LEAD ARTICLE: “Our School Approach to Pastoral Care and Wellbeing” by NAPCE NEC Member Jason Sannegadu

Our School Approach to Pastoral Care and Wellbeing by Jason Sannegadu

There is no denying that our beautiful island, Jeju (South Korea), is an absolute paradise.

According to the Jeju Tourism Association, 13,889,502 people visited Jeju in 2022, the majority of whom were domestic tourists, visiting for both recreation and sightseeing.

When we consider the pivotal role that wellbeing places in our lives, it is no surprise that many are drawn to the healing nature and escapism that it provides.

We have increasingly become more aware of the importance of taking care of ourselves, looking after our own mental health and seeking a work life balance.

For many of us in pastoral care, we have become increasingly aware of the challenges that face our students, including an upwards trend in mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.

Current research shows that: “better student-rated school climate, at the student and school level was associated with lower risk of depression, fewer social-emotional-behavioral difficulties and higher wellbeing [in young people]” Hinze, et.al, (2023).

We divide our pastoral calendar by the PERMA model themes which enables us to teach the key concepts of wellbeing so that we can help students to live healthy and fulfilling lives.

Each school takes their own approach to pastoral themes, but for us these sit incredibly well with our House-based structure, allowing us to address a number of issues not just through our pastoral curriculum, but also through a unique feature of our school; House Competition.

Focusing on Positive Health after Christmas, we have built upon a number of issues that we are facing as a school, such as cyberbullying and the effect of excessive electronic device use by students.

As a school we are proud of our pastoral care and have invested heavily in ensuring that we not only support students, but also have effective strategies in place to be proactive.

“A positive school culture has been associated with positive child and youth development, effective risk prevention and health promotion efforts, with extensive evidence for the impact on student mental health” (Jessiman et al, 2022). 

It is important that as educators we recognise the power of collaboration and that everyone who works with a student has a pastoral responsibility.

I am indebted to the Heads of House; they are bold and courageous, working hard to develop house ethos at NLCS Jeju and have ensured that all of our students are well cared for.

They are great advocates for students, continually see the best in them, look for opportunities for all students to succeed and work collaboratively together to address issues and create solutions.

Our approach to strengthening vertical relationships between students has been incredibly successful.

Our tutors are fabulous role models for students and are quick to notify us of issues that arise, whether through our school management information system or directly to their Head of House whom they meet each morning as they visit each of our tutor rooms.

We should never underestimate the power that relationships have in pastoral care. Our focus on developing positive relationships, providing opportunities for students to share experiences together, prioritising 1-1 conversations between tutors and students in the morning and ensuring that House leaders are visible, present and supportive have helped promote and develop a family atmosphere.

This year we have taken a whole school approach to tracking student wellbeing and have introduced new software that enables us to give students short surveys every two weeks that enable us to make positive and effective interventions. \

Whilst its implementation in the Senior School is still in its infancy, we have a structured plan of how we will use the data to help us to map out the challenges that particular year groups face and it is also making us reconsider how we can best strategically consider how to address certain issues.

One way is by ensuring that our Personal, Social and Development (PSD) programme is not just contextually specific to our students, but also provides a safe space for students to learn about challenges they will encounter and what they can do.

For this to be effective, we need to listen to feedback from both students and members of staff. As part of this review: we will gather feedback from students on how well the curriculum is supporting them, gather feedback from teachers of PSD regarding the curriculum content and how well students have engaged with it and also our pastoral teams regarding key issues that we are facing across the school.

Most importantly, during Parent Workshops we gather feedback and will also use this to help us develop both our tutor programme and PSD programme.

As I mentioned, we have spent a few months gathering essential data via surveys. The data told us that our students across most year groups are scoring consistently low with regards to sleep, digital wellbeing and overall physical health.

Within our pastoral programme we decided to focus on ‘digital detoxing’.

The aim is to:

• Raise awareness of unhealthy tech habits amongst students and address a school priority which is developing and strengthening a wellbeing culture
• Inform parents about their role in supporting children and the challenges that students face
• Respond to issues identified by our wellbeing tracker and also general pastoral issues that we are encountering

We held a parent workshop, inviting parents into school to learn about the challenges that their children face, raising awareness of cyberbullying and how we were responding to it, including a new restorative approach that we are looking to implement from August 2024 and also some practical ideas on how parents can monitor electronic devices and consider appropriate boundaries.

During tutor time we have a number of focused activities that raise awareness about how students can develop a healthy relationship with technology and in our PSD lessons our Year 7 students are encouraged to reflect upon their device use and challenge themselves to make one change.

We are also very fortunate to have a number of prominent and highly effective student organisations such as the Student Council and the Student Welfare Awareness Group that run activities during break and lunchtime, as well as leading whole school assemblies.

Next steps for us?

Recently I attended a training session run virtually by the PSHE Association and this encouraged me to reflect upon the training needs of our PSD teachers and Tutors.

As a result of this, I have written a strategic training plan to support our pastoral work. We will look to create a PSD sheet for tutors so that they are aware of the challenges that students are facing within a year group, the curriculum that they are learning and what tutors can do to support their tutees.

We are also integrating our Peer Mentoring system into our House system (previously it sat outside of this), as this will enable us to provide a designated time for the mentee and mentor to meet during tutor time, rather than finding a break or lunchtime and it will greatly facilitate a much stronger relationship that will enable trust and rapport to be developed.

I owe a great deal to a significant number of committed and dedicated members of staff who are working collaboratively to support student wellbeing and whilst our students may not always say it, I know that they very much appreciate all of the support we are able to offer.

Jason Sannegadu
NEC Member
NAPCE

AWARDS: Entry for NAPCE Awards 2024 Closes in Two Months 

Entry to National Awards for Pastoral Care in Education Closes on April 19th

Entry to the fifth annual National Awards for Pastoral Care in Education closes in just under two months.

The NAPCE Awards is the first and only awards scheme dedicated to recognising outstanding achievements in the field of pastoral care in education.The closing date for all categories this year will be Friday, 19th April, 2024, but there’s no reason to delay, get your entries in now.

The Presentation Ceremony will take place at the County Ground, Worcester in October 2024.

Just like in previous years, the finalists of the National Awards for Pastoral Care in Education will be selected by an independent judging panel and invited to attend the ceremony to share the experience with peers and find out who wins each Award.

NAPCE is inviting nominations in the following categories;

Pastoral School of the Year
Pastoral Team of the Year
Pastoral Member of Staff of the Year
Pastoral Leader of the Year
Pastoral Development of the Year
Raising Awareness about Pastoral Care
Outstanding Contribution to Pastoral Care
International Contribution to Pastoral Care

You can enter the NAPCE categories here Enter here

Nominations are encouraged for awards across different categories from schools and educational establishments and you DO NOT need to currently be a member of NAPCE to take part.

NAPCE Awards 2024 is an excellent opportunity to share good practice in pastoral care and through our social media, website and those of our partners, the Awards raises awareness of where pastoral support is making a real difference in the educational experience of young people.

The Awards also encourages new initiatives and ideas in pastoral care and will recognise the contributions being made to developing policy and practice in pastoral support.

This is an excellent opportunity to recognise the impact the work of pastoral staff is having on the development and well-being of young people.

The decisions about prize winners in each category will be made by a panel of invited professionals.

There will be a prize of £100.00 for the school or institution for the winners of each category and individuals will also be recognised for their achievements.

The criteria for the NAPCE awards are;

•Pastoral School of the Year
A school that can demonstrate a commitment to pastoral care and support for learners that makes a real difference in the progress and personal development of young people in the school

•Pastoral Team of the Year
A team that works in pastoral care and can demonstrate a determination to support young people to achieve their full potential and a positive impact on the young people they work with

•Pastoral Member of Staff of the Year
A member of staff who works in pastoral care and who always makes the extra effort to support young people to enable them to become effective learners and achieve success

•Pastoral Leader of the Year
Has a passion for pastoral care that is shared with colleagues to inspire and motivate them to make a real difference in the lives of the young people they work with

•Pastoral Development of the Year
A pastoral initiative or idea that has achieved positive outcomes and has improved the learning experience and future life chances, for young people

•Raising Awareness about Pastoral Care
An individual, group or organisation who through their actions have raised awareness about pastoral care or pastoral issues and encouraged positive improvements for the benefit of young people

•Outstanding Contribution to Pastoral Care
A person, group or organisation that has made a real difference for the benefit of young people in the area of pastoral care

•International Contribution to Pastoral CareAn international school, organisation outside of the UK or an individual working in research or in an international school outside of the UK, that has promoted or delivered high quality pastoral care.

Nominations for the NAPCE Awards are welcome from member schools and institutions and from schools and institutions that are not currently members of NAPCE.

AWARDS: Great Practice from the NAPCE Awards 2023 – Episode 4

The National Awards for Pastoral Care in Education 2023 – Sharing Good Practice – Episode 4

The NAPCE Awards 2023 was an amazing success, bigger than ever with a record number of entries and a sold-out event.

Every year we share a huge number of great examples of excellent practice in pastoral care and we’re proud to share some of these with you in NAPCE News which may help guide and inspire your own work.

For this fourth episode we’re focussing on the category Pastoral Development of the Year.
Pastoral Development of the YearThis award is for:

A pastoral initiative or idea that has achieved positive outcomes and has improved the learning experience and future life chances, for young people.

In 2023 it was sponsored by Sponsored by Crown House Publishing.

The winner for 2023, announced at the grand presentation event in Worcester, in September was Raymond Heron, St Mary’s Christian Brothers Grammar School

Here are some of the comments that were made about the 2023 winner of this award in the nomination.

