Around 40 parents of pupils at Barnard Castle School and prep school attended a two-hour session where the issues covered included hormones, growth spurts and the influence of digital devices.

Senior and prep school pastoral deputy heads, Peter Lavery and Rebecca Robertson, led the event, designed to help attendees support their children’s learning.

“We want them to come into class and concentrate for 40 minutes free from any worries, as well as giving them the tools to deal with stress,” said Lavery.

“Just like physical health, they need to have good mental health and we promote this through PSHE, assemblies, a varied cocurricular programme and by using visiting speakers.”

Parents were informed that young people are hardwired to behave in a certain way until around the age of 25, when the frontal lobe has sufficiently developed to help control impulses and enable them to rationalise.

“We all need to try and help [pupils] understand their own brain and explain what they are going through – although it also has to be explained that it is no excuse – and how to form strategies to control themselves,” added Lavery.

You may also like: Barnard Castle Preparatory School has introduced wellbeing classes

“We provide lessons and activities to keep them in this ‘settled system’ where the biochemicals released on the brain prompt a better reaction,” he continued. “We also push them outside of their comfort zone and urge them to be brave, compassionate and grateful.

“Communication is key. Choose your words carefully – criticism will lead to shutdown. Wise up to young people’s issues and talk to them about them. Actively listen and let them speak. Guide rather than lecture, use humour where appropriate and avoid confrontation, which escalates tension.”

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Close to 300 delegates attended, where headline speaker Professor Tanya Byron (child and adolescent mental health psychologist and author of The Skeleton Cupboard), delivered a speech on how we are ‘raising our children in captivity’. She encouraged the audience to remind children that failure is an experience and not something to fear.

Headmistress of Habs, Rose Hardy, said: “This was an important event both for the school and our community. Never has it been more vital for schools to support students pastorally in a complex world faced with multiple and evolving challenges.”

Hardy added: “We are passionate about raising the bar in pastoral care and our conference certainly delivered on its promise to inspire and energise all who attended, while equipping them with a wealth of practical information, new connections, ideas and best-practice approaches for the future.”

Topics included helping young people to find their own identities outside of potentially toxic friendship groups, spotting the signs of substance abuse, how to help students make safer choices around drugs and alcohol, supporting bereaved children and understanding unhealthy coping strategies in young people.

You might also like: How are schools supporting pupil wellbeing in boarding environments?

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Schools that put pastoral care at the top of their agenda are inclusive communities that are committed to children’s mental health, wellbeing and broader personal development. They cultivate an environment and culture that supports the physical, social, intellectual, emotional and spiritual development of every student.

Quality pastoral care is fully integrated throughout the teaching, learning and assessment of a school and embedded in the school’s ethos, culture and DNA so that children’s needs and interests come first.

It focuses on the whole student (personal, social and academic) and actively involves the whole-school community in nurturing and supporting self-efficacy, healthy risk-taking, negotiation, reflection and empowerment. This involves building positive self-esteem, emotional intelligence, identity and goal-setting so that each individual can fulfil their own potential.

It is extremely important for schools to create an atmosphere in which young people can feel secure and achieve, especially as the success of a school’s pastoral care provision is linked to optimal learning and development outcomes.

What is pastoral care?

Pastoral care is a complex mix of proactive, preventative and reactive elements such as developing resilience, independence and teamwork as well as providing protection, comfort and encouragement.

It blends counselling, peer support and mentoring in a welfare network with activities, experiences and educational processes that fuel growth, build relationships and a sense of belonging.

But pastoral care can mean different things to different schools.

Here we share four views of pastoral care and how wellbeing is supported in a boarding setting.

Who’s who

Chris Forrest is a trainer at CPOMS

James Callow is deputy head (pastoral) and head of boarding at All Hallows Preparatory School

Clare Rowntree is head of boarding at Forres Sandle Manor

Tom Hadcroft is vice-principal (pastoral) and designated safeguarding lead at DLD College London

Q. What does pastoral care mean to you and your school/organisation?

Chris Forrest: To me, pastoral care means monitoring and helping with anything that may impact the physical or emotional health and development of a person. It focuses on how the seemingly smaller aspects of a person’s life come together like pieces of a jigsaw. Pastoral care involves recognising when a student may need help and putting an appropriate plan into action based on their needs.

