A warm community: Pastoral care
Our school is lit up by the attributes that matter most here – kindness, commitment, courage, aspiration and creativity. They guide everyone’s behaviour, as we strive to create a caring, supportive community of happy, healthy, kind and resilient young people.
That starts on the front line, with the form tutors our girls see and talk to every day. Under our unique co-tutor system, no form tutor is responsible for more than a dozen pupils throughout the Senior School. They make sure every girl is thriving: supported, making good progress and feeling fully involved in school life.
Mistakes are learned from and successes are shared: each girl is encouraged to consider how they engage with feedback and to communicate their own strengths. There’s plenty of experience on hand from older pupils: buddies and peer mentors provide a friendly face and practical advice, and a fun programme of intra-house activities regularly mixes the year groups, creating a real sense of togetherness and community.
Our programme of PSHEE (Personal, Social, Health & Economic Education) prepares girls to go out into the world with confidence, inner strength and high self-esteem, ready to face challenges. There are also regular evening talks for parents, often reflecting the topics taught in class and as well as other issues on the minds of parents. All our parents have access to Tooled Up Education, a digital library of evidence-based resources on all aspects of parenting, education and family life, founded by one of the nation’s experts in parental engagement in children’s lives. Read more here.
We have a full-time nurse and counselling provision – it’s completely normal for girls to sign up for sessions on any issue they like, completely free from any stigma – and we have a much-loved school dog, Maple the cavapoo.
We understand how to educate girls, setting the feminist agenda and guiding well-rounded, well-grounded individuals to be the female leaders of the future.
Pupils are self-aware, reflective and show initiative.