St Mary’s Grammar School Belfast is an all-boys Catholic Voluntary Grammar School located on the Glen Road in West Belfast. The school was founded by the Christian Brothers in 1866 and moved to its current site in 1968. St. Mary’s has over 1,200 students aged 11-19. Under the Edmund Rice Trust Charter our vision is to promote full personal and social development in a Christian community of teaching and learning.   St. Mary’s was a traditional boys grammar school with a strong discipline policy built on sanctions and historically written in negative language with a significant slant towards ‘do not do… ‘, ‘you must not… There were a significant number of suspensions for various misbehaviours. Mrs Siobhan Kelly was appointed as Principal in January 2019 and since then there has been a change in the language used, the messages and guidance given to the boys and the way in which behaviour is managed. There is an emphasis on restoration and learning and pupil accountability for their own actions.  The process started with establishing our baseline position, reviewing our Discipline Policy and with the help of the whole school community establishing a new ‘Positive Behaviour Management Policy’. We have reviewed documentation including the Code of Conduct, Home School Agreement and provided training for staff in Restorative language to use with the students.

Mr Raymond Herron (senior teacher) led the introduction and development of Restorative Justice starting this process in 2021-2022. The aim to introduce a Restorative justice process which would address indiscipline more effectively as provide an alternative to the existing sanctions.  They were fortunate enough to be assisted by an external trainer who delivered training to the whole staff, with additional monthly ‘cafes’ for our Pastoral Leadership team.

They have introduced the use of restorative language across the school and even when serious issues do arise students are welcomed back to school and the classroom with a positive restorative meeting. Staff have been provided with guide sheets to help them choose their language carefully. Pupils, Parents/ carers, and staff feel that they have a voice, there is pupil accountability, support from parents and a way forward for the boys. Positive student reflection and learning are taking place and there has been a significant reduction in poor behaviours and the need for detentions and suspensions. There is an understanding among the school community about the value of restorative conversations.

The students are now more accountable for their own behaviour and as a result are behaving well in school. The partnership between home and school is also more positive as we work together to educate our boys.   Across the school site there are visual displays promoting ‘Restorative Values’ with restorative words and phrases displayed in the classrooms in the school.   Obviously in a large boys’ grammar school situated in an area of social disadvantage incidences of misbehaviour do arise from time to time. On those occasions where a suspension from school has been issued, they now use a ‘Restorative based template’ to lead the return from suspension meeting.   They have recorded a 41% reduction in incidences across the school with visibly better behaviour from the boys. There is now an understanding that the boys are accountable for their own behaviour and will have to sit down and work through behaviours if needed. The number of boys reoffending has reduced to 3.2% which is significant. More importantly there is now a major reduction on lost learning due to suspensions from school.  Pupil voice exercises indicated that the students wanted to see more rewards for good behaviour. The school have now introduced ‘Celebration Days’ and asked the students what type of rewards they most value. They indicated a preference for vouchers to purchase ‘Sports’ gear and we have put these in place. Significantly introducing two awards for each class, one of which is for the ‘most improved pupil’.   The school are now moving to create a working group of Restorative Practitioners who can assist our Form Teachers and Heads of Year with conflict resolution outside the classroom.

Here are some of the comments made in the nominations for the other finalists in this category.

Christ the King Sixth Forms, pastoral development of the year was developing a new and innovative pastoral support and inclusion programme for 15–17-year-old Ukrainians who had been displaced with their families as a result of the war in Ukraine.  The initiative came about after an approach from Bexley Council in April 2022 asking if there was anything we could do to support these young people who had already been so tragically affected by having to flee as refugees from the war in their country. Many of these young people had been traumatized by their experiences added to which many did not speak any English.     The school rose to the challenge and within two weeks had developed and implemented a new pastoral “Community Learning Programme” designed to welcome and help to settle and integrate these young people into the community while preparing them to enter study in the following academic year.     The approach took was to involve several teams from across the College to ensure that the programme fully met the needs of the young people involved.  The “Community Learning Programme” involved the young people attending College one day every week with a timetable including English, sport, pastoral care, careers guidance, and chaplaincy support.   The aim of the programme was to welcome and nurture the young people while trying to return some degree of normality to their lives, and to help them integrate into the local community and prepare to re-enter their studies the following September.

Initially the Ukrainian students and the staff and students at Christ the King relied heavily on ‘Google Translate’, but as the programme progressed their conversational English developed well through their English classes, and the young people began to open up and start to enjoy learning again. They were encouraged to take part in indoor and outdoor sports and games to help them integrate with their peers and further develop their language skills and this enabled them to start to feel more integrated into the local Community.  Underpinning these activities was the constant wrap around support and guidance for the young people from our ALS, Chaplaincy and Pastoral Teams enabling them to have a quiet and safe place to talk about any concerns or worries they may have and helping them to resolve these.  During the term of the programme the young people also received careers and education advice and guidance and help with their applications for their next steps.    Fr Mark Blakely, vicar of the local Catholic Church wrote to Bexley Council commending the programme saying: “I just wanted to drop a quick line to say how good the staff at Christ the King Sidcup were today towards Bohdan. Mrs Crampton and Miss Twomey reached out to him with genuine love and care. This was the first time he had been out independently from his parents since leaving Ukraine. He left feeling very happy and relaxed with a big smile. They are obviously going ‘above and beyond’ to include Ukrainians into college life, and I would be grateful if their efforts could be acknowledged.

St. Louis Grammar School Ballymena decided that a targeted mentoring programme needed to be offered to students. Pastoral support is more important than ever due to the adverse impact of COVID 19.  The last couple of years have had a notable influence upon post-primary students. The impact of ongoing uncertainty, online learning, and a lack of social opportunities have all been widely documented in the field of education. A mentoring programme was needed to bridge the gap resulting from such difficulties and to provide the necessary support to students who needed it academically and personally. The ‘Targeted Mentoring Programme’ was established to bring back a degree of control and to empower students with the feeling that they have some influence over their educational journey.    The school established the ‘Targeted Mentoring Programme’ by recruiting two mentors (one male and one female).  Staff met to devise a vision to raise achievement and the self-esteem of pupils across all Key Stages. The mentors trained all teaching staff in August 2021 so that they would understand the importance of Targeted Mentoring.  They explained the reasoning, anticipated impact, and referral process.  Teachers were allocated dedicated time on their timetable to meet on a one-to-one basis with selected and referred students from year 8 – 14.  The mentors received external training from Learn Spark in August 2021 and in June 2022.   Each student is referred as a collaborative effort. Head of Year, Heads of Department, class teachers, SENCO and pastoral leaders all have input.  When accepted onto the programme, parental contact is made to explain the process and seek consent to meet with their child.    By using a range of strategies discussed at weekly mentoring meetings, the mentors aim to.

• – Raise academic achievement
•  – Improve behaviour and wellbeing
• – Raise self-esteem

• – Improve motivation

In each individual mentee book pupils will find:

• – a timetable to organise their week
• – graphic organisers to help with revisions and note taking

•  – activities to identify barriers to learning

Class teachers are encouraged to feedback on notable improvements.  The meeting information and information from teachers are stored in a private folder.  Pupils usually have a six-week block of mentoring sessions, however, based on need, the programme may be extended.  The process of evaluation takes place throughout the year and data is established from internal and external assessments, classroom teacher observation, parental feedback, and student voice. Parent and student voice are forming the basis of targets for next year and based on evaluation results.   The success of young people’s educational experience is heavily determined by the attitudes that they bring to their learning, their sense of aspiration and the feelings they have about their place in the broader social context of the school. The mentors use PASS results to respond to improvement needs as identified by the students through intervention to help raise standards of attainment.    The three areas identified as applicable to targeted mentoring are,

• Factor 2 Perceived Learning Capability,
• Factor 3 Self-Regard as a Learner, and

• Factor 7 Confidence in Learning.

This identification allowed a more pointed approach and as such, students were identified by these factors and were entered onto the targeted mentoring programme after consultation with HOY, parents, SENCo and pupil.
In August 2022 the team presented their impressive evaluation results to the staff and identified sustained improvement in terms of academic achievement with internal assessments, GCSE and A Level examinations.

The Inclusion Hub at Friern Barnet School is an internal alternative provision that seeks to ensure parity of opportunity for all by allowing teachers to teach, students to learn and those with additional needs to be supported to remain in mainstream education.   It is an innovative, supportive, and intervening base staffed by skilled individuals who have the training and personal mindset to interact effectively and positively with our most challenging and vulnerable cohorts.   In two years since the initiative was set up only 1 student has been permanently excluded from the school. Through personal development sessions, students have developed social skills and an awareness of appropriate responses. The success of this has seen a reduction in confrontational or disruptive behaviours around the school.  Through bespoke academic, pastoral, and therapeutic interventions, students’ active participation has improved in lessons as well as reading ages, allowing for more confident access to the curriculum. The school have also seen relationships improve between students and teachers on this basis and through the use of restorative approaches.

Through 1-1 mentoring, vulnerable students feel listened to and have   an opportunity to discuss underlying issues that may be impacting their behaviour.   Significant behavioural incidents have reduced as a result, as staff are able to manage these situations for them and guide them to appropriate decision making and to the process of resolution.   Student voice data indicates that student morale and attendance has also improved.   With a combination of all these inputs and outputs, the Inclusion Hub continues to contribute to success measures that benefit far beyond our school, and into society. These include:

• – A reduction in suspensions and permanent exclusions
• – Prevention or reduction of student involvement in anti-social behaviour

• – An increase in the number of students who remain engaged in their learning

The Inclusion Hub has offered young people an opportunity to receive high quality and consistent support, both in their educational progress and their personal development.  The introduction of the Inclusion Hub has also contributed to overall inclusive educational practices at Friern Barnet School. With continuous professional learning around topics such as Restorative Approaches, SEMH needs in children and young people, and the factors related to behavioural challenge, teachers are becoming increasingly reflective of how their approach to teaching can foster a positive learning environment. Staff have developed an understanding that students are more likely to engage with what they’re being asked to by someone they like, trust and respect and when they feel heard and listened to.

