NOMINATIONS

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 21^st 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).

HOUSE POINTS

You can award students House Points through Arbor. These carry less weight than a nomination but are a fantastic way to recognise all the little things the students do to impress effort.

OTHER REWARDS

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.

Research project: Harnessing Praise to Motivate Students (Philippa Leah, 2019) 

One of our research projects conducted in school demonstrated that that praise has the most impact if students feel that it is a genuine reaction to the good work they have produced and that it feels meaningful. With this in mind consider communicating to the students which aspects of the Student SJB7 are being targeted in each lesson in order to build awareness of both the importance of these learning behaviours, whilst additionally ensuring students know which aspect is being considered that lesson.

As a little incentive to remember, there’s a prize in Monday briefing once a fortnight for the ‘top nominator’ so please remember to nominate two students in each lesson, they really do love receiving their rewards!

READING REWARDS

At the end of last year we launched a reading reward scheme for Year 7 and 8 to reward students who read for pleasure outside of school. This will be launched in form time in September for Year 7 and 8. Holly Hammond, KS3 English Coordinator oversees the reward programme.

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.  It is important that form time is both calm and purposeful so that each student goes to their first lesson of the day 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.

FORM TIME

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:

Week A	Year Group	Week B	Year Group
Mon	7, 8, 9	Mon	10, 11, 12, 13
Tue	12 & 13	Tue
Wed	10	Wed	9
Thur	11	Thur	8
Fri	7 (until Oct half term)	Fri	7

PAUSE FOR PRAYER

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; one two days each week these will be shorter so as to enable form tutors to engage the students with The Day (see section below for details).

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 Michele Harrison our Chaplain who will support you.

THE DAY

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

Guide to Six Steps

Guide to Reading Levels

Form Tutors will be given further information as to how and when to use it in form time in September during Year Meetings.

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.

MANDATORY DOCMENTS

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 2022 – Part 1 only

SJB Safeguarding & Child Protection Policy

REPORTING CONCERNS

If you have any concerns that a student is being abused orat risk of being abused (whether the child says anything or not) please report your concerns immediately to one of the safeguarding team:

• Damien Kelly – Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL)
• Mandy Hughes– Deputy DSL
• Lisa Kenny – Deputy DSL
• Lee Evans – Deputy DSL
• Mike McKenna – Deputy DSL

You must report a concern using our ‘Safeguarding Reporting System’ on CPOMS (all members of staff will receive login details).

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 Damien Kelly.

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.

SAFEGUARDING STAFF

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.

DATA PROTECTION

It is important that we work together to protect the data of our students and the staff here at SJB. The GDPR regulations that came into existence on the 25^thMay 2018 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 can do:

• Software/online resources requiring student loginsmustgo through Mark Kenrick to ensure GDPR compliance and be registered(so that old data can be purged when necessary)
• Make sure any paper containing personal data is shredded – take it to the office!
• Don’t download any personal data onto your memory stick – use the cloud storage facilities of OneDrive instead
• Student photos – don’t take photos on personal mobile phones; don’t post photos alongside names online, keep them anonymous.
• Be sensible about any data you collect and use!
• Ensure the security of all data that may be taken away from the school site. This includes electronic and paper documents. Do not save any data onto home computers.
• Do not share system logins or email logins.
• Do not share any documents which hold data with any partners/agencies without discussing it with the SLT.
• Inform Anna Dwyer of any breach or potential breach of data immediately.

STAFF DATA

For further information on the way we use your data, please see the Xavier Catholic Education TrustPrivacy Notice.

REPORTS

Anna Dwyer, Deputy Head, will lead and co-ordinate the reports to parents. You can enter data from any computer with an internet connection using Arbor. Your Curriculum Leader will talk you through the various elements and ensure that you are able to enter the grades on to Arbor.

It is important that the information that goes to parents is as relevant and up-to-date as possible. This means there is a tight turnaround which is only possible because everyone keeps to the deadlines – thank you in advance for this.

The reports are important as they mark the progress of each student, allowing students, parents and the school to celebrate or provide extra support and ‘motivation’ as required. In order to do this, we collect a variety of information.

The monitoring schedule can be viewed on the academic planner (select tab) it will also be emailed out in September. The Skills, Homework and Behaviour Matrix should be used carefully. More guidance on the key aspects can be found below.

KEY STAGE 3 PROGRESS

Every KS3 student is given a baseline learning path for each subject (Emerging, Secure, Deepening, Mastering). Students should not be told their baseline as we do not wish to limit students, it is available to teachers for planning purposes only. All students are striving for excellence and should be made aware of the progress they are making over time (see below), given constant feedback on how to improve and opportunities to demonstrate their progress.

Progress should be gauged relative to their baseline when reported on the monitoring and should reflect the level of progress since their last round of monitoring. The 4 options are:

• Less than Expected Progress
• Expected
• Good
• Exceptional

Please make sure you use your professional judgement (this is the most important thing!) and think carefully about each individual and the progress they have made since the last round of monitoring.

Once per year following on from the whole school exams we will send home the “Exam Learning Path” which is the learning path that the student achieved in their exam. At this point we will also collect “Current Learning Path” which is the learning path that the student is currently working within.

