Norwood School strongly believes that how you lead your life matters. To this end, Norwood requires that its students conduct themselves honorably and lawfully at all times and act with respect, kindness, and honesty.
The following Standards of Student Conduct, Honor, and Response are discussed at school with all students. It is expected that all parents will read the Community Agreement and discuss it with their children. Parents must submit an electronic return slip, acknowledging their children’s intention to abide by these standards and the parents’ intention to support them. Time will be spent in school discussing the standards with students.
Proper conduct is expected of all students while engaged in school activities, both on and off campus, while online or communicating electronically, and during school-sponsored events. Inappropriate behavior not directly related to school activities will also be considered a violation of this policy if it negatively impacts the school community.
Students are expected to treat each other with dignity, to be polite and courteous to peers and adults alike, to care for all property and grounds, and to help preserve a clean, well-maintained, and safe school environment. Students are expected to interact in a manner which contributes to a welcoming and comfortable environment for everyone. Students are expected to abide by all applicable laws and school policies.
At all times, students are expected to make decisions based on the spirit of the Standards of Student Conduct and Honor and to avoid conduct detrimental to the community’s or any individual’s sense of security and trust.
Our school community depends on the presumption of honorable behavior through trust and mutual respect. Students are expected to act with integrity and uphold the standards of the community, especially regarding issues such as cheating, plagiarizing, and using technology. At all times honesty and responsibility to the community are expected to guide student behavior. Because students are trusted to adhere to the spirit of this Community Agreement, they are expected to act in ways that would be widely interpreted as appropriate behavior.
When a student violates the Community Agreement there will be a response from the School. Repeated violations will result in increasingly severe consequences. Every effort is made to match any consequence to the action and to educate the student about how the behavior negatively impacts the school community. In cases beyond minor infractions, parents will be notified so that they can reinforce behavior that is in accordance with the School’s beliefs and policies. The tools available to educate the student about the infraction and to maintain a trusting community include, but are not limited to, the following consequences: verbal correction with explanation of the negative impact of the action, written notification to the parents, detention (in Middle School), student-behavior contract, parent conference, in-school suspension, out-of-school suspension, expulsion, and legal proceedings.
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Click here to read about standards of response
** Some suggestions on ways to approach the discussion on the Community Agreement.
1. Talk about why institutions such as schools have rules. What sorts of rules do schools need to have? What types of behaviors would schools want to promote? Or discourage?
2. What does it mean to be “respectful, kind, and civil?” Can you think of some specific behaviors that would evidence these words?
3. Try to remember specific examples of times when parents, grandparents, or students have had to respond to disrespectful or unkind behaviors. Talk about what the best response might be to these situations.
4. Discuss the meaning of such words in the Agreement as lying, cheating, stealing, and plagiarism. Talk about situations that such words might apply.
