Pastoral care for our students is really important. We know that being a young person is not always easy. Learning to deal with adversity is an important experience. Our role, as a school, is to support our students through difficulties, helping them to develop resilience, a sense of responsibility and the ability to reflect on their personal growth.
Each student has a tutor who they meet with for Monday assembly, weekly form time and fortnightly tutorials. Tutors are the gateway to accessing other support and it is vital that students build a good relationship with their tutor, who also drafts their UCAS reference. Students are further supported by their Heads of Year, Director of Sixth Form, Sixth Form Counsellor, School Chaplain and Careers Advisor.
Read more about support and guidance for our students.
It is really important that difficulties are raised with an adult in school, or with a professional in one of the agencies we work with – and that they are not raised on social media. Publicising a problem outside of the right channels often causes more hurt and distress, and brings about worse consequences for the young people involved.
We recognise the jump from Year 11 to Year 12 and therefore have a two day induction programme which is run to develop skills and foster good learning relationships and friendships. Term 1 provides a number of opportunities to review how students are settling into 6th Form life. Term 2 includes Academic Review Day, on which each student sees their tutor to reflect on study, school life and their own personal development.
We recognise that finance can have a significant impact on learning, therefore we encourage all eligible students to apply for Free School Meals, the Sixth Form Bursary or other one-off grants to help with the costs of resources or trips.
We invest a lot of time and resources in supporting students and their parent(s)/carer(s) in their plans beyond 6th Form, to university, apprenticeship, training or employment. Through talks, visits, off-timetable days, careers advice and mentoring we ensure that students are informed and supported in planning their next steps in education, training or employment.