James Callow: It is no secret that a happy child learns well and so at All Hallows we take a 360° approach to education. Our focus is truly child-centred in the belief that the different aspects of a child’s life are mutually reinforcing, and we simultaneously develop the whole child emotionally, creatively, intellectually, socially and spiritually.

At grassroots level, this means that whilst all staff are always looking out for all children, each child has a tutor and, if boarding, a houseparent they can talk to at any time. Supporting the tutors and houseparents are academic heads of section, a deputy head with a specific responsibility for pastoral care, as well as the team of residential staff which is the boarding family.

Our team of safeguarding staff are, of course, also on hand to lend an ear whenever required.

Staff regularly get together for ‘whole child’ meetings which involve discussing every aspect of a child’s life, sharing information and strategies to ensure we are supporting each and every child in the best possible way.

Time to chill out and time to catch up with family on the phone or by video call is essential to our boarders’ wellbeing

Clare Rowntree: At Forres Sandle Manor, we place pastoral care at the heart of everything we do.

We have a cohesive network of staff working together in partnership with parents. This goes all the way from our mentor and tutor system in the school day, to our house parents and matrons in the boarding house. We place a lot of focus on nurturing and the needs of the individual. We encourage the child’s mental, physical and social wellbeing and development.

In the boarding house, the key for us as staff is to know our children, almost better than they know themselves, and to try pre-empting situations that may unsettle them. What may be of great concern to one child may be of less importance to another and therefore understanding the individual needs of children in our care is of paramount importance.

Tom Hadcroft: If you draw on the definitions of the word ‘pastoral’ there is an essence throughout all of them of the role of a shepherd, guiding and caring for those under their responsibility. It is the key qualities of care and guidance that are the central components to great pastoral care in schools, the willingness of the provider to understand how each student functions and how to provide the best support to them.

Pastoral care can come in many different guises, with flamboyant and attention-grabbing headlines not always providing the best examples. Time and patience are key factors and a willingness to meet the student on their terms, whilst retaining high standards. There are many connections with the best coaches and the qualities they possess in drawing out a sense of strength from the individual and unlocking their potential.

At DLD College London, pastoral care is a priority for all staff, from the cleaner to the principal. Any member of staff who has contact with the students is responsible for their wellbeing. We are training all staff in the Mental Health First Aid qualification in order to improve a sense of involvement and this year have embarked on developing staff as coaches using the Graydin model.

We are embedding a coaching culture to empower the students and provide mechanisms to endeavour for the best possible pastoral care, providing the best possible conditions for the young people to thrive and allowing them to take ownership.

Q. What practical steps are you taking to support pupil wellbeing in boarding?

CF: Boarding schools take several effective measures to support the wellbeing of students that often start with their own staff. Diligent recruitment and training for existing staff work well in forming good pastoral practices. Aside from assuring those are in place and being communicated smoothly, effective boarding environments from a pastoral perspective are ones that give pupils chances to speak.

Children in a boarding setting have less of the incidental opportunity to speak with the adult world than the normative experience of a child living full time at home, which may mean they have less chance to speak about those things which concern them. Boarding environments that catch smaller pastoral concerns before they turn into larger, more serious issues, give these chances.

JC: In the boarding community, finding the right balance between organised activity and downtime for relaxation and fun in the company of friends is key. Prep school life is filled with a myriad of opportunities and the days are jam-packed with lessons inside and outside the classroom, extra-curricular activities and prep. For those boarding, the days can be full-on from the time they get up to the time they go to bed, with no daily commute to school to take some time out.

Time to chill out and time to catch up with family on the phone or by video call is essential to our boarders’ wellbeing. An important component contributing to wellbeing is the ability to be resilient and this is something we aim to engender in our children both in the classroom and all other areas of school life. 

By this we mean a willingness to seek alternative ways of doing things when one comes up against an obstacle and persist when it might be easier to give up.

