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Identity, Responsibility and Wellbeing: 3 Musts for an Effective Pastoral Programme

Paul Gildea is currently Deputy Head of Primary – Pastoral at the British School of Bucharest. He has taught from Year 1 to Year 6, and held a range of leadership positions in schools in London, China and now Romania. The British School of Bucharest will host the COBIS Pastoral Care Conference – Wellbeing in the Digital Age – 9-10 November 2018.

It was while I was applying for my current role as Deputy Head that I really began thinking about what makes effective pastoral provision. In my early years of teaching in London I took many aspects of pastoral care for granted.

David is throwing chairs again? Don’t worry, he’s got a session with the Learning Mentor this afternoon, that will calm him.Sonia has arrived with no lunch? No problem – she can have school dinners today. Amy has been late every day this week? We’ll sort it – she only lives across the road, we’ll send the Assistant Head over at 8am to make sure the family are up.

To me, these sorts of interventions were just What We Did. It had never occurred to me that pastoral care was the deliberate result of decisions taken and an ethos cultivated over time by people who genuinely bought into a shared vision.

I have worked in four schools, two in London and two internationally. Each of these schools had their particular pastoral strengths with different priorities. They served vastly different communities. However, the more I thought about my new role as pastoral lead, the more I realised that each of them was underpinned by a common theme. The reason, I decided, why these schools were so strong pastorally, was because they were all well-developed in three specific areas – identity, responsibility and wellbeing.

Identity

Who are we as a school? What makes us, us? This is the crux of having an established school identity. The methods used to foster an identity are many and varied, from uniform expectations, to House systems, to the school website. In general, it matters not which strategies are used, as long as they are applied consistently and understood by everyone in the school community. There is, however, one component of identity which I believe to be vital - the Mission Statement. A strong sense of identity comes from a strong, comprehensible and accessible Mission Statement. This is not simply a motto or strapline, nor is it a manifesto or action plan. It is, or at least should be, the very essence of the school’s ethos distilled into one message which can be articulated by the very youngest to the very oldest. From this central tenet flow all other aspects of a school’s identity – its values, its procedures, its aims and its objectives. A powerful idea of a shared identity will necessarily encourage all members of the community to uphold it, and develop a sense of Responsibility.

Responsibility

To what extent do all stakeholders demonstrate their understanding of their responsibility to the school? A school with an embedded sense of responsibility is one in which all members of the community are aware of, and able to exercise, their agency and are prepared to be accountable. I am not suggesting that there should be a free-for-all, with pupils able to make decisions that are beyond their level of maturity and understanding, but pupils absolutely should be involved in appropriate decision-making processes. These could include student councils and student voice initiatives, eco and charity committees or even something as straightforward as being involved in the decision of what to do for the end of year class party.

Increasing the involvement of staff in aspects of school life often reserved for senior leadership teams can also pay dividends. Collaboration on developing policies and school improvement plans, for example, creates ‘buy-in’ and a sense of ownership. I have seen personally even the most doggedly anti-change teachers become invested in a new initiative, simply because their concerns were listened to and minor adaptations made. One small change for SLT, one giant leap in engagement for said teacher.

A school with a heightened sense of responsibility, both personal and communal, a sense of responsibility which is productive not punitive, is one which can enjoy a heightened sense of Wellbeing.

Wellbeing

Wellbeing is one of the buzz words of the moment, so much so that we may be in danger of diluting our understanding of what we mean by wellbeing in schools. A more appropriate term may be ‘flourishing’. So, how can we enable our students and teachers to flourish? The first priority of all educators is to keep children safe. It is hardly controversial to state that safe and secure children become better learners. To this end, a school’s safeguarding protocols must be beyond reproach. This is an area where ‘good enough’ is probably not good enough. This kind of approach risks children slipping through the net. There can be nothing more important to a successful school than keeping its students from harm.

However, in order for our children to flourish, we need to do more than keep them safe. We need to give them the tools, the skills and the experiences to love learning and enjoy life, to be able to experience what Csikszentmihalyi terms ‘flow’.

Identity, Responsibility and Wellbeing: if we get these right then we will be ushering in a generation who are secure in themselves, willing to accept accountability for their choices and desirous of embracing the world.

Paul Gildea

  • CPD
  • Education
  • Learning
  • Teaching
  • Wellbeing
  • children
  • pastoral care
  • self care