Pastoral Care
Junior School Pastoral Care
Ballarat Grammar has identified, as its prime purpose, the pastoral care of students. At the Junior School, the central responsibility for pastoral care rests with the classroom teacher. All members of the teaching and ancillary staff, however, also recognize and support the aim to consider and care for the well being of all students.
As A Christian School in the Anglican tradition, the Christian ethos is lived within the Ballarat Grammar community. The Junior School is actively supported by the Chaplain and Assistant Chaplain. Weekly Chapel services are conducted on Monday mornings, and actively involve the children. Parents are most welcome and encouraged to attend. The subject of Beliefs and Values is taught by classroom and specialist teachers, to further develop positive and healthy attitudes and practices.
The Chaplain, Fr Peter Treloar, is the School Counsellor and Dr Margot Murphy is our School Psychologist. The Student Services Department provides support in a variety of strategic ways. Students are able to access these services at any time, with the involvement and consent of parents.
As a member of the International Round Square, we share the importance of Kurt Hahn’s view that “kindness matters”. Children at the Junior School are encouraged and actively supported in the development of a positive self-esteem and a caring attitude towards others, within the School and wider community.
A pro-active, values based classroom teaching and learning program for all Junior School children includes the “Friendly Kids, Friendly Classrooms” and “Bounce Back” programs and resources developed and authored by Helen McGrath. The aim of these programs is to introduce, develop and refine the characteristics of confidence in self, kindness towards others and an ability to cope with difficulties.
Ballarat Grammar’s policy on harassment is clearly articulated. Junior School children develop their beliefs and understandings developmentally, towards an appreciation and respect for these guidelines. Strategies for the positive resolution of conflict are openly discussed, within a restorative justice approach. Our aim is to better the outcomes for both parties in any disagreement or dispute. We recognize that time at school is an ongoing and connected series of social interactions and, therefore, the development of age appropriate social skills are vital to learning and well being.
Initiated in 2007, our involvement in the Jewish, Christian and Muslim Association’s Goodness and Kindness Project gave children from Years 3 to 6 a rich opportunity to openly discuss, with members of the association, the issues of learning to live with others and appreciate individual differences within and between cultures.
Health and Physical Education is actively taught throughout the School by specialist teaching staff, with a variety of sporting opportunities and activities offered in curricular and co-curricular formats. Junior School children enjoy a “healthy snack” break prior to recess and healthy and sustainable living practices have been a major focus of recent curriculum development. Indeed, our Junior School has been the recipient of State and local awards for these sustainable practices, including the Keep Australia Beautiful ‘Proud Schools Award”, “Encouragement Award” and Victorian Schools Garden Award.
The Health Centre maintains a data base of student medical records, with electronic and printed information available to teaching staff, according to the guidelines of current Privacy Information. Duty staff carry first aid kits at recess, lunchtimes and on excursions. The Junior School sick bay provides appropriate facilities for immediate attention, supported by the School nurses. All members of the Junior School staff are trained in first aid, with regular update training carried out, as part of professional learning.
Professional development for all staff is regularly conducted within the School and utilizes local agencies such as the Ballarat TEN (Teacher Education Network). Courses and training through the AISV (Association of Independent Schools of Victoria) and a variety of professional associations allows all members of staff to develop beliefs, values and knowledge of important issues such as cognitive development, student health and well being, learning and behavioural difficulties.
The care for each individual student is of paramount importance. Sound health, well being, self-esteem, confidence and positive attitudes combine to shape learning and sustainable living. We recognize the need to holistically and effectively care for our students, and seek to provide for them a supportive environment and broad opportunities for them to fully develop physically, cognitively, and spiritually. We seek to maintain our Junior School as a place where “children want to be”.
Senior School Pastoral Care
For almost 30 years, the House System has been the major structure supporting Pastoral Care at Ballarat Grammar. It has primarily sought to provide connection – between each student and a significant adult and between students themselves. These connections between students are established both horizontally across a year level and vertically between junior and senior students.
Each of the 13 houses – 5 Boarding Houses and 8 Day Houses – is gender specific and pairs of houses (along with the junior girls’ boarding house, Larritt) join together when appropriate as “brother and sister” combinations. They are divided into Tutorial Groups of between 10 and 20 students, with one or two staff Tutors allocated to the groups accordingly. A Head of House coordinates tutors and tutorial groups as well as acting as a tutor also. Houses meet officially three times a week for half an hour of House Meeting, Tutorial Meeting and Chapel. The relationships that develop over time within this framework provide support, guidance and a genuine sense of recognition and identity to the individual student.
The Tutor and the Head of House are considered to be the first points of contact and communication between parents and the School, should issues of concern – from the very minor to the much more serious – arise.
