Pastoral System
Katherine Warington School is proud to have an extensive team of experienced professionals working together to support your child. We strive to ensure that all students feel part of a caring and supportive community.
The Pastoral Team:
All staff have pastoral responsibilities, and tutor teams work closely with senior leadership and support specialists to provide a continual and proactive pastoral care system that values every child and builds strong supportive links with families.
Our decision to have both teaching Heads of Year and Non-Teaching Heads of Key Stage has helped us to build capacity within this team to support all students as individuals.
Support for your Child:
Your child’s Form Tutor is the first point of contact for you and your child. Have they forgotten important equipment? Are they having difficulties with friends? Did you have some questions about an upcoming event? All communication should go through the form tutor.
Form time with their tutor takes place Monday to Thursday and so your child will see them (almost) on a daily basis. During form time students complete aspects of our pastoral curriculum, listen out for important notices from the bulletin, attend assemblies (and even have opportunities to plan and deliver their own assemblies) and have time to develop relationships with their tutor and their form group.
If necessary, your child’s Form Tutor may seek advice from the Head of Year to ensure your child is receiving appropriate support.
Assemblies:
Your child will attend a year group assembly once a week. Please see their assembly schedule for the 22/23 academic year here. We feel it is important to share this with parents so that you can reinforce key messages shared with students at school.
On a Friday afternoon students attend a whole school assembly. This is an opportunity for staff to celebrate student achievements and for us to take time together as a community. We connect, reflect and celebrate – for many it is the best part of the week!
Academic Performance:
The Pastoral Team are focused on educating the whole child. Therefore, both the Head of Key Stage and the Head of Year will take responsibility for monitoring behaviour, effort and the academic progress of the students in their year group. However, largely, any issues relating to your child’s progress will be managed by their subject teachers and in some cases curriculum leaders.
Parents’ Evenings are an opportunity for parents and teachers to discuss their child’s academic progress. It is important that parents attend these events as research shows the more engaged parents are in their education, the more likely it is that they will find success. We expect parents to attend these evenings and we do follow up when families do not provide an adequate reason for absence.
Additional Support Available:
Part of a strong pastoral team is the understanding that not everyone’s journey at school is easy. Every child may face challenges in their personal lives that impact their wellbeing and their education. We have built a system that aims to support all students. Our Achievement Mentors will work with a small group of students to help improve their experience of school and to help them to succeed. Meet the team below:
In addition, we work with a number of external services to ensure students get the right support. This includes Services for Young People, The Ollie Foundation, STEP, Families First, Children’s Wellbeing Practitioner Service and Butterfly Rooms, along with many more.
We also have a strong team to support students with their mental health. To find out more about this, please visit the Mental Health & Wellbeing Page of our website.
Student quotes
“As a student at Katherine Warington School I feel safe and secure, this is due to the amazing pastoral system we have. Being a year 10 student has definitely put the pressure on but the pastoral team has helped me every step of the way to make me feel confident and happy with myself. The pastoral team are so kind and caring. I’m so happy that they are here to help me and I feel lucky that KWS has such an amazing team of people to help whenever there is a problem or something is bothering me.”
“As a student at KWS, I feel that pastoral care has always been really accessible to me whenever I have needed it. Everyone within the pastoral team is aware of how to help me as an individual and they approach any issues that I have had in the right way.”