Moon Hall School conforms to The Education (Independent School Standards) (England) Regulations 2003 – amended 2005 and has the following statutory Policies in place which parents may see on request:-

Anti-Bullying, Behaviour & Discipline, Child Protection, Complaints, The Curriculum, Health & Safety of Pupils on Educational Visits and English as a Foreign Language.

Discipline And Sanctions

Moon Hall School has a Behaviour and Discipline policy which is available to parents from the school office, upon request. Rules are simple and it is asked that parents discuss these with their child prior to entry. The following is extracted from the policy document:

School Rules and Code of Conduct
1. You may not leave the site during the School day unless the Deputy or Head has granted permission.
2. The dress code must be adhered to — children must arrive and depart from school wearing uniform
3. No chewing gum or sweets are allowed in school unless permission has been given by a teacher ; for example sweets may be allowed at an end of term ‘party’.
4. No money is to be brought to school, unless requested by Staff
5. No running in the corridors
6. No medicines, except inhalers to be kept in classrooms. Any medication brought to school should be given to Matron.
7. Children should not bring items such as Sony Walkmans, Computer Games or Mobile phones into school. (Year 7 and above are permitted mobile phones if they are boarders. These are kept in the Boarding Houses).
8. Respect other people’s property; look after your own property. Property should not be borrowed without permission and must be returned unharmed.
9. Buying and selling of personal property is not allowed on the School site.
10. Children are expected always to behave in a manner that will enhance rather than harm the reputation of the School.
11. Play should be governed by the convention, ‘keep hands and feet to yourself’.
12. Gambling and betting are forbidden at all times.
The House system provides for plusses and minuses, given in connection with behaviour.

In the extremely rare event that serious breaches of discipline occur, the ultimate sanctions at Moon Hall School are Temporary Exclusion (often referred to as Suspension) and Permanent Exclusion. Neither sanction is used lightly.

Fixed Term Temporary Exclusion
A child may be excluded from the School for a fixed term at the discretion of the School. A decision to exclude a child for a fixed term will be taken only

• when there has been a serious breach, or a series of breaches which, taken together, constitute a serious breach, of the school’s discipline policy

OR

• if allowing the child to remain in school would seriously harm the education or welfare of the child or other children in the school.

Before a decision is taken to exclude a child, the following requirements must have been met:

There must be a full investigation of all the facts and evidence which supports or contradicts the allegation and a conclusion reached that on the balance of probabilities the child did what has been alleged.

In such an investigation the child must be given an opportunity to state his or her version of what happened and to give an explanation for his or her behaviour.

It must be checked that the misbehaviour was not reasonably provoked by any racial or sexual harassment or by any other form of bullying whether physical or verbal. (In the event of a finding that provocation probably occurred a decision is to be made as to whether the behaviour can or cannot be justified wholly or in part by such provocation and if only in part whether a lesser sanction would be appropriate in such circumstances.)

The child’s parent must be notified as soon as possible of the incident giving rise to the investigation and of the fact that a determination of misbehaviour may lead to a fixed term temporary exclusion or permanent exclusion.

The Chairman of the Governors must have been informed in writing of the investigation and must approve the decision to exclude the child for the fixed period determined upon.

The period of the fixed term temporary exclusion must be reasonable having regard to the balance of the need to maintain discipline within the School and the child’s educational needs.

Permanent exclusion
The School reserves the right to expel a child permanently from the School in the event that his or her misbehaviour is so serious as to warrant the decision by the School that permanent exclusion is the only way to avoid serious harm to the education or welfare of other children.

Before a decision is taken to permanently exclude/expel a child, the following requirements must have been met:

There must be a full investigation of all the facts and evidence which supports or contradicts the allegation and a conclusion reached that beyond any reasonable doubt the child did what has been alleged.

In such an investigation the child must be given an opportunity to state his or her version of what happened and to give an explanation for his or her behaviour.

It must be checked that the incident was not reasonably provoked by any racial or sexual harassment or by any other form of bullying whether physical or verbal. (In the event of a finding that provocation probably occurred a decision is to be made as to whether the behaviour can or cannot be justified wholly or in part by such provocation and if only in part whether a lesser sanction would be appropriate in such circumstances.)

The child’s parents must be notified as soon as possible of the incident giving rise to the investigation, of the fact that a determination of misbehaviour may lead to a fixed term temporary exclusion or permanent exclusion, and be given an opportunity to make representations to the Head Teacher or the Chairman of the Governors – see below.

The Chairman of the Governors must have been informed in writing of the investigation and must, having reviewed a report on the investigation, satisfy him/herself that permanent exclusion is the appropriate sanction to be applied in the interests of the School as a whole.

Temporary exclusion
The Head Teacher, or in her absence the Deputy Head Teacher, may, at her discretion, require that a child be temporarily removed from the School and kept home.

Temporary exclusion will normally last no longer than the day on which it is implemented and the following school day. It should only be imposed if it is important, in the interests of the child or of the other children, that the child should be removed from the site immediately to allow tempers to cool or to allow time for an allegation of serious misconduct which might lead to a fixed term temporary exclusion or permanent exclusion to be investigated.

No child is to be sent home until his or her parent has been informed and suitable arrangements have been made for his or her collection.

The Chairman of the Governors, or in his/her absence, another Governor must be informed as soon as possible by telephone and in writing within 24 hours of the temporary exclusion and of the reasons for it.

Responsibilities of the School
If the School commences an investigation which may lead to a fixed term temporary exclusion or to permanent exclusion the Head Teacher must inform the parent without delay. This will ideally be done by telephone and the telephone call will be followed by a letter within one school day. The letter will include information about:
the nature of the offence and the results of any investigation to date.
that the sanction of a fixed term temporary exclusion or permanent exclusion may be imposed.
the parents’ right to state their case to the Governors.
the parents’ right to see their child’s school record under the Education (School Records) Regulations 1989). Under these regulations, the Head must comply with such a request within 15 school days although in exclusion cases this should be complied with more promptly.

The decision to suspend for a fixed term or to expel will be notified to the parent in writing with reasons.

If the School determines that a child should be suspended for a fixed period, the Head Teacher will provide the parent in writing with information as to:

• the period of the temporary exclusion
• the arrangements, such as setting work, to allow the child to continue their education during the temporary exclusion.

The correspondence must be easily intelligible and in plain English.

If the School decides (after completing the investigation or as a result of new evidence and further investigation) that it is necessary to extend a fixed period temporary exclusion or to convert it into a permanent exclusion, the Head Teacher or Chairman of the Governors will write again to the parent with the reasons for this decision.