With more students accessing the Inclusion Hub across year groups, this inclusive educational outlook permeates into the whole school as we work to tackle behavioural challenge that is impeding the progress of students that require support and disrupting the learning of their peers. This work in relation to addressing student behaviour takes place in a smaller setting within the main school which has meant that students feel a sense of familiarity and part of a ‘family’.    As one triumphant marker of success, students in the Inclusion Hub engaged in a 10-week project creating a poetry anthology that reflected their likes, lives and how they see the world. Throughout this process they were able to flaunt their sense of humour, their way with words and their personability. This group of students who have never engaged with spoken word before, pushed themselves to the point where they eventually stood up on stage and represented the school at a private viewing of a professional arts exhibition. They then performed poems from their anthology to an audience of parents, teachers, and friends.

Leighton Park School has always had a strong culture of pastoral care and wellbeing support as part of its Quaker roots. Moments of silence, personal reflection and openness distinguish the school culture, including regular Meetings for Worship, Collects, acts of random kindness, and community service. However, the global pandemic and recent world events have undoubtedly had a huge impact on levels of low mood, anxiety and fatigue across many schools and communities. Consequently, the school needed to devise a strategic and innovative pastoral care approach to support early identification of students and, most recently, staff at risk of poor mental health difficulties.    A recent innovative pastoral care project has been the development and implementation of a state-of-the-art digital wellbeing app. Working closely with EdTech startup (youHQ.co.uk), the school have been the first pilot school in the world where all students have used the platform to log their mood (using a 5-point emoji scale) and attribute reasons why they may be feeling a particular way. Students also complete a fortnightly, validated wellbeing survey (WHO-5, World Health Organisation survey), and access the latest resources and support area on the app to best assist their wellbeing and mental health.   The wellbeing data is pulled across from the student dashboards to the pastoral hub where tutors can track their tutees and pastoral leaders can monitor and filter students using current and average mood scores and wellbeing percentages. The mood score also provides a mood profile graph to create an overview of the student’s individual perception of mood over time.

Staff can log any safeguarding concerns directly through this hub as we have created strong links with our safeguarding provider, ‘MyConcern’. The data has facilitated high quality, pastoral focused and individualised conversations between staff and students. Staff can now pinpoint triggers of low mood and advise on useful resources, some of which sit within the app to support them.  This innovative wellbeing app has been impactful. Students feel valued and staff feel empowered to support their students. The collate feedback from staff and students every half term to monitor the effectiveness of this app. Some impact data includes:

• 84% of students believe ‘youHQ’ has been beneficial to their overall wellbeing and mental health.

•  92% of staff believe ‘youHQ’ has supported them in their role as a tutor;

Other students have reached out via the app with self-harm related feelings or even suicidal thoughts. Early intervention before these issues become even more serious has been so important in the school and helped create a safer environment. Implementing the app alongside other screening tools such as AS tracking, SDQ questionnaires, Boxall profiles, and forensic safeguarding monitoring filters enable pastoral staff to be more proactive rather than reactive in their implementation of bespoke pastoral plans which may include therapeutic interventions such as: counselling, CBT, drawing and talking therapy, and pet therapies.

The school have 26 adult mental health first aiders and so far, six student mental health first aiders to support staff and students, including excellent external links to psychological and psychiatric services and employer assistance programmes.    The school have been the first school to pilot the teacher wellbeing version of this app. Staff volunteers have been logging mood and completing surveys on their wellbeing so line managers can best support them.       The innovative ‘youHQ’ app and other complimentary proactive screening measures have helped the school to identify those at risk and those who need extra support.

Congratulations for everybody nominated for Pastoral Member of year in 2023. The nominations for the 2024 National Awards for Pastoral Care in Education are now open. All the details are available on the NAPCE website www.napce.org.uk. Follow the link to make a nomination to recognise and value contributions to good practice in pastoral care in education.

Making a nomination for the National Awards for Pastoral Care in Education 2024 organised by NAPCE.

It is easy to make a nomination for the Awards to recognise good practice in the eight categories and it only takes a few minutes.

Here is some guidance on how to make your nomination.

• Visit our nomination page here https://napceawards.wufoo.com/forms/napce-awards-2024-entry-form/
• Or go to www.napce.org.uk and click on the link for the awards.
• This takes you to the page where you can make your nomination.
• Read the information about the criteria for each category.
• Provide your contact details as the nominee and the name of the person or organisation you are nominating with their email contact details on the form provided.
• Click on the button to select the appropriate category for your nomination.
• In the box provided provide information and any evidence to support you nomination.

You can make a nomination for another person or organisation, or self-nominations are also welcome.

You have 750 word available to describe the reasons for your nomination to the judges.

You do not have to use all 750 words and the best nominations are concise and clear.

Explain what makes your nomination an example of good practice.

Describe how it makes a difference in the learning experience of children and young people.

Give examples of actions that have been taken and outcomes that have been achieved.

Explain why you are proud of this nomination.

Make your nomination now to recognise good practice and achievements in pastoral care in education.

EVENT: A Report from the ASCL Pastoral Care Conference 2024

NAPCE was pleased to partner the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) once again in the planning and organisation of its annual conference for pastoral leaders.

This year the conference took place in Birmingham on Monday 29^th January at the Birmingham Conference and Events Centre. The title for the 2024 conference was ‘Taking a Proactive Approach to Pastoral Leadership.

Phil Jones National Chair of NAPCE contributed to the planning and attended the conference as a speaker.

The event was well attended with pastoral leaders travelling to Birmingham for across the UK.

NAPCE had a display stand with Anne Jones from the administrative team available to talk to delegates about the work of the Association. It was great to meet several NAPCE members and finalists from the National Awards for Pastoral Care in Education organised by NAPCE attending as delegates.

The conference was hosted by Margaret Mulholland, SEND and Inclusion Specialist for ASCL.

The Keynote presentation was delivered by ASCL General Secretary, Geoff Barton.

Before the conference began Geoff interviewed Phil Jones about the new book edited by NAPCE, ‘Pastoral Care in Education. New directions for new times’ , published by Cambridge Scholars publications in October for his Leaders As Readers podcast. The podcast can be found at ASCL – Leaders are Readers.

In his presentation Geoff announced that today was a landmark day for education with the publication of the Education Select Committee report recommending that single word judgements from Ofsted inspections should end.

He said this is sending a message to the Secretary of State for Education that schools work should not be reduced to a single word. He talked about Michael Marland who was one of the founder members of NAPCE 41 years ago as being the founder of pastoral care in education.

He talked about the “the real safeguard for democracy is education”. In a positive presentation to delegates he reported that the political mood music about education was changing and that there were reasons to be more optimistic about the future.

Geoff steps down from his role as General Secretary and NAPCE would like to thank him for all his support for the Association and for his work in education.

The tough task of following the Keynote presentation went to Zoe Giblin, Assistant Headteacher at Blaise High School, Bristol. She shared with delegates the good practice in behaviour management and pastoral support at the school.

The school has a vision that every child will be able to climb their own personal mountain and that aspiration is free. Mark Rowland’s presentation focused on attendance and absence which is very much in the spotlight now.

He pointed out that it is important to understand challenges being faced by families but to avoid slipping into sympathy which will lower expectations.

He commented that to improve attendance sustained effort is the key to ensure that impact is effective in the long term. In his view the biggest driver of poor attendance is social isolation and effective pastoral care in schools is essential.

He made an interesting point that he felt the social norm regarding school had shifted in recent years with different views about how important school was to children and young people in some families.

Dr Kaitlyn Regehr and her colleagues shared important information with delegates in their presentation about their research into how algorithms popularize and gamify online hate and misogyny for young people.

They reported on how, in collaboration with ASCL, they explored:

1. How is online hate speech and misogyny popularized online?
2. What are the risks to young people?
3. How is this impacting on the ground in schools?

The recommendations from their findings are:-

• Intervention and support for teacher’s concerns have been slow and woefully unable to keep pace with changing technologies and the implications they bring for young people.
• Blame is then often incorrectly placed on teachers to address issues, which primarily take place outside of school hours, or on the young people themselves.
• Our recommendations are both to hold social media platforms accountable, whilst also advocating for a healthy and critical digital education, which involves an iterative and student led approach to this problem.
• These proposed recommendations can only be taken forward with the support and investment of Government. Without such investments, these issues will only become more entrenched and severe.

Actions that they suggested were needed in response were.

• Holding social media companies accountable.
• Implementing healthy digital diet education holistically across the curriculum.
• Peer to peer mentoring to support young people against gender violence and algorithmic harms.
• Wider awareness of algorithmic process for parents and the community at large.

Victoria Rayner, Director of Raynor Safeguarding Ltd followed this with a presentation about Navigating Pastoral Care in a Digital World.

Victoria made some important points that we cannot parent children in the way we were parented because it is a very different world.

This must also be true for the delivery of pastoral care in modern schools. She also pointed out that it is important that schools do not close windows of opportunities for learning and personal development provided by new technologies.

She shared practical ideas with delegates about introducing digital prefects and the importance of having conversations about issues that are important to them with young people.

After lunch there was a lively panel discussion chaired by Phil Jones about what schools can do to deliver proactive pastoral care. The first speaker of the afternoon was Andy McGowan, Policy, and Practice Manager for Carers Trust.

