AWARDS: Great Practice from the NAPCE Awards 2023 – Episode 5
The National Awards for Pastoral Care in Education 2023 – Sharing Good Practice – Episode 5
The NAPCE Awards 2023 was an amazing success, bigger than ever with a record number of entries and a sold-out event.
Every year we share a huge number of great examples of excellent practice in pastoral care and we’re proud to share some of these with you in NAPCE News which may help guide and inspire your own work.
For this fifth episode we’re focussing on the category Pastoral Team of the Year.
Pastoral Team of the YearThis award is for:
A team that works in pastoral care and can demonstrate a determination to support young people to achieve their full potential and a positive impact on the young people they work with.
In 2023 it was sponsored by Connect to Purpose.
Connect to Purpose is a charity on a mission to provide retreats for rest and renewal to support young people who are struggling, working holistically with them and their families.
More information can be found on the charity’s website at https://www.connecttopurpose.co.uk
The winner for 2023, announced at the grand presentation event in Worcester, in September was The Pastoral Team at Stockport Academy.
Here are some of the comments that were made about the 2023 winner of this award in the nomination.
Pastoral Team, Stockport Academy
The pastoral team at Stockport Academy includes 5 heads of year, 5 pastoral managers, a positive behaviour mentor, full time counsellor, EHA coordinator, MUF behaviour mentor, home liaison officer, attendance support team, young carers lead, mental health lead, safeguarding lead/ team. The school has invested heavily in response to student need, and to ensure that the Academy remains proactive rather than reactive for students and families. The team works with over 1000 students many of whom are vulnerable.
Each member of the team always put students first working collectively to ensure that not only students, but families also thrive. The team fully believe that they nurture community that is within and outside school contributing to positive family lives and the happiness and success of all as a result – the impact of their contribution is immeasurable. Students are unanimous that they feel happy and safe in school; they have access to support and have a number of trusted adults around them.
The attendance team work tirelessly ensuring that students attend school to develop social interactions, knowledge, and aspirations for the future. Attendance is above national average post pandemic due to a range of interventions. The team are rewards driven, celebrating, and recognising engagement with school with trips to the cinema, pizza lunches, vouchers or family takeaways providing positive experiences for all and engaging families in this priority. The safeguarding team are relentless in supporting the most vulnerable students. The safeguarding team has been celebrated as exceptional practice with their proactive approach supporting early help and teaching safeguarding, in addition to responding to crisis. The team, work with all staff in addition to agencies to provide classes for parents regarding issues arising such as self-harm or anxiety.
Heads of Year/Pastoral managers work to meet every possible need for students that may be a barrier to their ultimate success resolving issues as soon as possible and celebrating student effort and achievement alongside values and qualities demonstrated by students such as kindness and teamwork. Heads of year nurture a sense of community and care of others, working to engage parents on a daily basis in ensuring that students meet high expectations to underpin their aspirations and ambitions for themselves. The pastoral team together, ensure that all students are supported in developing firm foundations to have happy and successful lives and be successful at school.
Here are some of the comments made in the nominations for the other finalists in this category.
Pastoral Team at Shireland Collegiate Academy
Shireland Collegiate Academy is a large, inner city secondary school in Smethwick, Sandwell in the West Midlands. Shireland sits at the heart of a diverse community. This diversity in both ethnicity, culture and religion is a core strength of the school that helps to guide our principle of promoting cohesion amongst the student body. This is enabled in a large part, by the outstanding pastoral team, and the school is very proud of the level of pastoral care that they give to the students. At Shireland Collegiate Academy, they promote to staff that we are all pastoral leaders. This is led by an exemplar pastoral team, who guide and support tutors, students, and their families. The aim is to have a school where students are happy and achieve well above their potential and is somewhere that they feel valued and important. Students are encouraged to be ambitious for themselves and others and feel that they can achieve their dreams.