It is also important to have a sense of humour and recognise that everyone stumbles, but what matters is learning to deal positively with any feedback.

Happiness and wellbeing truly lie at the heart of every decision we make and as a result, our children are secure in the knowledge that it is OK to be themselves and to take risks. It is a formula which is proving extremely successful with children regularly achieving above and beyond expectations.

Effective boarding environments from a pastoral perspective are ones that give pupils chances to speak

CR: It goes without saying that we provide a ‘home from home’ but it is being there for the boarders, to celebrate their successes as well as helping them through the difficult moments too that makes the difference. We are a family at FSM with the majority of staff working in the boarding house either during the week or at weekends. This means that, along with our house parents, matrons and Graduate Support Assistants (GSAs) who all live on site, there are always lots of staff in the house and there’s always someone to talk to.

It’s lovely having the GSAs who offer a younger perspective for the young boarders to listen to and look up to. We have pupils from military families, and as such run FSM’s Supporting Active Service (SAS) group. This provides additional support for children when one or more parent is deployed on active service and takes the form of weekly sessions, sharing thoughts and feelings with other boarders in the same situation. We also explore different coping mechanisms to help the time pass a little quicker. 

Our range of activities during the week, ‘Wicked Wednesdays’ and ‘Free Time Fridays’, as well as the weekend programme provides a range of physical, mental and creative activities to fully nurture each child’s interests and to allow them to explore activities they may not have previously considered. We give our boarders time and space to play, to be children and to develop friendships with others, many of which, experience tells us, will last a lifetime. 

TH: Boarding allows students to discover their strengths and weaknesses in a secure and supportive atmosphere. For many, it may be the first time that they have lived away from home and the change can be difficult, though through routines, supportive structures and connections they discover the inner confidence to thrive.

Wellbeing is a central component to DLD College London, with the Wellbeing Centre at the heart of the college, and we believe that by using proactive measures students can work on areas of need before they reach crisis point.

We use tools such as AS Tracking, in conjunction with expertise from our head of wellbeing, college counsellor, life coach and student liaison officer to target students and provide action plans to support them. Through the huddle houseparents and boarding staff, there are a number of pastoral leads to action the supportive measures and ensure that the boarding environment creates the launchpad to ready the students for the next stage in their lives.

Boarding can provide the right environment to work through the obstacles that may be impairing progress and ensure the students grasp the opportunities available to them.

Home from home

While looking after boarding pupils’ wellbeing can seem an overwhelming job, a lot of the practical steps are small, but effective. The freedom to speak. The chance to video-call family. It can make a big impact and could help to reduce the number of mental health issues found in young people.

You might also like: Is boarding good for pupils’ wellbeing?

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An adolescent’s school career is an extremely important phase of growth in their lives. There are many scenarios and happenings that impact greatly. This ultimately determines a child’s course of life or even who they will become in the future.

The very fact that teachers have such influence, spending much of their time nurturing students into healthy adults, means it’s important they have the tools to record, monitor and track every learner’s wellbeing. It’s fundamental to ensuring children receive a positive educational experience and that they develop to their full potential.   

The iSAMS Pastoral Manager supports the proactive, preventative pastoral care that many independent schools are renowned for. Teachers can record concerns against single or multiple students and set appropriate actions to manage those concerns. Using the Raised Pastoral flag feature, teachers can easily identify moments which have significant impacts on a student, and which should be highlighted to school staff.

A child’s confidence is continuously developing, and their self-esteem can easily be damaged. A child will not develop and grow to their full potential if the major impacts in their lives are not monitored and addressed by an adult. Children need reassurance and a lot of help along the way to overcome whatever obstacles life throws at them. Teachers are well-aware of the vital role they play in helping children along their paths; they have the ability to ‘make or break’ a child’s experience, depending on how and when they respond to different scenarios.

Today, teachers are under immense pressure to ensure each child is provided with the best possible care. They know that more often than not, a student won’t ask for help and so it is their responsibility to monitor behaviour, grades and other external influences.

