Participating in this Summer School will be very different from your experiences at school, and the Summer School organisers and supporters want all participants to benefit from the programme and to enjoy the experience. The Summer School Team don’t know you or your background as well as your teachers do, and so we have to be strict with rules in order to keep all participants safe. Please read this document carefully before signing and confirming your place on the programme, to ensure you are aware and happy of the expectations we have of students. 


The Summer School is an inclusive environment, welcoming young people from across the world. As such, you will be expected to show responsible behaviour while attending the Summer School, as well as respect for the rights and beliefs of other participants, Summer School staff, Senior Residential Assistants (SRAs) and mentors. 


Standard breaches of the agreement include, but are not limited to, being rude or disrespectful to fellow participants, staff or external providers, not listening to or ignoring instructions and safety briefings during the academic and social programme and being late to meeting points or sign in/out locations. These incidents will be monitored and if it is deemed necessary a meeting will be arranged with the Programme Manager where a warning may be issued, or certain development actions requested. If breaches to the behaviour contract continue this may lead to expulsion from the programme. 


Major breaches of the agreement include, but are not limited to, racial prejudice and harassment of any kind, trying or succeeding to purchase or consume illegal substances, having illegal items in your possession or drinking alcohol, smoking or taking drugs, moving rooms within accommodation without approval from the Programme Manager, sharing inappropriate or explicit material, stealing or attempting to steal any items. There is a zero-tolerance approach to any of these major breaches, an urgent meeting will be held with the Programme Manager which will lead to immediate expulsion from the programme. 


If the Summer School Programme Manager has to speak to a student regarding a standard breach of the behaviour agreement and are issued with a warning, then we will try our best to contact their parent or guardian with details of this warning promptly. Please note this might not be possible if multiple incidents have been reported, leading to expulsion, or if the breach is major and needs to be dealt with immediately. These situations may end in expulsion from the programme without liaison with parents or guardians. 

1. Personal conduct

We will do everything we can to keep you safe whilst attending an event with us at Imperial and have detailed Safeguarding procedures and risk assessments in place. However, we still require the highest levels of good behaviour. We expect you: 

  • To behave appropriately and comply with any instructions or rules given to you by any member of staff (including within residences).
  • To pay particular attention to instructions when participating in practical activities and using laboratories, or in an emergency situation. This includes putting away all electronic devices, including mobile phones and headphones, during academic sessions and whilst travelling.
  • To remember that all rules are in place for your safety and for that of those around you. In order to provide you with opportunities to carry out interesting experiments full compliance with Health & Safety regulations is required.
  • To work sensibly, with thought and consideration for others.
  • To put your best efforts into the Summer School experience. Principally the Summer School is an experience designed for you to try new subjects, meet new people and undertake a university experience in a safe environment.
  • To work hard in your academic sessions, putting every effort into understanding the concepts and interacting with both fellow participants and the Summer School staff.
  • To attend all timetabled activities (unless there is a valid reason for absence, such as illness).
  • To behave in a way that is respectful to all other participants and staff. Fighting, bullying, abuse or discrimination on any grounds will not be tolerated and will be treated as a major breach of the behaviour agreement

2. Online/social media activity

During your time on the Summer School, you are expected to behave sensibly online and to use social media responsibly:

  • You must not post abusive or discriminatory content.
  • You must not view material online that is deemed to be inappropriate.
  • You must not contact your mentors outside of the Summer School. You must not attempt to find your mentor or any of the Summer School staff on any form of social media (e.g. Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn). There are official Imperial accounts through which you can interact with us, on a variety of platforms.
  • You must not record (i.e. take audio, videos or photographs of) other participants and staff without their consent.
  • You must not share audio, videos or photographs of other participants and staff without their consent. 
  • You must not share images or videos that are deemed to be inappropriate with students, mentors and staff. This is a major breach of the behaviour agreement.
  • You must turn off wireless sharing methods such as Airdrop or Bluetooth when not in use. 

3. Alcohol, smoking and other illegal substances

  • The purchase and / or consumption of alcohol is strictly forbidden during the Summer School, and it should not be brought onto the Summer School site. All bars, both on campus and away from campus, are strictly out of bounds to all participants.
  • The purchase, possession or use of any illegal substances is strictly forbidden.
  • Smoking, the use of e-cigarettes and purchase or possession of cigarettes or e-cigarettes/vapes is forbidden during your time on the Summer School, including activities both on and off-campus. For information, all Imperial campuses and properties are smoke-free. This means that smoking by staff and students is not be permitted on or within 20 metres of College land. The use of e-cigarettes is not permitted in any College buildings, or anywhere near entrances.
  • Any incidents regarding alcohol, smoking and illegal substances will be treated as a major breach of the agreement.

4. Safety

  • Participants are not allowed to leave the Summer School site without permission from appropriate Summer School staff. Permission will be granted only in exceptional circumstances as agreed in advance by the student’s parent/guardian and the Global Summer School Manager.
  • Participants are expected to follow any emergency procedure, such as a fire drill, as directed by Summer School staff.
  • Fire extinguishers and fire alarms must only be used during an emergency. Tampering with firefighting equipment is not only costly, but a waste of the emergency services resources and is a serious offence
  • Participants cannot invite external contacts (including friends or family) to visit campus or attend off-campus events during the programme.

