Pastoral

The rigorous academic programme is underpinned by a strong system of pastoral care which nurtures children’s well-being throughout their time at the school.

In the Primary School, the class teacher and TA are the first point of contact for each pupil and their parents, ensuring that communication between school, pupil and home is open and effective. Daily teacher-parent communication is encouraged through the use of Homework and Reading Journals and, every Friday, all Primary parents receive an email from their child’s teacher summarising the highlights of the past week and detailing the learning and special class events coming up in the week ahead. 

Pupils are kept up to date on various school events through the daily announcements at Flag, and through regular school assemblies. These celebrate special pupil achievements and focus on developing our learner dispositions and a wide range of other personal, social and emotional aspects of learning.

Our Primary Student Council and House Captains meet regularly to focus on organising school initiatives, fund-raising and awareness events, games and competitions that also foster pupil well-being.

In the Secondary School every student belongs to a small tutor group made up of students from his or her year group. Each tutor group has a Form Tutor who is a member of the academic teaching staff. Students meet with their Tutor at the beginning and end of every school day. Wherever possible tutor groups will keep their Form Tutor from one year to the next.

Form Tutors will get to know their tutees very well and they will guide their students through the year. This is achieved in a number of ways including discussing reports, grades and subject choices with students individually, checking homework diaries, advising students over any problems they may have, meeting parents as necessary, organising a whole school assembly and leading activities in tutor time. Tutors also take the morning register and give any daily notices.

Tutors are assisted by the relevant Key Stage Manager who leads all the Tutors in their Key Stage. Key Stage Managers report to the Deputy Head of Secondary who regularly discusses pastoral matters with the Head of Secondary.

Pastoral Support in the Sixth Form

Pastoral support in Years 12 and 13 is led by the Head of Sixth Form and a team of Form Tutors. Each form group is created from both Year 12 and 13 students and meet with their tutor twice a day for registration, one to one mentoring and form activities.

We focus on guiding the students through the important decisions they have to make regarding higher education, careers and subject options in these years, as well as supporting students through any personal issues that might arise. We recognise that a strong team and friendly atmosphere helps to build a happy Sixth Form community and to this end we also organise termly social outings such as bowling or an end of term meal.

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School Policies