Pastoral support and mentoring

Click on the links below to read the Home/School Agreements.

• Parent/Carer Home School Agreement
• Student Home School Agreement

Pastoral Support

Each Family Unit is organised into mixed age tutor groups with the tutor providing support and guidance to ensure students are making progress and are happy. Each Family Unit has two dedicated Pastoral Managers who facilitate behaviours for learning. Pastoral Mangers provide the day-to-day point of contact for student concerns relating to emotional, physical and/or academic well-being.

Mentoring

The Academy uses Assertive mentoring to support academic progress. Assertive Mentoring is widely recognised as a tool to raise attainment levels in both boys and girls. It is designed to support pupils in achieving their maximum potential. Students are selected for assertive mentoring based on their current level of performance against targets set using a combination of prior attainment and end of Key Stage targets.  Students are mentored by senior members of staff and meetings are held at least once a month, however these often become more frequent in Year 11 particularly for students identified via tracking as falling behind in their progress.  The main purpose of the meetings is to identify areas of weakness, for example subject knowledge gaps or missed coursework deadlines.  Challenging and relevant targets are set during the mentoring sessions and the outcomes are checked regularly.  Interventions can take the form of additional One to One sessions, small group work and Master Classes.

Mentors are in regular contact with the student, subject teachers and home to discuss any areas of concern or individual achievements.  Mentors use the predictive data to move underachievers towards aspirational targets.  Assertive Mentoring is direct and evidence driven; Mentors will know if a piece of coursework has not been completed.