Using the iSAMS Pastoral Manager, each students’ pastoral record is stored for safekeeping and is displayed with the students’ basic details and timeline of concerns. The students’ timeline gives a teacher an easy-to-view glance of crucial life events and concerns which can be shared with other staff, parents and caregivers should the need arise.

If student well-being and safeguarding are to be high on a schools’ agenda, having an efficient way of tracking a student’s well-being is a must. The iSAMS Pastoral Manager was developed specifically with this in mind. If you would like a demo of the iSAMS Pastoral Manager please email sales@isams.com or visit www.isams.com. You can also see iSAMS at the HMC Autumn Conference taking place from 1st to 4th October in Manchester, visit them on stand #9.

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A common challenge in safeguarding practice is information or communication “falling through the gaps” as staff often have a raft of information relating to a huge number of children, spread between a range of places.

Safeguarding staff typically have to utilise different systems to get the information they need, and log information either by paper in a locked filing cabinet in school, or by email and spreadsheets online. This leads to difficulties when a specific paper log is required, or if a job requires you to check how the attendance of a child (found on one system), compares with the logged safeguarding incidents, leading to you need contact details from somewhere else; it is clear there is an unnecessary level of admin for a task as important as safeguarding.

CPOMS brings together all the tools needed for safeguarding to one place. An appropriate member of staff can see a pupil’s full Safeguarding chronology, alongside anything a school wishes to log that it feels is appropriate. This flexibility means schools can choose to monitor SEN, Behaviour. Medical issues, or even reward systems alongside safeguarding – allowing the school to see how all of the above and more can affect each other.

Reports can then be produced from the gathered information to be shared with the relevant agencies, such as social care, police, the child’s next school, or any specialist visiting school.

Importantly, ‘Actions’ taken in response to an incident can be recorded and monitored so schools can ensure all safeguarding concerns in school are currently being looked into or resolved.

Reporting is always drawn from live data in CPOMS, and incredibly tailored and detailed reports can be created very quickly with little training. These are then used with Governors, Ofsted, Local Authorities and outside agencies to identify individual pupil needs and whole school interventions to improve outcomes for children.

The tailored access for different staff means the most sensitive information is kept incredibly secure and available only to those who legally have the right to see it. Alongside that, all staff in school have access to be able to add information, without seeing more sensitive incidents in a chronology. As a further step, some staff can have access to see only what is relevant to them – for example a SENCO seeing SEN information, or a behaviour team analysing behaviour incidents and trends.

Perhaps the clearest marker of the benefits of CPOMS is how it has spread for 6 years by word of mouth. The majority of the 6800+ schools using CPOMS heard about it from a school close by and contacted us to see how it works and get set up. Our rapidly growing number of schools and constantly improving product are constantly backed up by a support and training team who only enhance CPOMS’s reputation further.

To find out more visit: www.cpoms.co.uk

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The conference will offer talks, workshops and networking opportunities for all who attend. 

Ms Oona Carlin, Head at Ipswich High School, said: “We’re really excited to be organising the first Diamond Model Conference and hope it will become an annual event with different schools hosting. It will be a great opportunity for schools at different phases of their Diamond Model story to come together and share their experiences.”

Guest speakers and sessions will include:

Jeff Kayne, Deputy Head Pastoral, Forest School, London Delivery of High Impact Pastoral Care in a Diamond Model School
Jeff has been a teacher for 20 years and worked in both independent and maintained schools

James Wilding, Academic Principal, Claires Court, Maidenhead Independent Schools Regulatory standards, seen through the ‘Diamond’ lens
James is the Academic Principal of Claires Court School and is also a highly experienced ISI Inspector

Deborah McKenzie, Head of Marketing and Business Development and James Leggett, MMRS Research Director, both from MTM Consulting 
Their workshops and talks will cover:

1) What do parents want? This sessions will look at research from over 180,000 independent school parents.

2) How do schools attract pupils during the transition phase? This breakout session will cover some of the issues schools now opening their doors to the opposite gender might receive, and how to manage the transition period.

3) How do schools retain pupils through each phase of the Diamond Model? In this session the focus will be on how best to manage and ‘sell’ each transition point to pupils and parents.

