School opening times for students

• Monday – Thursday 8.45am – 2.45pm
• Friday 8.45am – 2pm (Total 29 hours 15 minutes)

Morning registration is from 8.45am – 9am each morning

Our timetable has been designed to allow our students to experience learning in a structured way by following a regular daily routine.

Students are sorted into small tutor groups for Tutor Time and for DEAR – every day our students ‘Drop Everything And Read’ as part of our school wide approach to improving literacy.

The school days features 29 timetabled sessions per week across a range of subjects (see the Curriculum page for more information).  Please see below for our daily timetable.

Futures Days offer our students and their parents or carers the opportunity to meet with their form tutor and discuss their progress.  During Futures Day the school closes to pupils so that tutors can meet with each student throughout the day. The next Futures Day is 21 September 2023.

As well as giving feedback about how each student is progressing, we also take the opportunity to seek views from Parents and Carers.  Below is the feedback we received from our Futures Day in January 2023 which identified 83% of Parents and Carers agree and strongly agree that ‘My Child is happy at [Prospect] School’.  The full feedback highlights what we are doing well as well as some areas for improvement.

We believe wearing a uniform is an important part of belonging and supports social inclusion, therefore all students are expected to wear Prospect School uniform. Our uniform includes the options of a charcoal polo or t-shirt, in addition to a school fleece (optional), as chosen by the students themselves.

• School polo shirt – navy, black or charcoal
• School t-shirt – navy, black or charcoal
• School hoodie (zipped or non-zipped) – navy, black or charcoal
• School sweatshirt – navy, black or charcoal
• Black or navy school trousers or black or navy tracksuit bottoms
• Black shoes or black trainers
• School fleece – navy or black
• Black tailored school shorts

School polo shirts, t-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies (zipped or non-zip) and fleeces can be ordered from the school office, using the order form.

If you have any questions about uniform, please contact the school office on 02394 006226.

The House System is designed to embody the values and ethos of the school.  It is an integral part of our school community, having a positive impact on motivation, attainment, camaraderie, teamwork and behaviour, as well as helping students become more engaged in their school life. At Prospect School our vision is to create an effective learning environment for all of our students, developing successful young people who are ready to take their place in society and who have the resilience to cope within an ever changing world.

Objectives

Our aim is to provide every student in each house with:

• a sense of identity and belonging within the school community
• opportunities to develop social, intellectual, emotional, physical and practical skills
• a sense of achievement both inside and outside of the classroom
• fun and excitement through competition
• opportunities for leadership
• opportunities to mentor and encourage others
• an awareness of individual and collective responsibility

Organisation

Tutor groups are assigned to one of the four houses (Neptune, Orion, Centurion, and Valiant); this includes students and staff. Each house has two designated ‘House Captains’ who act as representatives for all the students in their house throughout the year by: helping co-ordinate house teams, organise activities and events and representing their house at relevant meetings. In time, it is our ambition that the House Captains and the Student Voice, our school council, will work together creating a stronger student voice to motivate all students and further the community spirit of the school.

Inter-House Challenge Cup

The Inter-House Challenges provide the students with a balance between their academic rigours and the social and sporting aspects of school life. The system provides a sense of competition and fun through a range of school based activities from September to July with house points awarded for achievement, effort, commitment and behaviour, celebrating success and recognising team and individual application across the broadest spectrum of endeavour. The House Cup is presented to the winning House Captains at the end of each academic year, after the final scores from Sports Day have been collated.

Earning Points

Houses are in competition with each other to achieve the highest number of house points at the end of each term and most importantly by the end of the year when prizes will be awarded and the House Cup is presented.

Ongoing house point totals will be displayed on the Inter-House scoreboard in the Dining Room.

Students can contribute to their house point totals in a number of ways both in and out of the classroom. All students are encouraged and supported to participate in house events and activities throughout the year.

We recognise our moral and statutory responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children. We make every effort to provide a safe and welcoming environment underpinned by a culture of openness where both children and adults feel secure, able to talk and believe that they are being listened to.

We maintain an attitude of “it could happen here” where safeguarding is concerned. Staff are reminded to allow themselves to ‘think the unthinkable’ and keep safeguarding live.
Safeguarding determines the actions that we take to keep students safe and protect them from harm in all aspects of their school life. As a school we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all our students.

The actions that we take to prevent harm; to promote wellbeing; to create safe environments; to educate on rights, respect and responsibilities; to respond to specific issues and vulnerabilities all form part of the safeguarding responsibilities of the school. Please see our Safeguarding Policy and Child Protection Policy (could this be a link to the policies) for more information and greater detail.

Students can sometimes find it hard to talk face to face about issues. With this in mind we have created a designated, student only, email for contact with a DSL. This is monitored daily by the DSLs and is advertised across the school.

The Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs) for the school are shown below:

• Michèle Aldridge – Headteacher
• Deborah McComb – Operational DSL
• Claire Adamson – Deputy Headteacher