CURRENT PREDICTED GRADE (KS4 & KS5)

This is the grade that you think an individual will achieve if they continue working as they are until they sit their final exam.

SKILLS FOR LEARNING, HOMEWORK & BEHAVIOUR GRADING

Please think carefully about the grade that you give each student for his or her skills for learning, homework and behaviour for learning. The descriptors of these three measures can be found on the next page.

A few points that you must consider when completing the monitoring and also student report cards at the end of lessons:

• What constitutes ‘a good skills for learning grade’ will vary from student to student. For some students a C grade is brilliant, for others this will be poor and they can do better. It is always worth taking 5 minutes to either discuss the skills for learning grading with a whole class or with certain individuals as the monitoring is being completed so that they understand why they have been given a certain grade and whether it is a ‘good’ grade for them or whether they should be achieving more.
• A good way of approaching the monitoring is to consider a student to be a ‘C2’ when they first walked into your classroom in September (ie. a fresh start). They then need to impress you to move up to a B2, B1 etc. or fall short of expectations and move to a C3 etc.
• The ‘A1’ really should be reserved for the very best students. It requires them to be going above and beyond both in and out of the classroom – it’s really important that the ‘A’ for skills for learning is reserved for those who truly do extend their learning outside of the classroom (they need to have had opportunities to demonstrate this)
• An ‘A1’ student cannot be given less than expected progress (ie. -1)… it is counter intuitive! You’re essentially saying that they are doing everything they can both in and out of the classroom and yet still they aren’t making the progress you’d expect of them… the deduction for parents will be ‘well in which case you aren’t teaching them properly’ and this simply won’t be the case!
• HODs/HOYs and parents should be aware of any student being given a grade 4 for behaviour as it implies there has been a succession of poor choices resulting in detentions and phone calls home.
• KS3 progress grading should be based on the progress they have made since the last round of monitoring. Teachers should be using their professional judgement to look at the wholistic picture rather than basing it off one test result.
• Current predicted grades are the grade you believe the student will achieve at the end of Year 11/13 if they continue working as they are – they should be as accurate as possible as this is the only way that HODs/HOYs can accurately work out who needs intervention.

It is important that the students know how they are working day-to-day, particularly if they are not meeting your expectations.

• If you are planning on giving a student a behaviour for learning grade 3/4 – Have you talked to them about it already? Have you tried a variety of rewards/sanctions? Have you mentioned the issues to your Curriculum Leader?
• If you are planning on giving a student a skills for learning grade D… Have you talked to parents about their child’s learning skills / homework? Have you raised your concerns with the Head of Year?

PASTORAL / DEPARTMENT REPORTS

Students who receive grades D or 4, or a significant number of grade 3s will be picked up by the Head of Year and placed on pastoral report. You will be notified of students who are on report in your classes or form group following on from a round of monitoring. Students should hand you their report at the start of the lesson. Please be consistent with your grading using the descriptors given. If you give a grade D (or C if it is a student who should be working at a higher skills for learning grade), or a grade 3/4 for behaviour please sanction the students appropriate. They will also be sanctioned by the HOY – the double whammy just helps them learn faster!

Students who receive grades D, 3 or 4 in one subject only should be picked up by the HOD and put on subject report.

Students who receive a large number of C grades may be put on report if the HOY feels that they should be working at a higher skill level.

SCHOOL OFFICE

The co-operation of all members of staff is requested in order to facilitate the smooth running of the office.  The allocation of duties among the office staff is as follows:

Lucia Davis	Marion Harding	Claire Antal	Noreen Dongray	Philippa Boxer
James' PA	Reception	Admissions Manager	Reception	External Communications
HR Personnel	Attendance	New Year 7 Intake	Medical Room	Social Media
Confidential Work	Free School Meals	Student Files	Outgoing Post	Medical Room
	Medical Room	Medical Room
Works closely with: - SLT - Business Manager	Student Files	Innovate

Any work required by other members of staff (e.g. letters, programmes) should be e-mailed to office@sjb.surrey.sch.uk

Please see further information on communications with parents

Within our Trust we strive to have a relentless focus on learning and teaching. Our ethos in relation to achieving great learning is to have BELIEF in every child:

Believe in every child

Excellence for all

Learning environments promote creativity

Inspire each child to improve

Every child an individual

Foster curiosity, champion confidence

The L&T website facilitates the sharing of best practice across the Trust, cross phase and discipline. It is where all resources from all schools can be located to enhance lesson planning and ensure ideas are shared with teachers in our schools.

XAVIER CET WEBSITE

To access the website go to this link: Xavier CET – L&T Resrouces

By selecting ‘learning and teaching strategies’ you will be able to search by aspect of pedagogy. Additionally, all research projects are published here.

OPEN LESSONS & JOINT LEARNING GROUP

Within the trust we are committed to sharing best practice in relation to our teaching approaches. There are two windows (Spring 1 and Summer 2) where you have the chance to reflect on your practice by visiting and observing other colleagues within the MAT. All 3 Secondary schools meet regularly to discuss learning and teaching. Should you wish to get involved you’re most welcome!