4) Are Diamond Model Schools better working as separate entities or collaborating and working together? The schools offer the best of both worlds, but how can we evidence it and make that message even stronger?

The first Diamond Model Conference will take place on Wednesday, 23rd May 2018. Find out more at: www.ihseducation.co.uk.

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At Cranleigh we really don’t believe in a ‘one-size-fits-all’ strategy and we tend to avoid using the latest ‘buzzwords’ in terms of pastoral care. Mindfulness and other theories all have their place, but we don’t think any single technique can act as a panacea for every mental wellbeing issue. Our PSHE programme includes things like mindfulness and meditation techniques, as well as sessions on managing stress. It also covers all the standard topics like mental health, eating issues, self-harm, etc, and we offer yoga as an activity. In addition, we are currently in the process of training every member of staff in Mental Health First Aid and this has proved invaluable in helping the pastoral staff support the pupils. We also have a counsellor who provides CBT as well as normal counselling services. 

However, many lower level issues can be managed though the house teams; often a good regular chat with Matron or the housemaster or housemistress is all that is needed for support, and they will work closely with parents in managing issues. 

The fact that we are mainly a weekly boarding school means that parents have a more regular opportunity to touch base with the house team, and, therefore, we can find the best approach together.

Andrea Saxel is Deputy Head Pastoral at Cranleigh School

W: www.cranleigh.org

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Badger is the name of the software developed by Andrew Day and Nick Rendall, who are both housemasters at King Edward’s Witley, an independent boarding and day school in Surrey for boys and girls aged 11-18.

The software, which can be run on both Apple or PC devices, represents a bespoke solution for house staff looking to reduce the number of hours spent dealing with the paperwork, emails, telephone calls and staff notices that come with their role. The duo that created the software claim that installing the programme (which is customised to accommodate the requirements of an individual school) can result in hours of time saved in the school day.

Andrew and Nick have spent three years developing Badger and the software has been trialed in the majority of houses at King Edward’s over the last two and half years. It has also been trialed at Bedales School since February. “King Edward’s Witley has a long-standing tradition for its unrivalled commitment to pastoral care,” says Andrew. “When Nick and I first started as housemasters at the school back in September 2012 we became acutely aware of how much of our time was taken up with the administration that goes hand in hand with assuming responsibility for up to 55 pupils in our care. Whilst this is undoubtedly essential to ensure the children’s continued wellbeing and personal development, not to mention critical to maintaining the important regular dialogue with parents and supporting staff, we wanted to create a means to enable King Edward’s Witley to continue to lead the field in the delivery of a pupil centred pastoral service implicit to the role of a housemaster or housemistress – and to be less of a slave to the ‘filing cabinet’.

“Nick and I have invested a considerable amount of time developing and fine-tuning the Badger concept outside school hours and as part of our continuous professional development. We now have a unique cross platform product that enables house staff to deal quickly and efficiently with a range of data/information requests pertaining to all the (day and boarding) pupils allocated to their house. The system also represents a valuable monitoring tool, and enables house staff to easily create a profile which illustrates the progress of a pupil over a given period of time. The feedback we have received to date has been overwhelmingly positive and we now look forward to rolling out the product to schools across the UK.”

Badger software was launched at the Conference on Boarding: Thriving in a Changing World hosted by Bedales Schools. Andrew and Nick have set up a company, Meadow House Systems Ltd, with a support team to enable the roll out of the software.

www.meadowhousesystems.com 

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I am assistant head of pastoral at Barnard Castle School in County Durham where we have a pastoral network in place which comes to the fore over the exam period. We have small tutor groups so tutors know students well and a child finding the examination period tough will already have their support and mechanisms in place. This could be taking time to sit with the student and listen, supporting and helping to organise their revision structure and liaising with other subject teachers. It is the time spent listening to students during this period that helps them the most. An open-door policy provided by all our tutors, housemasters and mistresses means that students know we are available to support them at any time.

