Internal rules

The Internal Rules and Regulations (IRR) defines the school’s rules and policies and the students’ rights and responsibilities. A regulation where we can find the penalties that will be imposed upon any students who commit an infraction.

The Internal Regulation has an educational character with the aim to create a culture of caring, respect and responsibility.

A. ABSENCES: The attendance of a child at school is OBLIGATORY. Repeated absences can seriously affect the academic progress of your child apart from the fact that attendance at school is a legal requirement. Excursions and field trips are also mandatory as part of our students’ integral formation and pedagogical character heavily promoted by the school. Any absence of a pupil from school should be communicated by the family as soon as possible. This notification of absence should always be given to the School Secretary – never to the teachers– via email to info@colegiotorrequebrada.es. Repeated absences will be considered very serious and will give rise to specific intervention measures by the school management.

If no medical certificate or any other document is given to justify the absence, it will appear on the student’s academic record as an ‘unjustified’ absence.

Any notifications related to student needs (e.g. soft diets, childcare, bus, pick-up authorisations, etc.) should be made after drop-off and preferably via email, so that – following the school’s internal communication procedure – all messages will subsequently be forwarded to the relevant responsible parties.

B. UPDATED INFORMATION: families or tutors are obliged to inform the school as soon as possible in writing of any changes in the data provided in the printed Registration Form – especially in reference to change of e-mail, contact telephone numbers, as well as any change in the guardianship or custody of the student, with a copy of the corresponding judicial or administrative resolution. Until these changes have been communicated, the school will not be responsible for taking action regarding these new changes in situation/information. We recommend you revise your personal details on ALEXIA.

Colegio Internacional Torrequebrada is an educational institution committed to its educational community, adapting its privacy policy to the new European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). and for this reason at the beginning of the 23/24 academic year all families will have to sign the image and data consent form that they will receive by email.

C. AUTHORIZATION TO COLLECT CHILDREN: Infants and Primary students may not leave the school premises unaccompanied. They must always be collected by the families or guardians (people known by the teachers and the School Leadership Team).

MYP & DP students may leave the school premises unaccompanied. If you do not wish your children to leave the school unaccompanied please inform the school office before the beginning of the school year.

If you would like to authorise other people (grandparents, other family members, friends, nannies…) the families or guardians must send an authorisation form with the details requested, see Appendix VIII. MYP and DP students are allowed to collect their younger siblings if written authorisation has been previously given by their families/guardians.

D. As in previous years, we think it is useful to share some points regarding families’ meeting reservations:

1. Families have the right and the duty to request a family meeting each term with their child’s class tutor, in order to share and get some feedback on the student’s progress.
2. The timetable established for the families’ meeting adheres strictly to the Tutor’s availability.
3. Meetings will start and finish punctually, taking an estimated time of 15 minutes.
4. The appointments with the teacher will be booked ONLY through the Digital platform.
5. Families / Legal Guardians should book their three yearly meetings as soon as possible. If for any reason you are not able to attend the meeting you have reserved please inform the school office as soon as possible to cancel your meeting. We cannot assure another meeting, as this will depend on the Tutor´s availability.
6. Tutorials can be held in person or online. It is essential to indicate this when booking. Online tutorials may be recorded.
7. The school will offer a translation service for those families who may require it. You can request this option when you book the parent-teacher meeting through the platform.
8. All students are invited and encouraged to participate in the families meetings.
9. In addition to the termly parent-teacher meetings, the coordinators may invite families to private meetings with teachers either online or in person.

E. USE OF SCHOOL GROUNDS: Neither students nor people authorised to collect them may remain in the school grounds at the end of the school day – including the gardens, sports area and car park. The school will not take responsibility for those students who remain on school premises before or after the established school hours. For this reason, as well as respecting the timetable of the professional cleaners who begin their work after the students leave the school grounds – we kindly ask for your collaboration in this matter and for your commitment to following this rule. Families are also responsible for the supervision of their children during any visit to the school outside the established teaching hours.

F. STUDENT ILLNESS: The school has a First Aid Room that is at the service of students throughout the school day, for any indisposition, injury or emergency that may occur within the school and during school hours. Children who have any viral or contagious diseases (lice, impetigo, etc..) should stay at home and the families must inform the school so they can apply the necessary measures.

G. MEDICATION: All families of children who require medication during the school timetable should put the medicine in a transparent plastic bag. This should be clearly labelled with the child’s name and class along with the instructions for proper administration and be left at the School Office. Children are not authorised to bring or administer their own medication. Students who use the school bus should hand their medication to the bus monitor. MYP and DP students must leave any medication in the school office, and will ALWAYS be administered by the school nurse.

Do not forget to collect the medication from the School Office at the end of the day.

