Pastoral Care - St Albans High School for Girls

Pastoral
Care

PASTORAL CARE

Ours is a close and kind community where every child’s needs are recognised. The children are encouraged to strive to succeed, make good choices and care for themselves and others, and they do so within a nurturing and supportive environment. Excellent relationships between staff, pupils and parents ensure that each child’s needs are understood, to enable them to thrive.

Our Deputy Head Pastoral and Co-curriculum leads the key adults who support pupils’ pastoral needs. Form tutors provide help and guidance, supported in Pre-Prep by teaching assistants. Our school chaplain and nurse are integral to our pastoral care.

All our pupils are members of a House: Julian, Mandeville, Verulam or Paris, each named after a historic local dignitary. The House system is used for many different competitions and pupils earn rewards for their Houses through good behaviour and attitude to learning. They also provide a focus for Charity Days and fundraising activities.

Within each House are House Families comprised of pupils from Reception to Year 6, headed by a member of staff. These families enjoy activities together at regular intervals throughout the year, allowing pupils to make friendships across year groups and giving older children opportunities to mentor and support younger ones.

We expect that each Prep school child will hold a position of some responsibility as an adult, so we prepare her for this by ensuring that every Year 6 child has an opportunity to lead within her area of interest. They might, for example, be a sport or music captain, a librarian or play captain, an eco-captain or a charity captain, working with a member of staff to support younger pupils.

Pupils stay in their Houses when they move to STAHS Senior, further strengthening the bonds with others in the House and embedding an identity that stays with them when they become alumni.