Pastoral Support

Pastoral Aims

The primary role of the Pastoral team, is to help create a safe nurturing environment enabling students to achieve their excellence in all aspects of life at BSCA.

In order to achieve this goal for all students, the framework of discipline is pivotal in encouraging students to make the right choices and accept the challenge and discourage selfish and disrespectful behaviour.  There are many important structures in the pastoral team, whose aim is to protect and enhance the opportunities at BSCA:

The safeguarding team plays a pivotal role in keeping our students safe and promoting mental health for some of our most vulnerable students.

The attendance team plays a vital role in protecting the welfare of our students ensuring they have the best possible opportunities of accessing a full education.

The Head of Year supported by the Assistant Head of Year are the backbone of the behaviour support system. They lead and administer the consequence system, supporting detentions, monitoring uniform and appearance and attendance. They liaise closely with parents to communicate any relevant information and seek support for any sanctions that are necessary. The year teams also lead the monitoring of reports, graduated response through the waves of intervention and make risk assessments for challenging students. When needed they use Damascus to further support the good behaviour of the year group. They will also liaise with KSL to make recommendations for managed moves and alternative provision for students who are struggling to access a mainstream education at BSCA. Year teams will also complete the initial stages and process of the serious incident form. This will be followed up with leading and conducting the return to school interviews following a fixed term suspension alongside other colleagues involved in any such incident. The year teams are also responsible for following the protocols concerning all types of peer on peer abuse and supporting students and families with good attendance to school

Supporting our vulnerable families and students is another important role for the pastoral and safeguarding teams. These teams are responsible for starting the Early Help Assessment (EHA) if it is felt the family or student need additional support further from the universal offer. This process is managed through professional and line management meetings, once a week.

The pastoral team play a key role in promoting and recognising the students who regularly make the right choices. Year leaders should guide their form tutors to promote the management of BSCA rewards system and will present the weekly recognitions in assembly as well as update the pastoral recognition wall and manage the Aspire lounge.

Pastoral Team & Structure

Role of Form Tutors

The form tutor should use the below quote as the mantra to their role:

“Every child deserves a champion, an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be.”

At BSCA the ethos is based on our school values: Believe, Strive, Care and Achieve. This handbook provides you with the standards and expectations we have of our form tutors at BSCA. Please familiarise yourself with the essential protocols and policies contained within; they should then be consistently and relentlessly applied throughout the academic year. Consistency across all tutor groups is vital: where rules and protocols are inconsistently applied we create problems for colleagues and students alike.

In all things as a form tutor, have high expectations of your tutor group. Remind them of their responsibility to themselves, the school and you. Please don’t accept second best in terms of standards…..for what you permit, you promote.

So what does the form tutor do?

Although tutor time is usually short, you will see the same group every day for five years. That’s a lot of time – so how can you put it to the best possible use? You have the responsibility for instilling the ethos, spirit, organisation and discipline of BSCA through your daily contact. Form tutors have the responsibility for developing positive relationships with students in their form and are the first point of contact for students in your care – perhaps for their whole school life. 

It is a very important role and can be a crucial one in shaping a young person’s character.  Consequently, it is important that form tutors lead by example through their own language, appearance, punctuality and promote the values we expect of our students.  Form tutors should nurture those students in their care, not just in terms of academic success, but also from a moral, spiritual and emotional point too.

What are the expectations of being the first point of contact?

Relationships. All tutors should:

•  Lead by example.
• Establish effective and positive relationships to help all students be happy and on course.
• Encourage and show interest and involvement in each student’s development, both in and out of school.
• Have an approachable, friendly and firm demeanour.
• Effectively promote moral values such as tolerance, trustworthiness and courtesy.

Support and Monitoring. All tutors should:

• Be the first point of contact for liaison with, and support for, parents and staff.
• Be the focal point of all channels of communication, which effectively include all concerned parties, regarding all relevant issues.
• Be the first to identify any problems regarding the progress and general well-being of the students in your tutor group.
• Monitor attendance
• Monitor behaviour via ‘Steps 2 Success’
• Reward, praise and communicate all achievements to all relevant parties.

Organisation and Ethos. All tutors should: 

• Establish the correct tone and ethos for the day ahead.
• Consistently outline, apply and reinforce all school policies and expectations to students, on such issues as dress code, punctuality, attendance, behaviour and learning.
• As and when appropriate, provide support, advice and guidance on issues such as revision, options, examination technique, et al.
• Be actively involved in student monitoring and target setting.
• Participate in and deliver the worship theme.
• Prepare for form worship as rigorously and carefully as you would for a lesson.
• Highlight, value and reward positive student traits such as punctuality and good organisation.
• Develop trust by showing that you are scrupulously fair in your dealings with each member of your group.
• Use your sense of humour to develop good relationships.
• Celebrate the key moments in your tutees' lives such as achievements, successes and birthdays.
• Be open about the strengths and weaknesses of your group and jointly consider strategies for improvement.
• Never be drawn into your group’s criticisms of other members of staff.
• Use your group to find out what's really going on in school from the student’s perspective.
• Use tutorial time as a way of teaching good manners and instilling social niceties.  For example:
• Teach your tutees to express gratitude when teachers make an effort above and beyond their call of duty, such as running extra-curricular activities or clubs; or
• Express gratitude to their teachers at the end of each lesson.
• Discuss the ‘worship theme’ for the week with your tutor group.
• Forge links with staff & parents

 The information gained from building relationships, supporting and monitoring and promoting organisation and ethos should form the basis of the form tutors report that is sent out each year in the main school report.

