School Rules

We don’t have a lot of rules at this school, in fact we only have three. These three rules are administered by that rarest of all commodities – common sense.

  • Respect – People
  • Respect – Place & Property
  • Respect – Purpose

These rules are reviewed with our students at the start of each term.

In more detail the rules might cover things like:

  • Respect: People
    • We respect other people at school.
    • We show our respect for people by using our manners.
    • We do not hurt other people with our actions or our words.
  • Respect: Place & Property
    • Everyone has the right to feel safe at school.
    • We play in the right places at the right times.
  • Respect: Purpose
    • Everyone at school has a right to learn, we respect this.
    • Teachers have a right to teach, we respect this.

Manners

Laingholm Primary School focuses on good manners and we try to ensure our expectations are uniform across the school. For example, students are encouraged to;

  • Say thank you as a teacher hands out work sheets or other classroom materials
  • Return a greeting if a teacher – or anyone else for that matter – greets them
  • Use the word “please” as a natural part of most questions.

“Respect for ourselves guides our morals, respect for others guides our manners.”

Laurence Sterne

High Standards and Expectations

We have high expectations of ourselves as teachers, and our students as learners. We only accept work of the highest quality;

  • Work that is appropriate in content for the intended audience
  • Work that is presented via a media that enhances the message and is appropriate for the intended audience
  • When an exercise book is chosen as the appropriate media, high book standards should be maintained but not at the expense of the content.

It is essential to remember that we live in a world where an increasing amount of information is consumed in a multi-media format. Our students belong to the ‘You Tube’ generation in much the same way previous generations might have been labelled the ‘Guttenberg’ generation, as they consumed much of their information via text.

Sense of Belonging

As a school we use ‘fun’ to engage students and give them a sense of belonging. We believe that feeling comfortable and having that sense of belonging are essential to the learning process. If a student does not feel ‘comfortable in their own skin’ then it doesn’t matter how good the teaching programme is – learning will not occur.

“A positive self-image and healthy self-esteem is based on approval, acceptance
and recognition from others; but also upon actual accomplishments,
achievements and success upon the realistic self-confidence which ensues.”

 Abraham Maslow