He shared his experience with the help of some young carers in his presentation that had the title, ‘Who are we talking about here and what are we doing to support young carers – visibility and value’.

He reported that eight per cent to 12 per cent of children and young people in schools are carers.

Caleb a young carer made the comment, “we need people like you in pastoral care to notice”.

Important questions were raised for delegates about how you identify young carers in schools and how to support them.

Amelia Thompson the Assistant Director of Education, SEND at Greenshaw Learning Trust was joined by Margaret Mulholland for her presentation ‘Escalating needs of children and young people. The school experience and proactive response’.

They stressed the importance of schools being clear about their vision and mission and to be clear in the choice of language used. The presentation explored how to meet children’s needs and bring equity into practice.

The presentation pointed out that meeting children’s needs is more than quality teaching but there is a need to ensure that learners can access the quality provision.

They highlighted the need to champion good practice and to build capacity for meeting needs.

The final speaker of the afternoon was Tom Middlehurst, the ASCL Curriculum, Assessment and Inspection Specialist, who shared information with delegates about Ofsted’s pastoral priorities.

Sir Martyn Oliver who recently became Ofsted HMCI described the purpose of inspection as to tell the sector and parents what the daily life of a child in that school is.

Tom shared his view that single phrased judgements will go at some point and that the focus for inspection will be the lived experience of every young person in the school.

He believed that safeguarding will probably be taken out of inspections when a new framework is introduced to be replaced with an annual review.

He shared useful information with delegates about what inspectors will look for to find out more about the pastoral work of the school.

The delegates left the conference informed about current issues in pastoral work in schools and inspired by the presentations from speakers.

It was also a very useful opportunity to network and to share ideas.

Phil Jones
National Chair
NAPCE
8^th February 2024

EVENTS: Key NAPCE Dates Across the 2024 Calendar – Updated  

NAPCE – Key 2024 Dates for the diary

We’re very proud to announce that the NAPCE year of 2024 is our busiest yet.

We have a whole range of events and meetings planned and we’re delighted to share our latest schedule below.

Updated   8th February 2024.
Dates and times may need to change. 

REPORT: Safer Internet Day 2024 was Supported by NAPCE

NAPCE was pleased, once again, to be a supporter of Safer Internet Day.

National Chair Phil Jones was invited to attend the online planning meetings and the Safer Internet Day event from the BT Tower on 6^th February.

Safer Internet Day has been organised each year since 2011 by the Safer Internet Centre.

This is a partnership of three charities, Childnet, Internet Watch Foundation and SWGfL who work together to identify threats and harms online and then create and deliver critical advice, resources, education and interventions that help keep children, young people and adults safe. They share best practices across the UK and globally.

In the UK, Safer Internet Day unites millions of young people, schools and organisations to spark conversations on key issues around online safety.

The aim of Safer Internet Day is to make the internet a safer place for children and young people.

The themes for Safer Internet Day 2024 were inspiring change, making a difference and managing influence and navigating change online.

The event included speeches from Government ministers. panels and workshops hosted by young people aged 9 to 18.

The BBC broadcast a live lesson for schools on the day and activities to support Safer Internet Day 2024 took place across the UK and in other countries around the world.

More information can be found on the Safer Internet Centre website https://saferinternet.org.uk and the Safer Internet Day website https://www.saferinternetday.org

EVENT: Fresh Details of FREE NAPCE Spring Conference Revealed – NOW BOOKING

Details of FREE NAPCE 2024 Online Spring Conference Announced

Following the huge success of the online Spring Conference events organised by NAPCE in recent years we are pleased to announce plans for the 2024 event. It will take place on Wednesday 20th March between 7-00pm and 8-30pm. The title is ‘Achieving outstanding personal development and pastoral care in 21st century schools. The Keynote presentation will be from Shaun McInerney who is the School Leadership and Strategy Lead at the University of Worcester.

Shaun has led in 5 start-up schools in England and India. He was a Senior Leader in a successful, large inner-city school in Liverpool and was the founding Principal (and latterly Executive Principal) of The Studio, Liverpool from its inception in 2013 to 2019. Ofsted rated the Studio’s personal development as outstanding and noted their success in turning around the lives of young people. In 2019 Shaun returned to international sixth form college, UWC Atlantic, as Director of Curriculum Innovation, pioneering their Changemaker curriculum.
Shaun continues to work at a system level with the Edge Foundation and international NGO, Ashoka, developing an ecosystem to help schools respond and meet the needs of young people in a rapidly changing world. He has developed the New Capabilities for a New World Programme which is supporting Principals and system leaders in Greater Manchester to develop their leadership and strategy to enable young people gain fair access to the economic opportunities in their region.

This will be followed by a Pastoral Care ‘Question Time’ with an invited panel of educational experts discussing current issues and topics. The experts on the panel include Professor Noel Purdy, Director of Research and Scholarship, Stranmillis University College, Belfast, Dr Mark Diacopoulos, Assistant Professor, Department of Teaching and Leadership, Pittsburg State University, USA, Dr Caron Carter, Senior Lecturer in early childhood/childhood, Sheffield Institute of Education, Sheffield Hallam University. Victoria Raynor, Director Raynor Safeguarding Ltd, Shaun McInerney School Leadership and Strategy Lead, University of Worcester. and chaired by Phil Jones, National Chair, NAPCE.

Book your free tickets for this event on Eventbrite. Remember to book your tickets early as in previous years all available tickets have been reserved several weeks in advance.

Follow the link to book tickets https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/achieving-outstanding-personal-development-and-pastoral-care-in-schools-tickets-803020956297?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl

LEAD ARTICLE: “Pastoral Care Across Borders: Recent Insights from South East Asia” by NAPCE NEC Member Charlie Walker

Pastoral Care Across Borders: Recent Insights from Southeast Asia by Charlie Walker

After graduating last July, I had firm plans to relocate to London and begin a master’s degree.

However, just a few weeks before, a fantastic offer came from EqualEd — an education charity I’d helped to set up — and so I decided to postpone the move.

Leading EqualEd’s research and partnership initiatives across Southeast Asia from September to December, I was tasked with visiting schools, charities and community organisations throughout the region, to identify possible partners and collaborators.

EqualEd is harnessing post-pandemic advancements in online learning by connecting volunteer teachers globally with children in low-resource and remote areas.

Serving as a digital platform, we not only offer high- level teaching in subjects like maths and science, but also foster connections with native English-language speakers.

Rather than replacing existing systems, EqualEd aims to add value to learning communities by providing world-class teaching, as well as resources like lesson plans and student activities.

Complementing this, we also run two additional programmes: one delivering free teacher training from Russell Group universities, and another establishing community-based, digitally-connected learning centres for the benefit of broader communities.

Our volunteer base is diverse, from university lecturers and safeguarding specialists in the UK who provide outstanding teacher training, to maths teachers in India and university students in the US who work directly with students.

The fourteen week trip across Southeast Asia — visiting seven countries in total — also offered an opportunity to delve into my own interest in pastoral care and student wellbeing.

It provided real-life exposure to these crucial aspects in an expansive array of educational settings, allowing me to explore and understand the nuances of support and wellbeing in culturally diverse and resource-limited contexts.

Along the way, I identified seven key areas that impacted pastoral care in the these schools.

First and foremost, these are considerations for EqualEd when delivering lessons and support.

However, whilst some are specific to their context, I hope that they may also be useful for teachers and providers in the UK, both in terms of cultural awareness and shared challenges, and also in providing an insight into a global picture of pastoral care.

1. Limited Resources for Staff and Students:

The pervasive challenge of limited resources in many educational settings directly impacted pastoral care, constraining the availability of support mechanisms. Insufficient funding often results in a shortage of support professionals, or even training for teachers, hindering the provision of pastoral care services to students. This was particularly prevalent in government-run schools across Cambodia and Laos, where teachers had received no training whatsoever on pastoral care, and even resources for basic education such as textbooks or notebooks were lacking.

2. Stigma Around Mental Health:

The deeply ingrained stigma surrounding mental health issues posed a significant obstacle to effective pastoral care in multiple settings. The cultural imperative of ‘saving face’ often appeared to discourage students from seeking help or expressing their struggles openly. Many students that I spoke with said that it was simply something not to be discussed at home or in school, and several had never even heard of the concept.

3. Lack of Defined Pastoral Care Terminology:

The absence of well-defined pastoral care terminology creates communication barriers crucial for addressing emotional and psychological wellbeing. Without a shared language, teachers were unable to explain how they might identify, discuss or implement pastoral care effectively. This linguistic gap underscores the need for a precise and universally understood vocabulary within diverse contexts.

4. Impact of Socioeconomic Disparity:

The stark impact of socioeconomic disparities was obvious. Students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are very likely to face significant challenges in accessing basic necessities like food and decent shelter. One fantastic project that I visited — the Cambodian Children’s Fund — work tirelessly to address this. There is a significant appreciation for the importance of life beyond the classroom, and so the organisation also provides housing and resources to the families of children living in and around the largest landfill site in Phnom Penh.Providing these basic necessities has not only transformed their lives, but also significantly improved attendance at their schools.

5. Traditional Gender Roles and Expectations:

Traditional gender roles and expectations directly influenced the pastoral care landscape by shaping students’ perceptions of available support. Gender stereotypes appeared to limit students’ willingness to seek help, particularly in cultures where certain issues are associated with specific genders. One project that I visited in a remote region of northern Laos had been established by university students in a nearby city, and specifically encouraged girls from the local community to attend special classes after school, all run by volunteers. Whilst pastoral care was not the focus of these classes, it appears to be a stepping stone in appreciating gender-specific challenges.

