith ~
Integrity ~ Humility ~ Service ~ Peace ~ Hope ~ Prayer
And the greatest of these is Love
SJB is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. This means that we have policies and procedures in place which are given to all staff and volunteers. Online training is mandatory once every year – you will be sent a link and will be required to complete an online training course of around 1hr30mins at some point in the Autumn term. There will also be an hour of safeguarding training on the INSET day in September.
You are required to read the following two documents and will be asked to sign to acknowledge that you have in September.
Keeping children safe in education Sept 2023 – Part 1 only
SJB Safeguarding & Child Protection Policy
If you have any concerns that a student is being abused or at risk of being abused (whether the child says anything or not) please report your concerns immediately to one of the safeguarding team:
If you have any concerns about the behaviour of any member of staff, you must report your concerns immediately to The Headteacher. If the Headteacher is unavailable, please speak to the named Designated Safeguarding Lead. The SLT member responsible for Safeguarding is Mike McKenna.
At all times remember confidentiality: you are not allowed to promise confidentiality to any student – you have to pass information on. However, we always respect people’s lives and information, therefore we only share with those who need to know.
Please do not allow students as ‘friends’ on social networking sites such as Facebook and Instagram. Please be aware of any comments or images you post on such sites and set your privacy settings accordingly. We strongly advise you don’t use personal mobile phones to call or text students or parents, if you do need to, then please ensure that your caller ID is switched off. School mobiles are available to borrow for school trips. Please book these with the Finance Office.
It is important that we work together to protect the data of our students and the staff here at SJB. The GDPR regulations state that we must protect personal data – there’s lots of aspects to these new regulations but we think it is 99% common sense! We must hold and process data on both staff and students; we take our responsibilities of keeping it secure seriously. We align with the Xavier Data Protection and Retention Policies which can be found here:https://xaviercet.org.uk/about/central-policies-and-financial-statements/.The last thing we want to do is create any unnecessary burden on staff – here is what you must do:
The school Data Protection Officer is Anna Dwyer, you must inform her of any breach or potential breach of data as soon as it is discovered so that the proper processes can be followed.
For further information on the way we use your data, please see the Xavier Catholic Education Trust Privacy Notice.