School Policies
We are an authorised Cambridge International School
Acorns International School provides a caring and nurturing educational environment within an international setting, where all members of the community feel safe, supported, and empowered in their personalised learning journey. Our policy documents are one of the practices that help the school establish clear rules and procedures to function effectively and ensure the community remains connected. Schools are complex environments that require clear standards for learning, safety, expectations, and accountability.
To ensure relevance and effectiveness, our policies are reviewed every two years.
At Acorns International School, we uphold the highest standards of honesty, integrity, and ethical behaviour in all academic pursuits. Guided by the Cambridge learner attributes, our Academic Integrity Policy ensures that all members of the school community act responsibly, demonstrate fairness, and respect the work and ideas of others. This policy establishes a foundation for authentic learning, independent thinking, and the production of original and credible academic work. Through this commitment, we aim to develop responsible, reflective, and confident learners who value academic honesty and are prepared to act ethically in their educational journey and future endeavours.
The Acorns Admissions Policy is designed to make the application process straightforward. The process, usually, begins with a request for information regarding the school, followed by a visit to Acorns. Once you decide to join the Acorns family, you have to complete the registration forms and submit it to the Finance Department, along with the fees.
This Policy includes sections such as visiting Acorns, implementation of admissions policy, admission criteria and fees.
Assessments lie at the heart of the process of promoting a child’s learning. It provides a framework within which educational objectives may be set and child’s progress expressed and monitored. This should be done in partnership with learners and parents. At Acorns, we believe that assessments provide the basis of informed teaching, helping learners to overcome difficulties and ensuring that teaching builds upon what has been learned. It is also how learners understand what they have achieved and what they need to work on.
This Policy provides a framework for all examinations and assessment testing carried out at Acorns right from our Early Childhood, Primary, Secondary Departments.
Acorns is committed to educating learners as a whole; this means not only providing quality academics, but also teaching learners how to be respectful to others and themselves. Acorns aims to create a learning environment that is welcoming, safe, and secure for all learners. Therefore, the Behaviour and Motivation Policy is designed to support students through cooperation and communication between all stakeholders.
This Policy includes Early Childhood student behaviour expectations and how to achieve them through classroom management skills such as ‘thinking chair’; Primary students’ behaviour expectations and managing them through Teacher Expectations, Communication Between School and Home, Classroom Behaviour Chart, House Points and Behavioural IEPs; Secondary students’ behaviour expectations and managing through teacher expectations, encouraging positive behaviour, house points, sanctions, defining physical restraint. All these are accompanied with appropriate templates and formats used by Acorns staff members.
We believe that all children have the right to be safe and protected in our society. At Acorns, we recognise that it is our responsibility to not only ensure the welfare of our students while on campus, but also when off campus. This policy outlines the measures we take to ensure our students emotional, mental, and physical wellbeing.
The aim of this policy is to outline the measures Acorns takes to ensure students are safeguarded from abuse and neglect, to define abuse and neglect with risk factors and symptoms, and to communicate the procedure for reporting abuse and neglect.
As we (teachers, parents, family members, drivers, nannies, volunteers, and non-teaching staff) are all members of a school community, it is important that we are respectful of each other and set an example for our young people. Acorns is committed to creating an environment where all members are treated with respect, patience, integrity, dignity, and consideration.
Therefore, expectations of teachers, parents, family members, drivers, nannies, volunteers, and non-teaching staff are all laid out clearly in this Policy.
Acorns International School is very proud of the positive relationships it builds with our students’ families. We believe that connection, communication, and understanding between home and school is one of the most effective ways to promote a child’s education. For this reason, we provide multiple avenues for parents and teachers to communicate and also laid out clearly in the policy which includes:
- Phone and Email
- Academic Bridge, Student and Educator Apps
- Student Diary (Early Years & Primary Only)
- Meetings with Staff, Teachers and Senior Leadership
- Newsletters
- Coffee with Curriculum Coordinators(CCC)
- Website
- Social Media Pages
- Complaint Procedure
The Parent Teacher Organisation(PTO) is a volunteer committee compromising of Acorns staff and parents who work together to support the Acorns community.
This is to serve as a concise guide outlining employment policies to ensure professionalism and accountability among staff. This manual aims to foster a supportive and rewarding work environment, prompting excellence and collaboration within the school community.