6. Inadequate Infrastructure:

Inadequate infrastructure may also hinder the implementation of effective pastoral care initiatives. Beyond insufficient training and support, several students and teachers cited a lack of quiet or private spaces, as well as no time built into the school day to have a break or spend time with friends. One pupil explained to me how he arrived at school at 6.30am in the morning, before leaving at lunchtime to work in a job late into the evening. He had no quiet spaces at school or at home, and very little opportunity to socialise with his friends.

7. Cultural Differences and Approaches:

Cultural differences often influenced the effectiveness of support systems, requiring pastoral care initiatives to match cultural perspectives. For instance, in a community where seeking direct help for emotional issues was considered taboo, a student I spoke with explained how she often relied on indirect means of support, such as confiding in peers or participating in spiritual gatherings to relieve stress.

As part of EqualEd’s teacher training programme, we are aiming to address some of these findings by building a free and universally accessible bank of resources for teachers and support providers. This will include videos, reading and case studies — available in a range of languages — that introduce key pillars in pastoral care and an opportunity to engage with best practice and leading thinkers. Our first resource — an introduction to safeguarding delivered by Sara Hedger who, as Global SVP for Safeguarding and Child Protection at GEMS Education, was responsible for the safeguarding structures protecting over 120,000 students — went live with our website launch last month.

Whilst these insights are invaluable for refining EqualEd’s approach to delivering lessons and support, they may also hold significant relevance beyond the Southeast Asian context. The challenges faced in these regions, from limited resources and mental health stigma to cultural differences and inadequate infrastructure, mirror often universal themes in education. By offering a brief glimpse into some of the dynamics of student support in resource-limited and culturally diverse environments, I hope that these observations provide a broad yet useful insight into aspects of the global state of pastoral care.

Charles Walker
NEC Member
NAPCE

EVENT: Details of FREE NAPCE Spring Conference Revealed – NOW BOOKING

Details of FREE NAPCE 2024 Online Spring Conference Announced

Following the huge success of the online Spring Conference events organised by NAPCE in recent years we are pleased to announce plans for the 2024 event.

It will take place on Wednesday 20^th March between 7-00pm and 8-30pm.

The title is ‘Achieving outstanding personal development and pastoral care in 21^st century schools.’

The keynote presentation will be from Shaun McInerney who is the School Leadership and Strategy Lead at the University of Worcester.

Shaun has led five start-up schools across England and India. He was a Senior Leader in a successful, large inner-city school in Liverpool and was the founding Principal (and latterly Executive Principal) of The Studio, Liverpool from its inception in 2013 to 2019.

Ofsted rated the Studio’s personal development as Outstanding and noted their success in turning around the lives of young people. In 2019 Shaun returned to international sixth form college, UWC Atlantic, as Director of Curriculum Innovation, pioneering their Changemaker curriculum.

Shaun continues to work at a system level with the Edge Foundation and international NGO, Ashoka, developing an ecosystem to help schools respond and meet the needs of young people in a rapidly changing world.

He has developed the New Capabilities for a New World Programme which is supporting Principals and system leaders in Greater Manchester to develop their leadership and strategy to enable young people gain fair access to the economic opportunities in their region.

Sean’s address will be followed by a Pastoral Care ‘Question Time’ with an invited panel of educational experts discussing current issues and topics.

Details will be available on the NAPCE Eventbrite page. National Association for Pastoral Care in Education Events | Eventbrite Book your free tickets for this event on NOW.

Remember to book your tickets early as in previous years all available tickets have been reserved several weeks in advance. The link for information and tickets is
https://NAPCESPRINGEVENT24.eventbrite.co.uk

AWARDS: Great Practice from the NAPCE Awards 2023 – Episode 3

The National Awards for Pastoral Care in Education 2023 – Sharing Good Practice – Episode 3

The NAPCE Awards 2023 was an amazing success, bigger than ever with a record number of entries and a sold-out event.

Every year we share a huge number of great examples of excellent practice in pastoral care and we’re proud to share some of these with you in NAPCE News which may help guide and inspire your own work.

For this third episode we’re focussing on the category International Contribution to Pastoral Care.
International Contribution to Pastoral CareThis award is for an international school, organisation outside of the UK or an individual working in research or in an international school outside of the UK, that has promoted or delivered high quality pastoral care.

In 2023 it was sponsored by Global Equality Collective.

The Global Equality Collective (GEC), is a multi-award-winning global community of over 13,000 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) change makers including 300+ DEI subject matter experts, working together to equip, empower and educate. We fuse this knowledge base with groundbreaking technology (the GEC Platform) which enables state-of-the-art analytics and the latest academic research to solve one of the biggest issues in education, which is diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Our aim is simple – to make ordinary classrooms extraordinarily inclusive

The winner of the International Contribution to Pastoral Care for 2023, announced at the grand presentation event in Worcester, in September was Charlene Secondary School Kiryandongo Uganda.
 
Here are some of the comments that were made about the 2023 winner of this award in the nomination.
 
“Charlene Secondary School is located in Kiryandongo District in a remote area of western Uganda. It was built and is being supported through Charlene’s Project, a UK charity inspired by Charlene Barr, a young girl, while battling with her own life-threatening illness pledged to raise funds to build a school in Uganda.  Although she did not live to see the school opening, she died aged 20 in 2010, her legacy lives on as staff and students in Charlene Secondary continue on their exciting journey of education. Supported by the charities’ UK/Ugandan Education Advisory Team and managed by Ugandan Charlene Education Foundation. 
 
The school, recognized from the outset the need to establish a school ethos and culture and the importance of involving the whole school community in developing this. Led by the Director and Head Teacher along with teaching staff, their Year 1 action plan focused on developing policies, procedures, and practices for pastoral care. They discussed topics like ethics, values, and standards before producing a draft statement on the vision and values they had for the school and began the task of enshrining these in policy.   A schedule was drawn up which included a fortnightly workshop involving the whole staff to address a range of pastoral issues which they encountered on a daily basis. Each of the two-hour workshops, facilitated by the Charlene Project Advisory Team outlined best practice in pastoral care and offered staff the opportunity to consider cultural adaptations required for their school. The table below provides an insight into the topics covered. The schedule was not followed slavishly, rather, they spend more time on some areas than others making adaptations and changes as required.
 
As in all schools they find the implementation of new initiatives a struggle therefore implicit in the action plan is the monitoring and evaluation process to be used. This includes both qualitative and quantitative approaches and involves all members of the community including parents.  The workload and energy required to develop policies and procedures for each area is daunting. Teachers embark on the planning every Friday at the end of their working day, many will have travelled many miles to get to the school and will endure the same journey home, often in difficult circumstances. Additionally, they will be back in school the following morning as they have a half day teaching timetable on Saturdays. They recognise this is a huge commitment but that it is the foundation for all follow-up work including teaching and learning. Charlene’s Secondary deserves credit and recognition for their commitment to making their school a centre of excellence in Pastoral Care.” 
 
Here are some of the comments made in the nominations for the other finalists in this category.

International School Ikast-Brande
 
International School Ikast-Brande has a high-quality approach to Pastoral Care.   As one of very few international settings in Denmark, with a focal point on Pastoral Care, International School Ikast-Brande educates, prepares, inspires, and creates learners to be best equipped for their future, not only academically, but personally, socially, emotionally, and mentally.   Learners at the school have the opportunity to develop themselves through.

• The spiral PSHE curriculum. 
•  meeting with their homeroom teachers every morning.
• acquire the skills to support one another and themselves following the SMILES programme.
• develop key knowledge of how to live a healthy life through our PE curriculum.
• learn necessary skills and techniques in mentoring. 

• Participating in the unique Life Skills programme.  

With a dedicated Deputy Head of School leading the pastoral care provision of the school, learners have the opportunity to access support quickly, effectively, and efficiently – be it in school or support from the local community.   The school are lucky to have such an excellent pastoral provision & such an impeccable international team of staff paving the way for each and every student.

University of Malta

Over the past years, the University of Malta, have been to promoting pastoral care in education including the wellbeing, resilience and mental health of students and school staff, at an international level, through participation and contribution to experts’ groups at UNESCO and the European Commission (2022-2023). It has developed  and organised programmes for schools and policy makers such as.

• the ‘Rescur Surfing the Waves Programme’, for Early Years and Primary School (revised in 2022), 
• an international virtual summer school on child protection in war and conflict zone in collaboration with the UN (2022), 
• three international summer schools on resilience, mental health and positive development (summer 2023)
• an evaluation of a mental health curriculum developed through an EU funded project (PROMEHS, Promoting Mental Health in Schools) (2022).
• Developed the first Master Programme in Transdisciplinary Childhood Studies (started first time in October 2020 at the University of Malta) and of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters in Resilience in Education (starting in October 2023).
• publication of numerous papers, research reports and book chapters on the mental health, wellbeing and resilience of school children, particularly marginalised ones.
• training of school staff in pastoral care such as teachers, support school staff and school administration.
• research projects on children’s wellbeing, mental health, children’s voices and social and emotional learning.

North London Collegiate School (NLCS) Jeju, South Korea

The school aims to create a home where individuals are nurtured and the whole personality can grow. They foster a caring and respectful community characterized by excellent relationships between staff and students regardless of age and background. Pastorally the school has an outstanding approach towards Pastoral Care and was recently awarded Safeguarding School of the Year by the ISC in 2023 in recognition of their work to keep students safe. They have ensured that all students receive digital citizenship training, there are safeguarding posters of adults who can help, meetings have safeguarding as part of the agenda, recently introduced a visitor code of conduct that also includes a safeguarding briefing when visitors come into school and continuous training throughout the year for staff.

