Student Handbook

Welcome to ALP Sittingbourne we realise that your first day at school can be daunting, we also realise that even learners who have been at our school for a long time often forget key information. Therefore this handbook provides you with the key information you need to help you in your first few weeks and to keep you on track throughout your time in the school. 

Contents:


Structure of the Day 

  • Settling in: 9.15 – 9.30
  • GMS: 9.30 – 9.50
  • P 1: 9.50 – 10.45
  • Break: 10.45 – 11.00
  • P 2: 11.00 – 11.45
  • P 3: 11.45 – 12.30
  • Lunch: 12.30 – 1.15
  • P 4: 1.15 – 2.00
  • P 5: 2.00 – 2.45
  • HOME

Transport – Arrival and departure from School 

Most of our learners are transported into school by taxi or the Local Authority Transport Scheme. Some travel independently and others are transported by family members. 

This is how it works:

The taxi or transport scheme will contact you to arrange your collection time. They will arrive at your home at an agreed time. You may share your transport with other learners or travel alone. You may also have a chaperone, which is somebody in the car with you to support your journey. 

When you arrive at the school staff members will be on hand to welcome you and ensure you enter the school safely. 

Please note, that if you arrive at school early you may need to wait until the doors are unlocked and staff are available to greet you. Your parents/careers, or driver will wait with you. 


Signing In and Out

When you arrive at school you need to sign in using our visitor management system. This is used to register your attendance, but also notifies all staff you are in school in the case of an emergency such as a fire evacuation. 

When you leave the school its important that you sign out.

When you sign in, your photo is taken. Feel free to pull your best face, as we just need this to identify its you. 


Meet the team 

I’m sure you will want to know who is who in the school. Click the link below and you can find out more about our staff team and see our lovely photos. 


Welfare Facilities 

On your first day you will be given a tour of the school. The person showing you around will point out the student toilets. 

Our school has achieved healthy school status. Part of this means we encourage you to drink plenty of water during the day. We will provide you with a water bottle or feel free to bring your own. 

Fact – Children and teenagers should drink 1.7 – 3.3 litres of water a day.

If you bring your own lunch you will be shown where to store this. 


Lunch and Break 

Lunch and break times allow you to have a break from lessons and have some refreshments. School provide water and fruit for break times and we provide all learners with a hot meal at lunch time. The weekly menus will be displayed in the school. If you don’t like the main meal option, there will always be an alternative available. 

We encourage staff and students to eat together. This will take place in the schools dining areas. 

There may also be time for some downtime at lunch and break. Activities may be provided or this may be a time you can socialise with others, participate in an interest led activity or cath up with some work. 

We do not allow students to bring in their own entertainment unless it has been approved by the management team. 


Mobile Phones 

We realise that many learners have a mobile phone – our school policy is that mobile phones should not be brought into school. If they are they are locked away until the end of the day.  


Dress / Uniform 


Expectations 

We want all learners to try their best. We expect you to show respect to others in the school and display acceptable behaviour. We want you to participate in all lessons and ask for support when you need it. 

It’s pretty simple – show the school, the staff and others learners the respect that you yourself would like to receive from others. 


Personal belongings 

The school cannot be accountable for your personal belongings. Therefore, anything of value we strongly advise that you do not bring into school. We encourage you to bring a bag for your belongings and you will be shown where this can be stored during the school day. The school provides stationary but you may prefer to bring your own which is fine to do so. 


Smoking 

Smoking is not permitted – we are a non smoking school. 


ICT 

When joining the school you will be provided with login details for your account and an email address for internal emails only. We operate with Google Education. This means that any documents you save will be on your Drive and can be accessed from any device you log in to. This means you can participate in remote learning, or access files for homework. 

The school has plenty of laptops and chromeboxes. These will be supplied in lessons in which they are required. They are also accessible at break and lunch times on request. 

The school ensures that all learners are safe online. You can find out more about online safety here.


What to expect on your first day 

  • A warm welcome 
  • Meet your teachers and a few of your fellow students 
  • A tour of the school 
  • Help and support when you need it 
  • An introduction to your learning 
  • A timetable 
  • Activities to help you relax into the school 
  • Leave feeling confident and excited about your new school

Curriculum 

All learners follow Foundation Learning.

There are three elements to this: 

  1. Functional Skills – English, Maths and ICT 
  2. Vocational Learning – You may get to choose some lessons from our vocational range – Sport, Construction, Music, Art, Media, Animal Care, Forest School, Childcare, Hairdressing, Mechanics and more 
  3. Personal and Social Development – PSHE, well-being, life skills and employability skills 

Outreach / Alternative provision 

Some of our learners may benefit from part of their week out of school. This may be on our outreach programme of off-site education or attending alternative provision where a subject may be on offer that we are not able to deliver in school. 


Enrichment 

Enrichment in school is what students do to look at subjects more in-depth or from different perspectives. It may also be an opportunity for students to participate in activities they enjoy and therefore do more of. We like to provide enrichment opportunities for all of our learners. 


Careers 

Our school benefits from our own careers lead and careers champions within the school. Every learner will have the opportunity for careers interviews, careers information, advice and guidance and careers education. 

For more information about careers click here.


Healthy Schools

Our school has achieved Healthy Schools Status. We promote the values of healthy schools. This means that we help you to grow healthily, safely and responsibly. We do this by placing added emphasis on Healthy Eating, Physical Activity, PSHE and Social Emotional Mental Health. 

To find out more click here.


Bullying 

Bullying is behaviour that hurts someone else. It includes name calling, hitting, pushing, spreading rumours, threatening or undermining someone. 

It can happen anywhere – at school, at home, or online. It’s usually repeated over a long period of time and can hurt you both physically and emotionally. 

We do not tolerate bullying and we encourage you to report bullying so that we can take effective action.

To find out more and where to confidentially report bullying please click here.

The School has a designated senior lead safeguarding officer. This is Jenny Thomason and deputy senior lead safeguarding officers. These are Clare Kelly and Jessica Duffin.


Student Voice

Student voice is the thoughts, views and opinions of students on an educational journey. Student voice is an integral part of ensuring learners receive an outstanding educational experience and that students feel empowered to be active in either making curriculum or institution wide change. As such, we hold student voice sessions, encourage your voice in assemblies and hold student councils. Your voice can help change practice in our school. 


Safeguarding 

What is safeguarding about? 

All of the adults around you think that your health, safety and welfare are very important. In our school, we respect our students, and help to protect their rights. We do our best to ensure our learners make good progress. We teach our students how to recognise risks in different situations and how to protect themselves and stay safe. 

How will we try to protect our learners?

We try to provide a safe environment for our students to learn in. We want to help to make sure that our learners remain safe at home as well as in school. We think it is important for our children to know where to get help if they are worried or unhappy about something. 

Need to talk?

You can talk to any adult in school. Choose that person who you feel comfortable to talk with. You may also wish to talk to childline:

ChildLine 0800 1111

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