Abingdon Boarders' Handbook

What are my responsibilities? Academic While at Abingdon we expect you to be responsible for doing your very best in regard to your academic work. You must do your  homework (prep) on time and make sure you hand it in to your teacher. You must go to all of your lessons and concentrate in every  lesson. Even if you have missed most of a lesson because you were in the Health Centre or required for another activity, as soon as  you are free, then you must go to the lesson and see the teacher to collect your work. If you do miss a lesson, because you were ill, on  a school trip or any other reason, you must apologise to the teacher, collect the work you missed and catch up with it before the next  lesson.  Communication and Manners You have a responsibility to communicate with other people and to do so in a polite manner. This means apologising to teachers if you  miss a lesson or activity. It means making sure you always say please if you are asking for something and thank you if you are  receiving something. At the end of your lesson or activity the polite thing to do is to say thank you to your teacher. You should hold the  door for a member of staff to pass through and you should never push or shove other people. Proper communication and manners are  also important when you are speaking to other pupils. You should never raise your voice or shout at another pupil. You should never  swear at another pupil. You should always say please and thank you and should always look to help other pupils out if you can. In  general you should treat other people in the same way you would like them to treat you. Making sure you are helpful, polite and  considerate of their feelings. Swearing, spitting, dropping litter and physical violence are all taboo in British culture and will not be  tolerated at Abingdon. You should speak English as much as possible. If there you are in a public space or if there is someone in your  room who does not speak your language (including other pupils, teachers and support staff) then you must only speak in English. If  you do not then you will appear to be rude. You are expected to attend all school meals and will not be allowed take away food on a  weekday.  Other Half You have a responsibility while at Abingdon to attend your Other Half commitments. As a minimum you must do two sports sessions  and one Wednesday afternoon activity each week. If you are in the Third Year you must also do a service activity on a Tuesday  afternoon. If you sign up to do an additional activity then you have a responsibility to attend. A member of staff and other pupils will  have given up their time expecting you to be there so you have a duty to go.  House Community and Duty Within the each house you have a duty to your housemates. There will be formal duties that you will be required to do but there are  other basic responsibilities that you have to the community. These include making sure your room is tidy, that you put your own  laundry in the laundry bins, and that you take your dirty sheets off your beds when you are supposed to. You also have responsibility  to wash up after you have used the house kitchen and to tidy up if you have used other facilities in the house. In addition you must put  your rubbish in the correct bin. Dropping litter is completely unacceptable for a student at Abingdon School. Finally you have a  responsibility to abide by the school rules, to be honest and to treat others with respect.  Use of electronic devices  While electronic devices such as mobile phones and laptops have many advantages and benefits, we want the boarders at Abingdon  to learn to use them sensibly and appropriately. During the school day boys in Middle School are able to bring their phones into school  but will not be expected to be using them in a widespread manner and will not be allowed to connect to the wifi network. Upper  School boys will be allowed their phones and may connect to the wifi network. Phones should never be used in the dining hall or  chapel. In the evenings and weekends boarders will be able to connect phones and other electronic devices to the wifi network but this  will shut down at bedtime. 3rd and 4th Year boarders need to hand in their electronic devices overnight to the Tutor on duty. Boarders  19