Acorns is committed to delivering a broad and balanced curriculum through a wide range of experiences. From creche to EY3 In Early years , From Year 1 to Year 6 in Primary , Year 7, 8 & 9 for lower secondary, Year 10 & 11 for IGCSE Level, Year 12 & 13 for As & Levels with a pure Cambridge International curriculum framework.
The curriculum not only includes the formal requirements of education, but also the range of extra-curricular activities that are organised to enrich the experience of children. It also includes the ‘hidden curriculum’, where the children learn from the way they are treated and expected to behave. To achieve these goals, they need rigorous academic preparation and a passion to become the best they can be. Through our engaging, inquiry-based environment, students reach their full academic potential and become responsible, caring, multilingual, and culturally literate global lifelong learners.
ICT in the 21st Century is seen as an essential resource to support learning and teaching, as well as play an important role in the everyday lives of children, young people and adults. Consequently, schools need to build in the use of these technologies in order to arm our young people with the skills to access lifelong learning and employment.
Everybody in the school has a shared responsibility to secure any sensitive information used in their day to day professional duties. Even staff not directly involved in data handling should be made aware of the risks and threats and how to minimise them. This Policy for (for all staff, Directors, visitors and students) is inclusive of both fixed and mobile internet; technologies provided by the school (such as PCs, laptops, tablets, webcams, whiteboards, voting systems, digital video equipment, etc); and technologies owned by students and staff, but brought onto school premises (such as laptops, mobile phones, camera phones, mp3 players and portable media players, etc).
Acorns believes that field trips and outdoor excursions enhance students’ learning by providing opportunities for students to participate in curriculum-related activities outside the normal school setting. School excursions are well-planned curriculum-related activities that aim to maximise students’ learning experiences outside of the classroom. This policy includes content such as responsibility of Management, process and implementation of trips, including all the necessary templates such as risk assessment and consent forms etc. used by Acorns staff.
Acorns aims to provide a safe working and learning environment, by ensuring a systematic approach to the identification of risks and the allocation of resources to control them. The Health Policy includes health-related matters such as medical details, first aid, Incontinence, cleanliness at school. Safety Policy includes evacuation and non-evacuation procedures. Though these two are not published due to confidentiality purposes, a clear lay-out plan is made available to all staff members who also sensitise children on a regular basis, along with standard drills (evacuation drills three times a year and non-evacuation once a year) taking place at school on a regular basis. The Security Policy includes components like entering and exiting campus, change in personal details to be communicated to school and its procedure, Exit IDs, school bus and security guards, etc.
Our philosophy of language is that the teaching of language has a crucial role to play in equipping learners with the communication skills they need to become effective learners in the world of work and society in general. We believe that our language curriculum reflects the benefits of our cultural and linguistic diversity and provides learners with positive images through their reading of literature. Every learner at Acorns is entitled to an experience of language learning that supports their development in all areas of education
Acorns is a school that believes in the education of all young people. This is not limited to high achievers with good assessment scores. Acorns accepts students with varied needs and level of education. Learner Support Services (LSS) is a team of teachers and professionals dedicated to working with parents and teachers to enable all students to reach their greatest potential. As a team, LSS:
- Provides Language Support Classes for students performing low in the English Language.
- Creates plans and supports students with Special Needs.
- Implements and monitors behaviour plans school-wide and for individual students.
- Provides counseling to students and families.
Acorns aims to enable every learner to be successful at their year level. Through the school year, students take Assessments in order to track progress of individual learners. The results are given to parents and also monitored by the Learner Support Services (LSS) department, in order to ensure students are meeting year level expectations.
If a student has attended less than 90% of a Term, AND is scoring in the ‘Low’ range, retention will be mandatory.
Students who have missed an Assessment due to travel in Term 3 will be required to take it before being placed in a class the following academic year; to ensure they are placed appropriately. EVEN IF their scores previously were above the “Low” range.
Acorns believes that the total development of a student is supported through qualified school counsellors, who will offer expertise in monitoring students’ welfare and guiding their emotional development, promote student’s success, provide preventive services and respond to identified student needs by implementing a comprehensive school counselling program that addresses academic and personal/social development for all students.
Acorns is committed to protecting the privacy and personal data of its students, staff and families. The Data Protection Policy sets out the principles and procedures for collecting, processing, storing and disclosing personal data, in line with Uganda’s Data Protection and Privacy Act, 2019