H. CERTIFICATES: If you need to apply for any kind of certificate (academic, economic, qualifications, etc..) you must do so through the school office with a minimum of 1 week’s notice.

I. PRESENTS AND PERSONAL GIFTS FOR TEACHERS AND SCHOOL STAFF: The school does not consider it appropriate to give any sort of present or personal gift to the teaching or school staff. We kindly ask families to respect this internal policy that may lead to misunderstandings or uncomfortable situations. If you wish to recognise the work of the teachers (PYP, MYP, DP), support staff, Maintenance and Service staff, secretary etc. please direct your interest towards any collective gifts, rather than individual gifts. It is much more gratifying to celebrate success in an inclusive manner and to share the thanks with all the team who have contributed to your feeling of satisfaction. Any detail should be given to the Secretary through the School Leadership Team.

J. The school uniform is a unique distinctive of our school, so we strongly request the proper use, its meaning is expressed more extensively in the corresponding section of the Internal Regulations on Discipline, Coexistence and Uniformity. We remind families of the obligation to permanently mark all clothing in a visible place with the full name and surname of the student. It is recommended to periodically check all clothes to make sure they are properly labelled.

A. The school emphasises a healthy and balanced diet. For this reason, we encourage children to adopt healthy eating habits. Students should have breakfast at home and all students will have lunch at school at midday.

B. SNACKS. Students are authorised to bring a snack, but only certain foods:

• PYP Infants (Pre-Nursery, Nursery, Reception & Year 1) can bring a carton of juice, yogurt or a piece of fruit or vegetables. Students can bring a small sandwich for their second snack.
• PYP Primary (Year 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) can bring a carton of juice, yoghourt or a piece of fruit/vegetables.
• MYP & DP students, taking into account latest studies on healthy snacks, and given the characteristics of students of this age, we believe that the most appropriate thing for them would be to bring a fruit-based snack that can be combined with another healthy snack such as nuts, a small wholemeal bread sandwich with serrano ham or non-processed alternatives or wholemeal crackers. Industrial pastries or sweets are not permitted as well as any other food that is not considered healthy. The school will reserve the option of confiscating any snack that is not considered healthy.

Students who stay from 16:05 to 17:05 (or to 18:05) for Co-Learning, Extra-Curricular Activities or Reinforcement classes are allowed to bring – as well as the mentioned above – a sandwich. Any other kinds of snacks (rolls, chocolate, dried fruits or nuts) are not permitted.

C. Students from PYP Infants, Year 2 and Year 3 will bring their school bags on Mondays and they will take them back home on Fridays. They should bring the sports uniform and the school apron in their school bag. All the other students from PYP Primary & MYP can take their school bag home daily.

D. The school provides all the material to be used in the classroom. For this reason families are asked not to bring any material, objects or toys from home.

E. The school bag is a practical necessity. It is not appropriate to have labels, slogans or any commercial advert on the bag. For students in PYP Infants and Primary, the only bag permitted will be the official Colegio Internacional Torrequebrada one available at the school. In the same way as the uniform, the school bag should be labelled with the child’s name and class. MYP & DP Students can bring their own bag as long as the bag does not have any inappropriate messages or drawings. The School Leadership Team reserves the right to prohibit the use of a bag if it does not meet the correct criteria. Students who participate in any Extracurricular activities can bring a bag for their activity.

F. Teachers celebrate the birthdays of all students – whether it is on a school day or not – with some special activity. Students are not allowed to bring sweets from home; we consider that sweets should be left for out-of-school celebrations.

G. Teachers are happy to hand out birthday invitations to the children but only if there is one for EVERY student in the class. If there is not, please hand them out yourselves to families, not to the children to hand out.

H.REMINDER DOCUMENTS: Please see below a reminder of some of the documents that will need to be signed and sent to the school before 7th September and that you will be able to find in the Appendix VIII of this circular. You will have to hand in these documents in the School Office or to the tutors:

• Bus Service Rules. This document must be signed by families and students that will be using the bus service, whether its annual or eventual use during the school year.
• School Internal Rules: families and Secondary students must read and sign this document in order to remind them of those aspects related to uniforms, behaviour, etc.

I. Secondary school lockers: MYP & DP students will have individual lockers outside their classrooms. On the first day of classes each student must bring in their own numeric padlock (we do not accept key padlocks). These can only be used once their tutors have opened a private file with a record of their padlock access code. This will be organised during the first week of term by the MYP & DP Tutors and Coordinators. The school will not be held responsible for any objects deposited in the lockers and reserves the right to open them at any time for security reasons and shared responsibility.

At the end of the school year, the padlocks and any school material left in them will be removed by the school, to undertake maintenance and cleaning of the lockers. Once the school year is over, these items may not be reclaimed by the students.