5. Accommodation rules

Students must follow general instructions given by the supervisors to ensure compliance with all Imperial College London and Residences regulations, especially the noise and safety policies.

There will be mixed sex and single sex accommodation corridors, and students can select to stay where they feel most comfortable. Students are not permitted to access different accommodation areas to where they have selected

Students must:

  • Take reasonable care of their rooms, the contents of the rooms and the residence.
  • Leave their rooms in a clean, tidy and acceptable condition.
  • Behave as reasonable and responsible occupiers.
  • Vacate their bedrooms (check-out) and return their keys and swipe cards to a member of Summer School staff by 10.00 on the morning of departure. These keys cannot be shared with another person. There is a minimum fee of £40.00 for any lost or unreturned key fobs and key/swipe cards

Students must not:

  • Change bedrooms without explicit consent from the Programme Manager or a Senior Residential Assistant. This will be treated as a major breach of the agreement.
  • Obstruct access to the rooms.
  • Remove any of the contents of the rooms.
  • Act in a way to cause, or which is likely to cause, disruption or distress to College staff, other visitors, other student residents or members of the general public, or constitute a serious risk to the health, safety or welfare of others, or their property.
  • Allow outside visitors in the residences at any time.
  • Visit their friends in their rooms. There will be other facilities provided to enable socialising during scheduled free time.
  • Leave their rooms after lights out  (timings will be indicated on the first day).
  • Use the internal telephones in the rooms except the event of an emergency, or to contact reception / Summer School staff should residents not have access to a working mobile phone.
  • Fix any items, including temporary items, to any walls.
  • Use any gas and liquid fuel heaters, candles, irons, rice cookers and cooking appliances, in any circumstances in bedrooms. Electric fires and heaters must not be used in bedrooms unless provided by the College.
  • Use  cooking facilities on-site. A kettle will be provided in rooms for students to use to make hot drinks or food such as instant noodles. 
  • Play music or musical instruments before 09.00 and after 22.00 each day. During permitted hours, there is to be no loud music or excessive noise.
  • Tamper with fire detectors in rooms which are provided for the students’ safety. Any breach of this provision will result in a fine of £75.00 in addition to any additional cleaning costs incurred by the College or the cost of repair work on fire detectors that have been tampered with.

6. Computing rules

All participants will be allocated a temporary login for IT facilities whilst on the Summer School. Please be aware of the following: Logins, and use of IT facilities more generally are only for use on Summer School related activities e.g. coursework, research etc.

You must comply with the College’s IT security policy and rules, including:

  • not disclosing your College login/password combination to other people;
  • not producing materials or resources to facilitate unauthorised corruption, changes or malfunction to any IT facilities at the College or elsewhere;
  • not to display, store or transmit images or text which could be considered offensive or likely to bring the College into disrepute;
  • not to forge email signatures and/or headers, initiate, and/or forward ‘chain’ or ‘junk’ or ‘harassing’ emails;
  • respect the copyright of all material and software made available by the College and third parties and not use, download, copy, store or supply copyrighted materials including software and retrieved data.

 

Please note:

  1. If there is suspicion of inappropriate usage, all data and programmes, including email, created/owned/stored by the user on or connected to College IT facilities may be inspected by the College or external authorities.
  2. The College will not be liable for any loss, damage or inconvenience arising directly or indirectly - from the use of, or prevention of use of, any IT facility provided and/or managed by the College.
  3. Your name, address and contact information will be stored electronically for administrative purposes.
  4. The College may intercept and monitor electronic communications for the purposes permitted under the Telecommunications Regulations 2000 in line with the College’s online security Policy. These conditions apply to non-College owned equipment e.g. Laptops, tablets, mobile phones etc. when connected to the College network for the duration that the equipment is using the College network.
  5. Any data saved on the server will be deleted at the end of the Summer School.
  6. There is no access to printers, but Summer School staff will be able to print documents if required by course participants.

7. First day of the Summer School

On the first day of the Summer School, staff may explain additional rules and regulations that will apply to specific activities. During the programme, as you move from location to location, your daily supervisor or mentor may also explain additional rules or safety information. In both cases, it is expected that you will adhere to them for your own health and safety, and that of other students and staff.

You will also be given details of all support available to you during the Summer School. This includes, but is not limited to, support for ill physical and/or mental health, if you are concerned by other students’ behaviour, or if you’re experiencing difficulties with the academic content.

8. After the Summer School

We encourage you to take time after the programme to reflect on your experiences and feedback. We will ask all participants to complete a short evaluation survey, which we expect you to complete. We may subsequently follow this with further surveys in the future. This feedback helps the Summer School team shape the Summer School programme for subsequent years and develop other summer schools and activities.

9. Incidents of misbehaviour

All pre-University Summer Schools at Imperial College London operate a zero tolerance policy towards misbehaviour. Students who break the rules will not be allowed to continue on the Summer School and arrangements will be made for the student(s) to be taken home at their own expense.

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