One of the school’s goals is to ensure that new students are supported and welcomed into the school. They have introduced a number of new initiatives including using peer mentors to. support students, the Student Council arranging welcoming activities including lunches and a Scavenger Hunt, induction days and support from house committees. From August, all year 7 students (in response to feedback) will be allocated an older brother or sister to offer them support and guidance throughout the first term and help them not only settle in, but also feel a valued member of the school community. 

Bromsgrove International School, Thailand

At Bromsgrove International School, is a school that has pastoral care, personal-social education, and the welfare of students at its very heart.  They strive to find innovative ways to support and develop students’ wellbeing. A recent tool has been the introduction of the ‘Well-Being Passport’, a document created with the child, for the child and which is editable and designed to progress through school with each individual.     Each of the 120 boarders have an initial meeting with a member of boarding staff in order to receive a dedicated time slot to understand, create and ask any questions in order to promote the intrinsic value of the passport initiative. Written in the students own words, the ‘Well-Being Passport’ identifies things that are important to them and what areas in which they feel they need support as well as helping students feel they are each known and valued as an individual in her or his own right, and that school life has a meaning and purpose for them. It has proven to be a useful reflective tool with some students, empowering them in choosing to meet and discuss their wellbeing passport in order to adjust their short- and long-term goals or review what support they feel they may need in order to achieve this.

Congratulations for everybody nominated for Pastoral Member of year in 2023. The nominations for the 2024 National Awards for Pastoral Care in Education are now open. All the details are available on the NAPCE website www.napce.org.uk. Follow the link to make a nomination to recognise and value contributions to good practice in pastoral care in education.

Making a nomination for the National Awards for Pastoral Care in Education 2024 organised by NAPCE.

It is easy to make a nomination for the Awards to recognise good practice in the eight categories and it only takes a few minutes.

Here is some guidance on how to make your nomination.

• Visit our nomination page here https://napceawards.wufoo.com/forms/napce-awards-2024-entry-form/
• Or go to www.napce.org.uk and click on the link for the awards.
• This takes you to the page where you can make your nomination.
• Read the information about the criteria for each category.
• Provide your contact details as the nominee and the name of the person or organisation you are nominating with their email contact details on the form provided.
• Click on the button to select the appropriate category for your nomination.
• In the box provided provide information and any evidence to support you nomination.

You can make a nomination for another person or organisation, or self-nominations are also welcome.

You have 750 word available to describe the reasons for your nomination to the judges.

You do not have to use all 750 words and the best nominations are concise and clear.

Explain what makes your nomination an example of good practice.

Describe how it makes a difference in the learning experience of children and young people.

Give examples of actions that have been taken and outcomes that have been achieved.

Explain why you are proud of this nomination.

Make your nomination now to recognise good practice and achievements in pastoral care in education.

EVENTS: Important NAPCE 2024 Dates Announced 

NAPCE – Key 2024 Dates for the diary

We’re very proud to confirm that the NAPCE National Conference 2024 will take place in person on 25^th May 2024.

The theme will be ‘Sharing Good Practice in Pastoral Care in Education’.

The event is planned to take place in the London area and will include.

• A Keynote speaker presentation.
• Presentations sharing good practice form previous finalists in the National Awards for Pastoral Care in Education,
• An audience discussion about the new pastoral book edited by NAPCE ‘Pastoral Care in Education. New directions for new times.’

Details and tickets will be available soon on the NAPCE Eventbrite page and more information will be shared in future newsletters.

EVENT: NAPCE Chair Phil Jones to Speak at ASCL Conference for Pastoral Leaders 2024 – LAST CHANCE TO BOOK

We are partnering with ASCL again for the ASCL Conference for Pastoral Leaders 2024, which is taking place on January 29th.

Tickets are available now.

NAPCE Chair Phil Jones is amongst the panel of expert speakers joining the event at The Birmingham Conference and Events Centre (BCEC).

The theme for this year is “Taking a proactive approach to pastoral leadership”

At the ASCL Conference for Pastoral Leaders 2024, they will be looking at how pastoral leaders, DSLs, Inclusion leads in schools and across trusts deal with constantly changing priorities.

This event will support leaders to strengthen systems and processes and enable improvement, adopting a proactive rather than reactive response to competing educational demands.

It is a fantastic opportunity to focus on current whole school priorities of attendance, behaviour and inclusion and how they relate to rising SEND, mental health & wellbeing and disadvantage gaps.

This Conference will enable Pastoral Leaders to strengthen school provision and practice.

Meet the Speakers
Dr Kaitlyn Regehr, Associate Professor of Digital Humanities at UCL, who will be identifying the escalating challenges, despite an online safety act, of online misogyny and what schools can be doing to respond effectively.
Victoria Raynor, Safeguarding Consultant will be exploring the practical approaches that schools must adopt to safeguarding and strengthen wellbeing.
ASCL Specialist, Tom Middlehurst will review pastoral priorities for Ofsted inspections. There will also be contributions from Margaret Mulholland, SEND and Inclusion Specialist, Alessandro Capozzi, Executive Headteacher, Academy2, Marc Rowland, Pupil Premium and Vulnerable Learners Adviser, Unity Schools Partnership, Amelie Thompson, Assistant Director of Education: SEND, Greenshaw Learning Trust, Dr Caitlin Shaughnessy, Research associate, Nicola Shaughnessy, Professor of Performance at the University of Kent, Hamira Shah, Deputy Headteacher, North Huddersfield Trust School and Andy McGowan, Policy and Practice Manager, Carers Trust.

Panel experts will include Phil Jones NAPCE and ASCL Council leaders.

For more information and tickets follow this link: https://www.ascl.org.uk/Pastoral2024

LEAD ARTICLE: “Working Together with Children to Support their Pastoral Care by NAPCE’s Luke Ramsden

Working Together with Children to Support their Pastoral Care – by Luke Ramsden

Very often any writing about school pastoral care can focus on what teachers can do for children in a way which makes the child appear very much as a passive recipient of care – waiting to be rescued from whatever difficult situation they find themselves in.

Yet with pastoral concerns for young people remaining stubbornly high in a post-covid world, and with resources ever-more stretched in schools, the key to effective pastoral care in schools must lie in helping students to help themselves.

What then should pastoral leaders in schools be looking to do help build resilience and pastoral understanding in their students as we start this new calendar year?

1) Safeguarding and pastoral education

Knowing what happens when a safeguarding referral is made can empower children and, crucially, make them much more confident in making a disclosure to a member of staff.

Understanding the process demystifies what can often seem confusing and secretive. When children understand the steps that are taken, and the purpose behind interventions, it gives them a greater sense of control if they make a disclosure.

More specifically outlining which agencies are notified depending upon the concern raised, what information gets shared and what follow-up might occur all helps to minimize fears that children might naturally have.  Most importantly, explaining the referral process emphasises that the purpose is to protect children and not to punish or blame them.

Removing the stigma around making a referral and reassuring children that they can trust external agencies that might be working with them are vital to facilitate disclosures of safeguarding concerns.

In the same way it is also invaluable to explain a school’s own internal processes.

All too often when there is an issue in terms of behaviour or bullying it is not possible for teachers to explain in detail what has actually happened because of the need to respect the privacy of all the children involved.

Explaining why this information cannot be shared at least reassures children why this system is not as open as they might like. In addition, broader information about what is happening in the school can be explained to the children very helpfully.

So, for instance, a regular misconception of school children is that whenever bullying concerns are raised they will instantly be dealt with as a serious disciplinary incident and a school will give out disproportionate sanctions and make the situation worse.

Letting children know broadly the number of bullying incidents that are actually dealt with without resort to disciplinary proceedings will help reassure children that teachers will be thoughtful in their response to concerns.

2) Ensure that student’s PSHE education is relevant and supports them in facing real-life problems

As well as helping students feel more confident in disclosing their problems to school, it is important to give children the tools to be able to build their resilience to the pastoral challenges that they will inevitably face in their time at school (and beyond).

A particularly important skill that schools are more frequently including in their PSHE is teaching mental health literacy.

Strategies like active listening, reassurance, crisis di-escalation and guiding others to professional help, gives young people invaluable skills to help struggling friends or family, and themselves.

In particular it can give them the confidence to have tough conversations or to make interventions that could be so important in supporting others in the school community.

Likewise comprehensive, judgement-free relationship and sex education exploring healthy relationships, consent, LGBTQ+ identities, contraceptives and so on enables young people to make safe and informed choices about their sexual health.

Other PSHE topics like finance literacy, media literacy, drug and alcohol awareness and time management techniques also give young people strategies to support themselves, and each other, in their time at school.

Learning to self-regulate and manage the complex challenges that life can pose is invaluable for schools to be able to set alongside the direct help that they can provide to students.

3) Provide Student mentors

Another way in which schools can build resilience for the students is to have a mentoring system where older children offer mentoring support to those in younger year groups.

For the younger child, having an older role model gives them someone to look up to who is closer in age and more relatable than an adult authority figure.

The mentor can help a younger student navigate social situations, understand school rules and expectations better as well having someone to talk to if they have particular problems.

Knowing they have a mentor to turn to builds confidents in the younger child and helps them feel cared for an supported.

At the same time, serving as a mentor builds leadership abilities in the older pupil, and reinforces lessons on compassion and responsibility.

With training provided by the school on listening skills and when to report concerns that might be safeguarding issues, this experience of mentoring steers the older pupil towards modelling good behaviours for impressionable younger children.

In addition the very act of mentoring reinforces lessons for older students as they must explain rules, expectations and good habits to their mentees.

Of course over time a mentoring programme also develops the sense of a community among the students of the schools, with the younger children growing up with an expectation that they in turn will become mentors for the new generation of pupils.

