Thomas Clarkson Academy, Wisbech, has tackled Ofsted’s criticism of its discipline record head-on with the introduction of a zero tolerance regime.
Principal Clare Claxton said: “Ofsted told us behaviour has got to get from OK to good and that’s why we introduced zero tolerance.”
Students now risk after-school detentions – and whole days in isolation with escorted trips to the toilet – for breaches of the new regime.
More than 100 yellow cards a day have become the norm, issued to students to provide what the principal says is a “consistent, formal warning for disrupting a lesson”.
But the threat of ‘red’ cards is where the real challenge lies, concedes Ms Claxton.
With the ‘red’ card comes an automatic after school detention, lengthened from 45 minutes to an hour for students who refuse it.
Skip that, says Ms Claxton, and the 8.40am-3.50pm day in isolation begins – but not, she hastens to add, in darkened out rooms and with bread and water lunches as portrayed in recent social media attacks.
On a visit to the academy this week, Ms Claxton explained how zero tolerance is working.
• To find out more about the zero tolerance regime, see today’s Wisbech Standard.
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