Language for learning sums up our approach to promoting high standards of literacy at SJB as proficiency in language underpins success in every subject. It is every teacher’s duty to insist on and support, not just the English department’s, as “Every teacher is a teacher of English”.

WRITING

We recognise 4 key aspects to language for learning – writing:

1. Talk model write (ensuring that students’ model and draft prior to attempting a written piece)
2. Keywords are the key (promoting subject specific and expression appropriate vocabulary)
3. Expecting and using full sentences (when students respond orally to questions insist on full sentences; this serves to improve their mean length of utterance and consequently their language skills)
4. Bulletproof your work (A tool available on the L&T tools app to facilitate self-checking/proof reading work)

READING

Reading is of utmost importance for all students. It is the sole factor that can impede their success in school and in life beyond SJB. Reading can impact life expectancy, a child’s happiness and can serve a key role in exposing students to content that they would not otherwise experience, apart from the strong correlation between a child’s ability to read and their outcomes. It is therefore vital that, during their time, at school children are exposed to reading, especially comprehension, as much as possible. Reading is a process skill that is learned over time and requires practice.

In order to fully develop the skills to read, a child must be given the opportunity to practise a range of skills that lead overall to a clear understanding of a text: Decoding the letter combinations and sounds that form unfamiliar words to aide reading proficiency ( accurate recognition of 97% of words), Fluency when reading with speed and accuracy, Word Meaning must be fully understood leading to ultimate Comprehension of a text and its various modes and layers of meaning.

As a school we are committed to both encouraging students to have the opportunity to read, as well as supporting them in strategies to be able to read proficiently according to the skills required in their various subject disciplines. We will be continuing to develop our practice in Disciplinary Literacy this year, please speak to one of the leaders of the 4Cs CLT  for support with this, however, please try to do the following:

1. Check each child’s reading age in your class on Edulink and ensure texts are modified accordingly (ATOS text reader, rewordify)
2. Model reading fluency and decoding to the students by reading aloud as well as using ‘Control the Game’
3. Provide opportunities for reading comprehension in class and for homework, using and adapting the ’Reading Smarter’ grids, ‘High-Five Reading’, and ‘Reciprocal Reading’ strategies
4. Explicitly teach vocabulary to students using the ‘Frayer model’ and ‘SEEC Model’ use spelling & vocabulary tests – more to come on this
5. Encourage students to infer the meaning of texts aloud, “It says…I say…So…”
6. Promote reading for pleasure both within and beyond the curriculum e.g. 5 books to read if you love …
7. Use a range of academic reading tasks and materials for homework in order to have reading support your course/ unit progression.

You can find more detail regarding these on the Xavier L&T website.

 

“Simply put, we can’t keep preparing children for a world that doesn’t exist.”

Cathy N Davidson

As an Apple Distinguished School (2021-2024), we’ve seamlessly integrated technology within our pedagogy and practice across the school. The SJB school community fosters a culture of innovation that strives to instil a love of learning; to prepare our students for their future, we must ensure that they are digitally literate so that they will develop the 21st century skills required to be successful in life – creativity; collaboration; curiosity; and communication. 

CORE APPS & STRAGEGIES

Our core apps wheel contains 13 apps and strategies that we use all the time; they all help develop 21^st Century skills. The 3 central apps should be used in every lesson, the apps round the outside have been identified as ways to transform our teaching, ensuring our students are inspired, creative and empowered.

LEARNING TOOLS APP

We have created an easy to use AfL tool that allows students to communicate the progress they are making in relation to learning. The app includes traffic lights, target setting, true or false and a SPAG proof reading checklist that allows students to check their own work.

SHOWBIE APP

Showbie is an app every department uses to assign, collect, and review student work. Teachers share lesson resources, and provide rich feedback in the form of voice notes, annotations, and videos. Likewise, students can annotate worksheets directly in the app as well as submit work from virtually any other app. Showbie can also be used on a desktop so is designed to be used with all key stages. You can learn more about the app in a short how-to video we created for staff. Visit the section on workflow to see how departments organise Goodnotes.

GOODNOTES APP

Goodnotes is a notetaking app that students use to organise and store their work. Work is organised into folders by subject and within the app students can sketch and annotate by hand or by typing. Visit the section on workflow to see how students should organise their learning within this app.

4. Apple Clips – a powerful video-editing app.
5. Quizlet – digital flashcards, matching tasks and live quizzing
6. Keynote – presentation app
7. Socrative – formative assessment tool linked to Showbie
8. Onedrive – file hosting service used for collaborating
9. Seneca – effective and engaging revision website with self marking formative assessment.
10. Modelling – using visualisers and recorded videos to model concepts and skills to students.
11. Quizizz – engaging formative assessment tool
12. Padlet – app/website that acts like a digital noticeboard.
13. The Day – subscription with a wealth of news articles.

 “I have come to the conclusion that Cognitive Load Theory is the single most important thing for teachers to know”

– Dylan Wiliam

Lessons and schemes of work at SJB are increasingly built around the information processing model:

We are dedicated to employing strategies which support students’ attention and focus, aid working memory and enhance long term memory.

Details of these strategies can be found on the Xavier L&T website.