4) Use technology thoughtfully to help support, and engage with young people

With AI and other forms of technology a source of excitement as much as anxiety for leaders in education, going into a new year there are many positive ways that technology can be used to support student mental health and pastoral care in schools.

There are a number of online reporting platforms that allow students to ‘check in’ with their teachers to report safeguarding, wellbeing or bullying concerns.

These can be invaluable for students who do not feel comfortable talking to a member of staff in person during the school day.

In addition there is often an opportunity to allow for anonymous reporting which can further encourage students to make a report of a concern if they would not be confident enough to do so if they could be identified.

A particular benefit using these sorts of platforms in conjunction with schools is that student use of these platforms across the school and over the course of time can be analysed and patterns and trends of wellbeing can be noted and reacted to by the school.

So, for instance, if a number of students are noting lack of sleep as a particular problem then school might run some extra PSHE sessions on this and talk to parents about looking to support their children in improving bedtime routines.

In terms of developing resilience there are also a growing number of mental health apps which can offer many different forms of support, from helping students to have relaxation times with deep breathing and relaxing music to giving them coping strategies for anxiety/depression to helping them access information and resources and also accessing support directly via these apps.

These apps can also help students to assess their own mental health, giving them the opportunity to think about their own ‘zones of regulation’ and prompt them to understand when it would be wise for them to seek external support.

One such app, Kooth, works with the NSH and is freely available to any school student in the UK.

These apps can be particularly vital as crisis response tools as they ensure that young people always have the correct emergency contact information for suicide/self-harm prevention hotlines as well as other emergency service information.

In all of these ways school leaders can look to ensure that young people are developing their own sense of resilience in a way that not only enhances their own sense of wellbeing but that will also help to reduce pressure on the increasingly stretched resources that schools have to support the wellbeing and pastoral support of their pupils.

Luke Ramsden
NEC Member
NAPCE

ARTICLE: NAPCE Chair Phil Jones  on “2023 – A Busy Year Supporting Pastoral Care”

A Busy Year in 2023 Supporting Pastoral Care – Christmas Message from NAPCE Chair Phil Jones

As we approach Christmas and a new year it is an opportunity to reflect on the activities of the Association in 2023.

NAPCE has continued to engage with professionals in education and to raise awareness about the important contribution pastoral care and support makes to children and young people’s learning experience.

NAPCE was once again a partner with the Association of School and College Leaders in the planning and delivery of the Conference for Pastoral Leaders in Manchester in January.

I was pleased to be invited as a speaker and to share ideas with other speakers and delegates about the challenges being faced by staff in pastoral roles in schools.

It was brilliant to have pastoral leaders in large numbers in the same room all with the same determination to provide the best possible learning experience for children and young people.

NAPCE once again supported the 2023 Safer Internet Day by contributing to planning meetings and I represented the Association at the online events on the day.

It was great to see past and present members of NAPCE at the Anniversary Dinner in March to celebrate the 40 years that NAPCE has been actively engaged in encouraging approaches to education that support the welfare, well -being, achievement and personal development of children and young people.

The NAPCE conference in March brought together professionals to share ideas about pastoral care and to listen to guest speakers that included an HMI and psychologist that stimulated discussions about current issues.

The online conference had the title ‘Pastoral Care that Makes a Difference’.

Delegates who attended came from across the United Kingdom and from overseas and listened to speakers sharing their expert knowledge about a wide range of educational issues.

It was brilliant to attend the symposium in Belfast organised by NAPCE  in June in partnership with Stranmillis University College and to meet so many educational professionals who, through their care and support for learners, wanted to make a difference in their achievement and future life chances.

The National Awards for Pastoral Care in Education 2023 were a huge success with a record number of nominations received.

The presentation event was a memorable evening where judges, sponsors, members and finalists gathered to recognise and celebrate the good practice highlighted.

In October it was a proud moment for the Association when the book ‘Pastoral Care in Education. New Directions for New Times’, edited by NAPCE members was published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

This book will be an important starting point for debate in the future about the importance of pastoral care in education for researchers, writers, policy makers and practitioners.

The National Executive Committee have continued to volunteer their time and expertise to share ideas and plans for the Association.

Other members of the Association have contributed their time and expertise to the Editorial Board to ensure that the international reputation of the journal ‘Pastoral Care in Education’ continues to grow.

With so much to be positive about it must also be recognised that there are growing concerns about education in the United Kingdom and in other countries in the world.

As a National Association it is important that we continue to contribute our experience and expertise to discussions about the future of education in the best interest of all children and young people.

The concerns include.

• Children and young people not attending school.
• Parents choosing alternatives to mainstream education for their children.
• Teacher shortages.
• The gap between disadvantaged learners and their peers.
• Severe funding pressures.
• Well-being and mental health.

The results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey were reported in the TES magazine on 6^th December.

This survey completed every three years and organised by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) compares student outcomes between high and middle-income countries.

The report showed that although international rankings have improved in Maths and reading since 2018, scores fell for the test taken in 2022 by 15-year-old students in the United Kingdom.

Concern for pastoral care in schools was that the UK was worse than average for well-being. A quarter of UK students (25 per cent) said that they were not satisfied with their lives compared with the OECD average of 18 per cent.

It was interesting that the survey found in the UK that there was more performance variation within schools than between them.

This raises questions about whether comparing the performance of schools is exploring the reasons why some learners perform better than others.

The Times newspaper reported in December that secondary school teaching recruits have hit a record shortfall.

Only half as many secondary school trainee teachers have been recruited as are needed in England this year.

The figures from the Department for Education showed that the figures for primary trainee teachers are better but there is still a shortage.

The problem is that producing the figures does not help schools or the learners in their care and what is needed is for somebody to ask why, and by understanding the causes find solutions that work.

At the same time the media was reporting on the Pisa survey, BBC news also reported that an Ofsted inspection was likely to have contributed to the death of a headteacher who took her own life after a negative inspection experience.

The Coroner commented after the hearing that the inspection “lacked fairness, respect and sensitivity” and was at times “rude and intimidating”.

Accountability is positive if it leads to improvements for the benefit of learners.

It can be argued that what is needed is what I would call ‘intelligent accountability’ which recognises strengths and weaknesses and provides the motivation and inspiration for developments in the future for the benefit of learners.

Clearly something is not right in education in the United Kingdom currently and in other countries in the world.

The situation cannot be blamed entirely on the pandemic, the wars in Ukraine and Palestine or the energy price crisis.

There is a need to reflect on whether the current approach of blaming individual schools for poor performance encourages improvements.

Is it time to consider whether it is the current system and in particular the values and beliefs in the system that are having a negative impact on the learning experience for children and young people.

Is it time for an educational system that values creativity and innovation and believes that this is more important than achieving conformity through fear and punitive approaches.

Effective pastoral care in schools provides the foundation for a learning experience that is focused on developing people as human beings.

A more humane approach to education which focuses on the needs of children and young people is more likely to be relevant to their current and future lives and inspire and motivate them to achieve their full potential.

Research is needed into the skills and attributes that learners need to achieve success in the modern world.

Practitioners need to be brave and challenge punitive approaches that have a negative impact on learners’ motivation at school.

Parents need to ensure that their children are not just numbers in a system, but are having their needs met in preparation for their future lives in modern society.

This raises many questions about what should be the values and beliefs of an educational system that is relevant to children and young people in the 21^st century.

Pastoral care has an important role in developing a culture in schools that supports learners in being able to thrive and succeed.

I hope you will contribute to this important educational debate as a member of NAPCE.

The new membership year starts in January and as an institution, school, or individual member of the Association you can support its work to provide future generations with a relevant learning experience.

Events planned for 2024 include an online event with speakers and invited experts in pastoral care discussing pastoral care issues and sharing ideas.

A conference will bring together people who share an interest in pastoral care in education to share good practice and discuss current challenges.

Later in the year we can once again look forward to the Presentation Event for the National Awards for Pastoral Care in Education 2024 to recognise and celebrate the difference that effective pastoral care makes in the learning experience and future lives of children and young people.

For more information about membership of NAPCE please go to www.napce.org.uk or email admin@napce.org.uk

Finally on behalf of NAPCE I would like to thank you for your interest and contribution to pastoral care in education and wish you a very enjoyable Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Phil Jones
National Chair
The National Association for Pastoral Care in Education

References
BBC News online, (2023). ‘Ruth Perrry. ‘Ofsted Inspection ‘contributed’ to head teacher’s death’, at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-67639942
Norden. Jasmine. (2023). ‘UK’s Pisa scores fall   in maths, science and reading. TES Magazine December 5^th 2023
Woolcock. Nicola, (2023) ‘Secondary school teaching recruits hit record shortfall’. Times newspaper December 8^th 2023.

AWARDS: Great Practice from the NAPCE Awards 2023 – Episode 2

The National Awards for Pastoral Care in Education 2023 – Sharing Good Practice 

The NAPCE Awards 2023 was an amazing success, bigger than ever with a record number of entries and a sold-out event.

Every year we share a huge number of great examples of excellent practice in pastoral care and we’re proud to share some of these with you in NAPCE News which may help guide and inspire your own work.

For this second episode we’re focussing on the category Outstanding Contribution to Pastoral Care.
Outstanding Contribution to Pastoral CareThis award is for A person, group or organisation that has made a real difference in pastoral care, for the benefit of young people.

In 2023 it was sponsored by Sponsored by Eileen Donnelly Educational Development Limited.

Based in Northern Ireland Eileen Donnelly educational development limited Supports Teachers’ and students’ personal, social, and emotional development to help them achieve success. It provides programmes on health and wellbeing, self – care strategies and personal effectiveness.