 MANAGING FORM TIME

There is more emphasis now on form tutors to monitor both personal progress and academic progress of their pupils in form time. This can be done effectively by establishing daily routines. We have an abundance of data for our pupils through use of Power BI but this is only of use if the data is being shared effectively and periodically with the students. 

Daily Routine - Pupils will spend time with their form tutor and form group each afternoon for 25 minutes.

EVERYDAY during afternoon registration, form tutors should:

• Meet and greet all pupils at your door when the bell goes.
• Ensure that all students are seated in silence with their coats off and bags on the floor.
• Keep pupils informed – Read out all notices and/or school bulletin immediately and, where appropriate, display on the tutor group notice board.
• Encourage an active contribution to life at BSCA. This maybe through involvement at extra-curricular clubs, student voice, assemblies, charity fundraising etc..

• Complete daily register accurately and promptly during afternoon registration. (see attendance for role of the form tutor)
• Remind students of high expectations around BSCA and recognise those students who have had a positive morning with S2S scores.
• Check punctuality – pupils who are not punctual, challenged and sanctioned appropriately using the care card.
• Check report cards of relevant students
• Foster a sense of pride in student appearance by visibly completing the daily standards checker for:
• Appropriate uniform/ appearance
• ‘Work ready’ including whole school planner/ RISE document
• Stand by the door and as they leave do one final check and see that they leave to their lesson calmly and ready to learn

It is the responsibility of the form tutor to follow through on any students who do not meet uniform/appearance expectations.

WEEKLY all tutor groups in the afternoon should be engaged in different pastoral curriculum sessions:

1. Administration
2. Personal Development (Y11- Maths WINS)
3. Assembly
4. Character Development
5. Collective worship/ KS3 literacy/ reading

Below is a copy of the schedule for form time in each year group. This schedule must be adhered too. This will allow pastoral leaders, SLT and members of staff who have additional responsibilities for Character development, Form worship and Personal development to quality assure form time content and consistency in delivery. 

The start of each daily form time can begin by form tutors following the meet and greet routine and then reviewing the S2S scores for the morning. Particular emphasis and recognition should be made to those students who have had a positive morning. Reviewing and recognising successful S2S scores will set the tone for and provide a clear focus on learning create a purposeful atmosphere in which the form tutor is in charge and the students are ready and willing to work.

Administration – The form tutor is responsible for maintaining up to date records of students. Form tutors are expected to have the Power Bi tool open and displayed on the interactive white board during this session.

• All the student’s attendance, behaviour and rewards data MUST be recorded in the student planner/ RISE booklet
• Check/ Sign each students school planner/ RISE document. Ensure all students in the form group are recording the information appropriately. (see below)
• Go through attendance data with the students. Form tutors are expected to use the language of the attendance strategy and promote the importance of attendance
• Go through the BCSA rewards points – promote celebration in the group
• Go through S2S data with the students using the language of S2S

• Analyse the S2S data and promote a positive ethos in the form group for those meeting the challenge

Steps 2 Success - Use this table to note how many of each mark you receive each week:

Attendance - Use this table note at the end of the week, what your current attendance is and how many times you have been late:

BSCA points - Use this table to note how many of each you receive each week:

Personal Development – Every Wednesday for Years 7-10 form tutors will deliver Personal Development lessons to their tutor group. (Year 11 will participate in Maths WINS). Personal Development education helps children and young people to achieve their potential by supporting their wellbeing and tackling issues that can affect their ability to learn, such as anxiety and unhealthy relationships. These sessions can be found the relevant folder and the resources will be sent out each week. Form tutors are expected to plan and deliver this session as they would a lesson.

Assembly – Assemblies will be led by a member of SLT or a member of the pastoral team or outside providers. Assemblies will be delivered on a set day each week. Main assemblies will follow the worship theme of the week outlined by the Christian Youth Based Workers. Heads of Year are responsible to ensure the year assembly is fronted and concluded in a formal and professional manner. During each assembly the Head of Year should contribute to the positive culture by presenting the Class of the week, Student of the Week, Form of the Week and Hero of the Week certificates. Form Tutors hold the responsibility to ensure student’s transition to assembly in the correct manner and also ensure students are sat in the correct seat. During assemblies form tutors should sit amongst their form group and take the register.

Character Development – These weekly sessions will develop the skills and qualities of character development. It allows students to develop the skills of LORIC (Leadership, Organisation, Resilience, Initiative and Communication). The sessions/ resources can be found in the appropriate folder and form tutors are expected to plan and deliver this session as they would a lesson.

Collective Worship – Each week there will be a form worship theme. Our Christian Based Youth Workers (CBYW) will send out the link and resources to this session and form tutors are expected to plan and deliver this session as they would a lesson.

Each curriculum have identified ways in which they will celebrate excellence in the students.