The school has a dedicated mental health webpage, where students are invited to self-reflect on how they are feeling at the end of each week by selecting an emoji of how they are feeling alongside a comment which they will know their form tutors will read. Tutors and Heads of Year analyse the results which can facilitate conversations with students who have raised a concern. This ensures that our pastoral team work closely with the student and family to address the concerns or barriers they may feel which could impact on their mental wellbeing and academic success. Heads of Year and Senior Teacher meet on a fortnightly basis with student support agencies within school to discuss interventions and strategies to help support students and their families.
The school has developed a bespoke rewards system for our academy called EPraise. The school has a Student Council made up of form representatives, year representatives and our Head/Deputy senior students. This forum allows all students to voice their suggestions and opinions on how we continue to keep the learning environment a fun and safe space.
The school organised its first ‘Student Council Culture Day’ in November and included cultural dress, foods from around the World, cultural icons and music, poetry and literature and the day finished with a fabulous fashion show.
SENDi Team Tudor Grange Academy Worcester
The SENDi team (Special Education Needs and Disabilities and Inclusion) have worked tirelessly in the last two years, creating a support network for the school to ensure they are meeting the needs of as many pupils as possible. The team have successfully completed funding bids in their own time to go towards the pastoral support we can offer. This includes successfully taking part in a local founding forum ‘Dragons Den’, where they applied and pitched to secure funding for a school sensory room. The school sensory room is a low sensory space with sensory equipment, available for staff to use for pupil interventions as well as a regulation space for pupils if they so need it.
The pastoral team secured additional funding for a ‘Zen Den’. They sourced local funding, creating a funding bid, to create a calming garden space which they have named the ‘Zen Den’ for all pupils to use. The pastoral team have provided support for all pupil premium pupils. Any pupil who has experience trauma has specialist trauma intervention. In the last two years, the pastoral team have created bespoke pathways to help cater for most pastoral concerns:
- My mind matters,
- Me myself and I,
- Expect Respect,
- Trauma,
- Worries and Wellbeing.
Every pupil up to year 10 has had access and intervention for mental health support. In year 11 we offer anxiety and stress workshops to help aide them during exams. A new area we have developed is ‘Response’. Each day a member of staff is timetabled to ‘Respond’ to any needs of the pupils during each and every period. This means they have support to re-regulate, discuss thoughts and feelings, and hopefully feel able to reengage in lessons. They have arranged parent drop ins to support parents and also provide them with the skills to support their child. Any child with SEMH or a diagnosed need has also been given a profile. This profile lists their needs and what works for them. Any member of staff can access this to better understand the pupils which increases the pupils confidence in the staff.
Institute of Policing’s Work Based Education Officers team
They currently have 18 dedicated Work Based Education Officers (WBEOs) in Staffordshire University’s Institute of Policing, all of whom go above and beyond the traditional assessor duties expected from a WBEO in similar roles. The WBEOs have developed their roles to deliver critical pastoral care and wellbeing support to over 1900 police apprentices currently studying with the university. The first cohort of Police apprenticeships only started four years ago when Staffordshire University partnered with Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Mercia, and West Midlands Police in 2019. Since then, their WBEO team has grown with our student officer population.
The WBEOs have adapted to the emerging complex needs and emotional experiences of apprentices who work shifts as operational police officers across the partnered forces while spending 20% off the job with their learning and studying for an accredited qualification. The Institute of Policing’s WBEOs support student officers by monitoring and assessing the students’ progress, signposting them towards key University support services (including additional learning needs, financial support, equality, and diversity services), and even visit students in employment to provide comprehensive support in their work-based education and/or apprenticeship development. The WBEOs form a crucial connection between the Institute of Policing and partner police forces.
The team members have developed strong relationships with the student officer with each WBEO knowing their student officers by name. They show great determination to help, support and guide the student officers from always being willing to listen to their concerns and provide encouragement or guidance, to using their skills and experience to identify the specific needs of individual students to ensure each officer reaches their potential and successfully passes onto the next stage of their training. The WBEOs have a significant positive impact on the students they work with. Their approach to pastoral care has helped to create a positive and supportive culture throughout the Institute of Policing, which has led to a plan of support which can meet the wide range of needs student officers may have while on the programme.
