Pastoral Care

Our pastoral care provision tries to enable every pupil to benefit fully from the curriculum and all the other aspects of school life. Each child is unique, with different levels of ability and skill and a different personal psychology (including for example, motivation, self-esteem, confidence and cultural perspective). Also each day our pupils do not arrive as ‘blank sheets’ but rather they bring with them different hopes, fears and emotions which affect greatly their experience of school and the likelihood of their succeeding in the various aspects of the curriculum..

Each pupil is assigned to a tutor group under the care of a form tutor whose role it is to know each pupil on a personal level, developing a relationship of mutual trust and respect. It is their responsibility to monitor and guide the development of each individual pupil ensuring that opportunities are provided for all to experience success. Tutors are supported in their role by Heads of Year who monitor and evaluate pastoral care within their year group and look for ways of improving the quality of provision.

Discipline and behaviour at St Joseph’s College are based on the principles established in our Mission Statement. That is: valuing and respecting each other as ‘made in the image and likeness of God’; creating a well ordered community where the freedom of the individual is balanced with the rights of others; serving each other in a spirit of understanding, helpfulness, forgiveness and joy.

We want our pupils to be well behaved, courteous, friendly and caring. We seek good order without being overbearing. To achieve this we must have firm, fair and clear rules that are justly applied so that pupils are safe and secure in our school, free to grow, develop and mature.

Pupils are positively praised for their efforts in school work, homework, behaviour, attitude, approach and appearance. In particular, the merit system is used to reward pupils. However, should a pupil’s behaviour fall below the standard required then sanctions are applied firmly and fairly. Sanctions may consist of written work, detentions during lunch times or after school. A pupil may also be put ‘on report’. Should the Headteacher consider a pupil’s continued presence in the school, after a serious breach of discipline, to be prejudicial to the good order and reputation of the school she may send him/her home. At all times parents are involved in the process of resolving any problems.

It is our aim to develop the whole person and to ensure that each pupil is ‘known and loved’.

You may also like to read our page about Sixth Form Pastoral Care.