Pastoral care in the curriculum
How schools can provide additional emotional and pastoral support for pupils when they return to school following the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
Applies to England
Schools are aware that some pupils will require additional emotional and pastoral support when they return to school, so making time for pastoral care is a priority.
The Deputy Headteacher of a secondary school, is preparing for this and shared its plans: “We are seeking to bring humanity and a common-sense approach to pupils’ return to school,” he explained. “Good pastoral support requires strong information sharing between staff about pupils. Our staff are having specific discussions during subject team meetings where they share information about pupils whom we know will be moving between teachers when they return to school. This approach will allow us to have a rich and shared understanding of pupils’ pastoral needs.”
“We have schools taking different approaches within our trust: some are treating pastoral support as separate to academic support, and some are combining their academic and pastoral planning,” he continued. “Meeting the emotional needs of our pupils is very important,” he continued. “But whatever approach is taken, it must not become a barrier to continuing to provide a high-quality education.”
Sam Strickland, Principal of the Duston School, explained they have plans for the 3 days a week that year 10s are on site: “We have offered afternoon one-to-one meetings with members of staff with whom the pupils are most familiar. This will give them space, if they need it, to discuss their worries and concerns with a trusted adult.”
Kirsten Mould, SENCo at Mary Webb School and Science College, explained: “We are looking at our universal offer and how to support both staff and pupils – for those who have been in school all the way through and those involved in the phased return – whilst keeping parental engagement and communications positive. New behaviour expectations are being shared with staff. Time will be allocated for these to be defined, explained, modelled and practised as the young people return, working for consistency across the school and praising where we see positive choices. We will allocate teaching time to support pupils with reviewing their own progress building their new routines, including goal setting dependent on their remote learning experiences and self-regulation in managing their time, organisation and positive self-talk.”
Supporting pupils with additional needs
Many schools are concerned about the impact the outbreak will have had on their pupils with additional needs and are planning for enhanced support for those pupils.
As cohorts of pupils begin to return to school, some pupils in those cohorts will still not be able to attend (because they or their families are shielding, for instance).
Loraine Lynch-Kelly, Vice Principal at Saint Martin’s Catholic Academy, explains their approach to supporting these pupils, which includes making video recordings of lessons taught on site and offering them online so that they can still access the lesson. Whenever possible, this teaching will include opportunities to interact with the pupils.
“We will also schedule regular live, online tutorials for discussion and to resolve any questions or issues,” Loraine explained. This contact will enable:
- dialogue
- diagnostic questioning
- modelling
- the tackling of misconceptions
- checks for understanding
- the reading non-verbal cues
“Support for these pupils will need to be bespoke, so we are also planning for short, one-to-one meetings with staff for our pupils with additional needs,” Loraine said. “This will allow trusted school staff to explain the new timetable and routines before pupils step into the building. This will help us manage any anxiety (including that of parents) and answer their questions. We will then monitor and adapt the support in response to what teachers observe.”
Kirsten Mould, SENCo at Mary Webb School and Science College, said: “Our school has had a team of staff supporting our students with SEND and the most disadvantaged and vulnerable to create new daily routines to include goal setting. They have been a single point of contact for work queries and have maintained a focus on reading, offering one-to-one reading support online where appropriate and possible. These link members of staff will continue to build positive relationships and support these students whether remote learning or as they return to school, including positive learning conversations with parents.
“We are focused on our high-quality teaching for students with SEND – planning in opportunities for pre-teaching, recapping previous learning, supported reading, scaffolding and chunking instructions. We have found that some scaffolds that have previously been withdrawn due to the child becoming more confident have needed to be re-introduced in this context.”