PASTORAL CARE

At King Edward VI Handsworth School for Girls, we are proud of our commitment to Pastoral Care. We have a safe, happy and supportive community in which students thrive. Pastoral Care is underpinned by good relationships between staff, parents/carers and students. Every adult here cares about the students in their care. No worry is too small to be ignored or too big to deal with.

We have a strong pastoral system which consists of Pastoral Administrators, Form Tutors, Heads of Years, a Key Stage Pastoral Leader for each of the three key stages, and a School Social Worker.

Our School Social Worker works with our Pastoral Teams to identify students whose attendance is impacted by factors outside school. They also meet regularly with parents and carers to identify areas of risk and can conduct home visits to students who are absent from school. Our School Social Worker will also work with parents/carers on non-school based issues such as housing, benefits and access to services using Early Help processes, The Family Plan or Graded Care Profile 2.

From Year 8-13, the Heads of Years and Form Tutors move up with their year group. By moving up with their students, we believe that they can form excellent and lasting relationships with both parents/carers and students during their years at school. For Year 7, we have a dedicated and permanent Head of Year and transition team of Form Tutors. All Heads of Years care for the students’ welfare, offer advice and guidance, and monitor their academic progress and achievements both in and out of school.

As well as the Form Tutors, Heads of Years, and the Pastoral Team, we also have a number of other people who support students in school, including our SENDCo, Learning Support Assistants, and the Attendance Officer. These adults work hard to build students’ self-esteem, resilience and independence, to not only support them in school but also prepare them for later life.

We have students who are trained as Young Wellbeing Leads who offer support to students in all year groups whether by delivering workshops or holding 1:1 mentoring sessions. We also have staff Wellbeing Leads who are available to staff and students should they need further mental health and wellbeing support. All Wellbeing Leads are identifiable by their purple lanyards.

Who to contact?

If you have a pastoral concern, your child’s Form Tutor is the first port of call. You can do this via their planner or email (see below). If the Form Tutor cannot successfully deal with the concern, or the matter is more serious, then the next link in the chain is the Head of Year. The Head of Year liaises with the Designated Safeguarding Lead if there is a safeguarding concern. Please follow the escalation process appropriately.

In any email communication, please state your child’s full name, form, who you are in relation to the student and indicate what the issue is, to aid the staff member who will respond to you. Please be mindful that staff can be teaching all day, running clubs at lunchtime or be in meetings, so an instant response is not always possible.

If you need to speak to someone, please contact the school and ask to speak to someone in either the KS3/4 Pastoral Office or KS5 Pastoral Office. They will take a message and pass the query on to the relevant person who will aim to get back to you within 48 hours.

Contact details for Form Tutors:

Contact details for Heads of Years:

Contact details for the Pastoral Office Team:

Safeguarding personnel in an emergency = 0121 554 2342

Student support = 0121 554 2342