BOARDING POLICY
Ratcliffe College
Boarding Policy
We believe that boarding
offers the benefits of a fully rounded education - academically, socially,
emotionally and spiritually - and contributes to the development of important
transferable skills such as personal responsibility, communication, teamwork,
self-motivation and adaptability. All
students at Ratcliffe are therefore encouraged to participate in boarding
during their years at school, as full, weekly or occasional boarders.
The School Mission Statement
provides the guiding vision for the education provided at Ratcliffe College. The school has a Pastoral Care Policy, which
is available on request from the Deputy Head (Pastoral) and which details the
provision of pastoral care given to all students. The school's Boarding Policy highlights those
areas of pastoral care that relate specifically to the school's boarding
community and the ways in which the school seeks to safeguard and promote the
welfare, health and safety of boarding students.
Aims of Boarding
- To provide a secure, caring environment where
each boarder receives the attention and support he/she needs.
- To create an open and trusting atmosphere where
each boarder learns to value truth and respect for others.
- To make boarders feel the same confidence and
comfort, as far as possible, as they do at home.
- To provide the opportunities for each boarder
to develop his/her intellectual talents.
- To provide opportunities for each boarder to
develop physically, socially, culturally, morally and spiritually.
- To develop boarders' qualities of leadership,
ability to work as part of a team and self-responsibility.
- To encourage boarders to integrate fully with
day students in the life of the school.
- To safeguard and promote the welfare of each
boarder, by providing an environment that is, as far as possible, free
from physical hazards and dangers.
- To provide accommodation which is comfortable
and suited to the needs of boarders, according to age and maturity, and
which provides adequate levels of privacy.
- To encourage links with parents in the support
and development of their son/daughter as a boarder.
Implementation
- The school adheres to the regulations set out
in the National Minimum Standards for Boarding Schools, under the
inspection framework of the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI).
- The school's Pastoral Care Policy details the
provision of pastoral care given to all boarding and day students.
- Boarding staff are suitably experienced and
qualified to carry out their duties and receive appropriate Inset
training. They are suitably deployed to provide unobtrusive but friendly
supervision of boarding students.
- Expectations regarding standards of behaviour
and co-operation with others are reinforced through the structure of
boarding time, for example at regular boarding house meetings, Night
Prayers, community meals and activities.
- There are well-structured homework conditions,
access to learning resources such as the school library and the ICT
facilities in the evenings and at weekends, and support from staff if
required. Sixth Form students are
allowed to work in their rooms during private study periods in the daily
timetable.
- Access is provided to a wide range of
extra-curricular activities - sporting, intellectual, and cultural - through
a well-balanced and extensive trips and activities
programme at lunchtimes, in the evenings and at weekends. The participation of boarding students
in activities is monitored and every effort is made to encourage students
to take part.
- The spiritual development of boarders is
fostered through the Religious Studies curriculum and daily acts of
worship (in which all students participate). Boarders also attend Sunday
Mass and Night Prayers, where student contributions are encouraged and
welcomed.
- Boarders are given opportunities to show
leadership in the boarding houses as prefects and monitors. Living away from home encourages
teamwork and self-responsibility and, in a boarding community, students
learn the need for compromise and co-operation.
- The integration of boarders with day students
is promoted by boarders being allocated with day students to a form tutor
group, as set out in the Pastoral Care Policy. Boarders are taught alongside day
students in lessons and they take full part in the school's extra-curricular
programme. Boarders also share
common room facilities with day students.
All Sixth Formers use the Sixth Form Union during the day, in the
evenings and at weekends.
- Boarders can put forward their views at
meetings of the School Council, Boarding Council and Catering Committee,
where representatives chosen by their peers are invited to submit items to
the agendas. Each group meets four times per year.
- Appropriate induction is given to new
boarders. An information handbook
is sent to each boarder before the start of the school year. On arrival,
new boarders are allocated a `buddy' to help them to settle in to the
boarding routines.
- The school's boarding arrangements are
flexible, with an exeat system that offers boarders opportunities to go home
at weekends once school commitments have been completed.
- The school encourages all students to
participate as full, weekly or occasional boarders during their time at
school; Boarding Taster weekends are organised to enable day students to
sample boarding.
- The school's Health and Safety Policy and
security procedures ensure that the boarding environment is safe and
secure.
- Boarding accommodation is well maintained and
appropriate for the needs of boarding students.
- There is close liaison with parents and
guardians. Parents' Information
Handbooks for Boarding Boys and Boarding Girls contain full contact
details, together with other information relevant to boarding life.
Monitoring
The Boarding Policy is
monitored by the Deputy Head (Pastoral) through discussions with key post
holders (particularly the Heads of Boarding) and with students, in addition to
visits to the boarding houses and feedback from parents.
Public Examination Results
