Pastoral Care

Pastoral Care is at the centre of our school ethos. It gives us great pride to nurture and support our students, to ensure their personal, emotional and intellectual development and well-being.

The Head of Pastoral Care is Mrs Bridin Loughran. Each Key Stage is led by a Head of School and each Year Group is led by a Head of Year while each Form Class is supported by a Form Teacher. We recognise the importance of peer support and so the Year 14 Senior Leadership Team and the Year 12 Mentoring Team are available to offer advice and support for any student in need.

Our role is to create a school community where each individual is nurtured and cared for, where the student voice is valued, where parents are embraced as partners and where the academic, emotional, cultural and social well-being of our youth is of paramount concern. Our aim is to care for the whole child. We are not just focused on academic outcomes, but on ensuring that our students are happy, celebrated, encouraged and inspired. Our Mentoring Programme encourages students to develop an understanding and awareness of wellbeing, Ensuring a smooth transition into the school and between key stages for students, Promoting emotional intelligence, resilience, and self-awareness. We recognise that students have a right to feel safe and secure; therefore Child Protection is at the heart of our work.

As a school we work as a team and with relevant external agencies in helping pupils cope with the challenges of everyday living and helping them in their development toward adulthood.

Personal Development is a statutory requirement within the NI Curriculum. Personal Development is a process that involves the entire world of the young person.

Within Pastoral Care we have a nurture programme for identified students rangeing from KS3 to KS5 who require support to remove barriers to learning and build upon their self esteem and self confidence alongside high expectations and a focus on achievement and attainment.

PD is taught on a weekly basis by the Form Teacher- one 40-minute lesson per week. PD is also covered by the Head of Year on a weekly basis via a weekly Assembly.  Each year group has a specific scheme of work to follow

Personal Development is based on the following key concepts at Key Stage 3: Self-awareness which provides opportunities to consider the importance of self-confidence and self-esteem to personal health–  physical and emotional/mental health; opportunities to understand the importance of forming and maintaining relationships to physical and emotional/mental health;  and pupils have the opportunity to explore the qualities of relationships including friendships, and loving, respectful relationships as well as challenging relationships and conflict situations and explore the implications of sexual maturation and early sexual activity

At Key Stage 4 & 5, Personal Development is based around the same key concepts as KS3 and builds upon helping students: develop an understanding of how to maximise and sustain their own health and wellbeing; reflect on, and respond to, their developing concept of self, including managing emotions and reactions to on-going life experiences; recognise, assess and manage risk in a range of real-life contexts; develop their understanding of relationships and sexuality and the responsibilities of healthy relationships; develop an understanding of the roles and responsibilities of parenting; develop further their competence as discerning consumers in preparation for independent living.

We also use our PD time and subject specific units to cover the themes connected to RSE such as: Consent, Contraception, Domestic Violence, Healthy Relationships, Internet Safety & the use of Social Media, LGBTQI issues, Menstrual Wellbeing as well as teen parenting.