Our school structure, timetable, pastoral system and curriculum give us many advantages that ensure good behaviour.
We know our students, families and background well. Our school is small, with a fixed class size of 25 and a teaching assistant assigned to each class. Classes work with three teachers for each expedition allowing teachers to know each student personally.
In most other schools, teachers would see 250-300 students over a fortnight, and students would see 20-30 teachers.
Our curriculum is engaging, personalised and authentic. When students do work that actually matters and is useful to them and their community, they have a much greater need to engage in it. When they know that they will be exhibiting their work in front of people that they care about, positive peer pressure is a great motivator.
We have an extremely strong behaviour policy and extremely high expectations for our students.
On top of our firm zero-tolerance anti-bullying policy, we have pastoral structures that support the total elimination of bullying, such as our ‘crew’ and the small, personal size of the school.
Each crew is a group of 12-13 students and an adult that stay together for the 7 years they are with us. Crew meet every morning and follow a supportive and challenging pastoral and academic curriculum.
Each Crew Leader visits and regularly contacts parents which gives us a very strong pastoral team enabling them to deal with issues such as bullying extremely effectively.