The winner for 2023, announced at the grand presentation event in Worcester, in September was Mohammed Adam from Manchester Academy, which you may find useful.

Here are some of the comments that were made about the 2023 winner of this award in the nomination.

Mohammed Adam is Manchester Academy’s School Family Liaison Officer and provides a direct link between Parents/Carers whose first language is not English. He speaks fluent Somali and Arabic and is available in school daily to bridge that gap in communication. There are more than 80% EAL students in school at Manchester Academy, and approximately seventy languages are spoken. He has also helped out on numerous occasions with translating documents for our website, so they are more accessible to our Parents/Carers, including assisting with translations for our latest prospectus. During the period of the two national lockdowns, Mohammed Adam’s work across our local community was of huge importance in terms of supporting families with food parcels, contact with other agencies and supporting the wider Safeguarding effort to ensure that students working remotely were engaging and remaining safe online.

Last year, Mohammed spent some time in Somalia visiting family. During this visit to Somalia, Mohammed has helped to establish a school in his ancestral village which caters for approximately 150 pupils per day. These youngsters had previously gathered under the shade of trees to access learning opportunities, but now, thanks to Mohammed and others he has worked with to secure the success of this project, students now have a building to attend every day. 

Here are some of the comments made in the nominations for the other finalists in this category.

Lads Like Us

Lads Like Us are inspirational because they talk from personal experience.
Their message is challenging because it highlights how they as young men had been let down by the system. They raise awareness about the important role that pastoral care has in schools to support the personal development of young people and to keep them safe.

They communicate a powerful message for professionals working in schools, that ‘nobody asked why’. This is not meant as a criticism of hard-working staff but of a system that sees negative behaviour as a problem and not as a symptom of the life experiences of a young person. They use the concept of ‘professional curiosity’ which is helpful for understanding how staff is schools can support young people. It challenges the view that some staff may have that they are not ‘social workers’ but encourages the view that what is needed, are pastoral systems that take an interest in the young people in the care of schools. By raising awareness of the reality of the daily lives of young people, Lads Like Us are making a difference in improving the life chances of young people. 

Sacred Heart PS, Derry

Sacred Heart PS is a large Primary School in the Waterside area of Derry City. Over 35% of pupils are in receipt of free school meals and the area is classed as one with high levels of social deprivation.  In recent times, and especially following on from the COVID-19 pandemic, the school identified a need for the pastoral care team to focus on day-to-day neglect issues that teachers and families were facing. These issues did not necessarily meet the threshold for ‘Child Protection,’ but they were enough to concern teachers and our wider school community. Issues that teachers were facing regularly included children coming to school having had no breakfast, children coming to school not adequately prepared for the school day with no homework completed and no snack for breaktime, children whose uniforms needed washed, children whose personal hygiene was being neglected etc.

Initiatives to date include:  

• Toast Time: whereby every child in the school receives free breakfast three times per week. Funding was provided by local businesses.
• A winter clothing drive in November 2022. Parents and friends of the school donated winter coats, hats, scarves, gloves that they no longer used, and the school used these items to create the school’s very first free pop-up shop. 
• A well-being day for all children in the school in February 2023. This day consisted of yoga, mindfulness, Zumba, sporting activities, gymnastics. The feedback from pupils was extremely positive. – 
• Extra break items to give to children daily. – We attracted the attention of ‘The Irish Times’ when the Pastoral Care Team set up a 
• ‘First Holy Communion’ Pop up shop. Similar to the winter clothing drive, the idea was that parents donated used First Holy Communion dresses/suits, in order to help those who may not have been able to afford the extra expense, especially during a cost-of-living crisis.

Heather Tuffs, Nidderdale High School

Heather has introduced a local Community Project to Nidderdale High School that gives students in all year groups the opportunity to go out of school and volunteer in the community of Pateley Bridge and the surrounding villages. Students can work 1:1 with Heather or in small groups. Students are invited to participate in the project through the Pastoral Team. Referrals are made to Heather by considering many different aspects of a young person’s school and personal life. The aim of the community project is to give young people the opportunity to experience a sense of self-worth and recognition and to give them time away from school in a completely different environment where they can develop new skills and gain confidence. For some young people who have lost their identity and are questioning the purpose of their lives, this project has been lifesaving and life affirming.

The Community Project gives students opportunities to volunteer with local businesses and also to support elderly and vulnerable people through a wide range of activities. These include the delivery of prescriptions from the local pharmacy and grocery deliveries from a local store. Through the voluntary work, the young people get to know the residents, and this has enabled students to develop further volunteering opportunities. Some students have been able to offer to take residents who are housebound out of their homes for short walks. The Community Project can give a young person a different focus and help them to see that they can make a huge difference in the life of another person. For students, the Community Project is a way to gain experience in teamwork and communication. It may be that there have been difficulties between students socially or through social media and the project offers students time away from school to address any issues that are preventing them from working or socialising well.

B6        Girls on Board

Girls on Board originated at Thorpe Hall School in 2017 and is an approach which helps girls, their parents, and their teachers to understand the complexities and dynamics of girl friendships. The language, methods and ideas empower girls to solve their own friendship problems and recognises that they are usually the only ones who can. By empowering girls to find their own solutions, parents need worry less, schools can focus more on the curriculum and the girls learn more effectively – because they are happier. Girls on Board is delivered through empathy-evoking sessions which, first and foremost, acknowledge that the quest for trusting and reliable friendships is of paramount importance to girls in school. It also acknowledges that often, when teachers get involved in friendship turbulence, it can make it worse, not better for the girls. At least, that is what the girls have told us time and time again!

Congratulations for everybody nominated for Pastoral Member of year in 2023. The nominations for the 2024 National Awards for Pastoral Care in Education are now open. All the details are available on the NAPCE website www.napce.org.uk. Follow the link to make a nomination to recognise and value contributions to good practice in pastoral care in education.

Making a nomination for the National Awards for Pastoral Care in Education 2024 organised by NAPCE.

It is easy to make a nomination for the Awards to recognise good practice in the eight categories and it only takes a few minutes.
Here is some guidance on how to make your nomination.

• Go to www.napce.org.uk and click on the link for the awards.
• This takes you to the page where you can make your nomination.
• Read the information about the criteria for each category.
• Provide your contact details as the nominee and the name of the person or organisation you are nominating with their email contact details on the form provided.
• Click on the button to select the appropriate category for your nomination.
• In the box provided provide information and any evidence to support you nomination.

You can make a nomination for another person or organisation, or self-nominations are also welcome.

You have 750 word available to describe the reasons for your nomination to the judges.

You do not have to use all 750 words and the best nominations are concise and clear.

Explain what makes your nomination an example of good practice.

Describe how it makes a difference in the learning experience of children and young people.

Give examples of actions that have been taken and outcomes that have been achieved.

Explain why you are proud of this nomination.

Make your nomination now to recognise good practice and achievements in pastoral care in education.

AWARDS: Meet the NAPCE Awards 2024 Judges 

NAPCE Awards 2024 – Meet the Judges

It happens on ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ so why should pastoral care be any different.

It is time to meet the judges for the 2024 National Awards for Pastoral Care in Education.

When the nominations close on 19^th April 2024 the judges will be sent all the nominations, and they will mark them independently.

The scores will then be collated, and the finalists will be announced later in the year ahead of a glitzy presentation ceremony in the autumn.

Jill Robson

National Secretary for the National Association for Pastoral Care in Education. Retired Secondary School Headteacher.

Professor Noel Purdy

Director of Research and Scholarship, Director of Centre for Research in Educational Underachievement at Stranmillis University College, Belfast.

Margaret Mulholland

ASCL specialist in special educational needs and inclusion for the Association of School and College Leaders.

Dr Julianne Brown

NAPCE National Executive member. Worked in International Schools in Switzerland as the Well-being and pastoral care co-ordinator.

Professor Anne Emerson

Associate Professor, University of Nottingham. researching in the areas of special educational needs, disabilities, and inclusion.

Dr Caron Carter

Senior Lecturer in Childhood & Early Childhood Education & Postgraduate Research Tutor in Education at Sheffield Hallam University.

EVENT: NAPCE Chair Phil Jones to Speak at ASCL Conference for Pastoral Leaders 2024

We are delighted to be partnering with ASCL again for the ASCL Conference for Pastoral Leaders 2024.

NAPCE Chair Phil Jones is amongst the panel of expert speakers joining the event at The Birmingham Conference and Events Centre (BCEC) on 29th January, 2024.

The theme for. the new year conference us “Taking a proactive approach to pastoral leadership”

At the ASCL Conference for Pastoral Leaders 2024, they will be looking at how pastoral leaders, DSLs, Inclusion leads in schools and across trusts deal with constantly changing priorities.

This event will support leaders to strengthen systems and processes and enable improvement, adopting a proactive rather than reactive response to competing educational demands.

It is a fantastic opportunity to focus on current whole school priorities of attendance, behaviour and inclusion and how they relate to rising SEND, mental health & wellbeing and disadvantage gaps.

This Conference will enable Pastoral Leaders to strengthen school provision and practice.

Meet the Speakers
Dr Kaitlyn Regehr, Associate Professor of Digital Humanities at UCL, who will be identifying the escalating challenges, despite an online safety act, of online misogyny and what schools can be doing to respond effectively.
Victoria Raynor, Safeguarding Consultant will be exploring the practical approaches that schools must adopt to safeguarding and strengthen wellbeing.
ASCL Specialist, Tom Middlehurst will review pastoral priorities for Ofsted inspections.
Panel experts will include Phil Jones NAPCE and ASCL Council leaders.

For more information and tickets follow this link: https://www.ascl.org.uk/professional-development/Events/Conference-for-Pastoral-Leaders-2024