When students ask me for advice on how they can make exam periods run more smoothly, the first thing I ask them to do is acknowledge the pressure that they’re under and that the exam process can be overwhelming. Feeling stressful is entirely normal in the circumstances.

I also explain that some form of stress is sometimes necessary to a degree for optimum performance. Once that has been acknowledged we ask students to think about practising mindfulness techniques. We emphasize that these are not complex but easy to learn and simply require patience and practice: 

• in a world that is hectic even before exams, we suggest that students find a quiet time to be still and without electronic devices or social media

• take time to consider just one thought at a time: the present moment. By doing this, we ask them to see that the thought is constructive and positive

• when students panic about an exam we try to reinforce how much control they can have over the situation beforehand

• if they feel anxious during the exam we tell them to focus on their breath and count in and out for seven seconds, explaining quick breathing is a physiological response to panic and they can control it and bring their focus back

• we suggest students approach exams positively, focusing on what they have understood, prepared and can do

• as teachers we are calm for them in the lead-up to exams. A calm teacher usually manages to assuage anxiety felt by our students

• we give each exam student a small double sided A5 booklet that has these tips in along with others on exam anxiety and how they can be prepared.

Amy Jackson is assistant head of pastoral at Barnard Castle School 

www.barnardcastleschool.org.uk

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The practice of mindfulness helps us achieve awareness of those moments so that we are able to manage them better, see them in a less destructive way and achieve a sense of wellbeing.

I have been appointed head of staff formation and wellbeing at Ardingly College, West Sussex, a 2-18 co-ed school. This is an SMT post and, for the independent sector, I think quite a progressive move. Ostensibly it is a pastoral role for staff. Part of it means enabling my colleagues to pursue interests that will allow them to find a balance in their lives, giving them, hopefully, greater quality of life and productivity.

At Ardingly pastoral care for pupils is central; within the curriculum we teach eudaimonia, centred on wellbeing and human flourishing. In our pre-prep and prep school, children practise massage and empathy; throughout the college students aim to be reflective and mindful. Nowadays, mindfulness cannot be ignored in education and, with Sir Anthony Seldon, the master at Wellington College, I am running a conference on wellbeing and mindfulness in schools on 27 November at Ardingly. It will focus as much on teachers as on pupils, seeking to help prepare staff for anything and everything, professionally and personally.

Recently, I met the Deloitte UK head of HR, Stevan Rolls. With more than 17,000 employees, Deloitte believe they are a step ahead of other major companies with regard to staff wellbeing and career progression; they work in what they call a “high performance” environment and want to support colleagues to maintain that level.

In teaching I think we should aim for “best performance”. We often ask of the boys and girls that they are the best possible versions of themselves – while each member of staff wants to deliver the best possible lessons/coaching/pastoral care. A greater sense of wellbeing will help us do that, as will a more guided career path and a strong awareness of personal growth.

In today’s employment landscape many feel that if they are not given opportunities to climb the career ladder, then they will want to move on. Deloitte hire 3,000 people a year, yet appoint just 45-50 partners. Similarly, in education, for most deputy head jobs there are well over 100 applicants and progression isn’t always possible. Yes, we need to support vertical progression, but I want horizontal development too, and my role at Ardingly is to ensure we make the most of each person’s talents, adding to their sense of worth, fulfilment and self-realisation.

One of our focuses is on the whole person. If we can bring as much of our whole self to work, then that should lead to greater contentment. I started having drum lessons a few years ago, for example, and we now have an IT technician taking singing lessons and a PE teacher learning to fly. Our staff band has made a CD, a maths teacher has taken a counselling course, a prep school colleague has been on a mindfulness retreat and I am getting very good at the drums! Aside from that we have more staff than ever doing Masters degrees, young staff looking for teacher exchanges in Dubai, Malaysia and Hong Kong, and I am now confident that we will keep hold of the staff we have.

T.S Eliot wrote: “Be still and still moving.” This embodies what I am looking to achieve. 

Tom Caston is housemaster at Ardingly College, West Sussex W: www.ardingly.com. He is leading a mindfulness conference at Ardingly on 27 November and runs an interactive website W: www.teacherflightpath.co.uk

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