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 pupils thrive. Pastoral Care is underpinned by good relationships between staff, parents and pupils. Every adult here cares about the pupils 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: a Pastoral Administrator; Form Tutors; a teaching Pastoral Leader for each year group; two non-teaching Pastoral Leaders for Years 7-11 and one for Years 12-13. The teaching Pastoral Leader moves up with their year group from Year 8-13, whilst we have a dedicated and permanent Year 7 transition team of form tutors and Pastoral Leader. By having form tutors and Pastoral Leaders move up with students from Year 8-13 we believe that they can form excellent and lasting relationships with both parents and pupils during their years at school. All Pastoral Leaders care for the pupils’ welfare and offer advice and guidance, as well as monitor their academic progress and achievements both in and out of school.

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

Being part of the Newstart, Birmingham Education Partnership resilience programme, we have students who are trained as Young Wellbeing Leads and they also offer support to students in all year groups whether by delivering workshops on self-esteem or organisation or holding 1:1 mentoring sessions.

Positive Mental Health and Wellbeing Policy

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 Pastoral Leader. The Pastoral Leader 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 pupil 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 school and ask to speak to someone in either the KS3/4 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 24 hours.

Contact details for the Pastoral Team are:

Safeguarding personnel in an emergency 0121 554 2342

Miss J Glendenning, Designated Safeguarding Lead and Director of Pastoral Care Years 7-11

Miss C Berry, Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead and Deputy Headteacher

Mr N Heppel, Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead and Director of Post-16

Miss C Toy, Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead and Family Liaison Officer

Mrs A Whittall, Headmistress

Student support 0121 554 2342

Ms Nichola Davies, SENCO

Mrs M Naz, Attendance and Welfare Officer – 0121 507 8483