Developing the WBEO pastoral care provision was evidence-based. they worked with police and student course representatives to identify issues and create a multi-agency plan of support that can be adapted and changed to meet the diverse needs of every student officer on programme. Training to become a police officer has many challenges. It’s a physical role which requires a good level of fitness, it can be emotionally demanding, and the public view of policing can make it a challenge for any junior police officer starting in the force. Add to this the extra studying which student officers have to undertake and it can be a difficult time for many student officers. The support from the WBEO team is pivotal in helping the cohorts of student officers to reach their potential, complete their training and successfully graduate to become full time police officers.
Team of Student Managers, Preston College
Preston college has a team of student managers who offer a holistic approach to pastoral care to support enjoyment, achievement, and progression. On a weekly basis, they encourage positive attendance and behaviour and also share a suite of tutorial subjects which enhance the overall college curriculum. They operate an ’open door ‘policy which enables students to drop in and share any issues or concerns and also to celebrate their successes. Student Managers build fantastic relationships with parents and carers too, establishing mutually beneficial connections to support a student on their learning journey. Parents are invited into college to meet with the student managers and also have a regular phone line to them should they need support, or queries answered. In addition, the team host welcome events and parents’ evenings to further enhance the college /parent relationship.
The suite of tutorial topics is fast paced and relevant to the cohort of 16–19-year-old learners. The material is regularly updated and adapted to suit the range of levels of learner and any higher needs within the groups. The tutorial time is a special time for students. As well as imparting knowledge on current affairs and topical themes it is also a time to explore new ideas and discuss progression. The pastoral team create and support themed weeks throughout the year including a Health and Wellbeing week. This is an opportunity to bring in a range of external providers and activities and really offer some alternative sessions to the students.
When a student’s world appears to be falling apart, their student manager can often be the key to finding a solution. The team regularly upskill in how to deal with more difficult situations through CPD in suicide prevention, sexual health, eating disorders and many more. Working closely with the College safeguarding and counselling team, they are able to support the student to a successful outcome. The team is made up of individuals who will not leave any stone unturned in the quest to support the student and place them back on track. The team have upskilled in mental health awareness and offer creative solutions to timetables and to ways of working to smooth the process and continue with academic progress. When it comes to time for students to move on, the team play a key role in encouraging and supporting the chosen student path. This may be through arranging external and internal speakers, supporting apprenticeship applications, arranging careers team appointments, or checking CVs. They also play a pivotal role in checking UCAS applications, making suggestions and also attaching references. The role becomes key to raising aspirations and supporting progression into their desired future, beyond college.
Congratulations to everybody nominated for Pastoral Team of the Year Award in 2023. The nominations for the 2024 National Awards for Pastoral Care in Education are now open. All the details are available on the NAPCE website www.napce.org.uk. Follow the link to make a nomination to recognise and value contributions to good practice in pastoral care in education.
Making a nomination for the National Awards for Pastoral Care in Education 2024 organised by NAPCE.
It is easy to make a nomination for the Awards to recognise good practice in the eight categories and it only takes a few minutes.
Entry closes April 19th, 2024.
Here is some guidance on how to make your nomination.
- Visit our nomination page here https://napceawards.wufoo.com/forms/napce-awards-2024-entry-form/
- Or go to www.napce.org.uk and click on the link for the awards.
- This takes you to the page where you can make your nomination.
- Read the information about the criteria for each category.
- Provide your contact details as the nominee and the name of the person or organisation you are nominating with their email contact details on the form provided.
- Click on the button to select the appropriate category for your nomination.
- In the box provided provide information and any evidence to support you nomination.
You can make a nomination for another person or organisation, or self-nominations are also welcome.
You have 750 word available to describe the reasons for your nomination to the judges.
You do not have to use all 750 words and the best nominations are concise and clear.
Explain what makes your nomination an example of good practice.
Describe how it makes a difference in the learning experience of children and young people.
Give examples of actions that have been taken and outcomes that have been achieved.
Explain why you are proud of this nomination.
Make your nomination now to recognise good practice and achievements in pastoral care in education. |