House Meetings are an opportunity to create vertical connections between students, to organise activities, social service and inter-house and intra-house competitions. They are also a more intimate forum for showcasing and celebrating diverse achievement. Leadership is fostered, modelled and practised during House Meetings and the activities that grow out of these. Tutorial Meetings offer particular year levels within the House the opportunity to bond with each other, to express common perceptions and concerns about study and other elements of School life. They are often a healthy outlet for questions and criticism.
The Tutor’s role is a complex one. Essentially he or she is the primary “critical friend” to the members of the Tutorial Group. The expectation is that a relationship will be built up outside the classroom over a number of years where the Tutor is advocate of and mentor to the student but able also to address poor choices and negative behaviour when necessary. While the Tutor ideally becomes a confidant for the student, there is no expectation that he or she will be a professionally trained counsellor. Professional development in basic counselling skills is available to all staff via the Professional Learning syllabus but the emphasis within the Tutorial Group is more upon building trust in a significant adult and being valued in a sub-set of the larger House and School.
The Pastoral Care curriculum as delivered by the Tutorial is based on the needs of these horizontal groups. Year 7: Transition. Year 8: Change and Relationships. Year 9: Emotional Intelligence. Year 10: Pathways to the Future. Year 11: Leadership. Year 12: Making choices.
Beyond the House System, a further level of Pastoral Care is offered by the Home Rooms at Years 7, 8 and 9. Here, one significant teacher takes a central role in the transition and academic development of the students in their class. These classes study their core subjects together and form another stable grouping of students for the duration of that particular year. The Home Room teacher teaches the class for a large proportion of the School week, building up a close personal relationship and a broad based understanding of the academic progress made by the student.
The Home Room Teacher is better placed, because of this, to act as an Academic Mentor to the student in the “Middle School” years of secondary schooling. Where at the end of each Semester, the Tutor writes a House Report on the personal development of each of the members of the Tutorial Group, their co-curricular involvement, cultural and where applicable, spiritual development, the Home Room teacher will write a broad academic report, focusing on transition, individual pathways and learning styles. The roles of Home Room Teacher and Tutor overlap during these years and along with Head of House should provide a substantial and secure matrix of support during these complex, formative years of education and adolescence. Given that Home Room Teachers are themselves also House Tutors, they cannot be expected to provide comprehensive pastoral care to the Home Room students, but they are very well placed to act as “front line” monitors of student well-being in cooperation with the Houses.
While the House is the ongoing and individually responsive pastoral care structure, the Home Room and the Years 7, 8 and 9 Level Coordinators who oversee them, can sometimes be more aware of issues that need to be addressed in a child’s School life than the Tutor or Head of House – at least initially. In that situation there would be an expectation that information, cause for alarm or for special recognition would be passed on either as a matter of urgency or of normal professional course. Contact with parents should primarily be the province of the House, but in academic matters or where there is some other pressing need, Home Room teachers and Level Coordinators will clearly be in regular contact with parents also.
The Academic Mentoring Program integrates the House and Home Room structures. While Home Room Teachers and Tutors liaise as a matter of course regarding the progress of students, the year level as a whole is reviewed at Student Review Meetings which bring all parties, whether they are House staff, academic or Home Room teachers together to comment on each student in turn. Individual follow up from these meetings is the responsibility of House staff as directed by Level Coordinators. Parent/Teacher interviews are conducted by each subject teacher but a special parent/tutor interview during Term 3 uses the Reports, Report Reflections and the Home Room Teachers’ Reports to discuss questions that arise regarding subject choices, academic pathways, remediation and extension. These are conducted by House Tutors.
House Tutors and Heads of House assume responsibility for the provision of Pastoral Care and Academic Mentoring from Year 10 to Year 12. But, as has been the case in the previous three years, there is still a need for all staff to take a corporate and collaborative approach to student well-being either by modelling positive and resilient attitudes and behaviour or by communicating perceptions or information that has implications for students’ personal well-being to House staff, the Assistant Head and through them, to parents.
More concerning issues of student well-being may be referred by Heads of Houses to the Chaplain, a qualified counsellor, or to the School Psychologist. The School can provide for up to three counselling sessions with the Psychologist but further counselling is provided on a user pays basis. Professional standards of confidentiality apply to student counselling, but in the majority of cases, close contact has already been established with parents and is maintained by counsellors. Parents are also encouraged to contact either the Chaplain or the School Psychologist where they feel they need specialised guidance. Contact numbers are published on the back page (the Help Page) of the Planner.
The School Psychologist can see students either at the School during the hours that she is available there, or at her professional rooms out of hours. Counselling is currently available at the School from Monday to Thursday.
A Student Welfare Coordination Committee comprising the Assistant Head Staff and Student Welfare, School Psychologist, Chaplain and School Nurse maintains a register of students who are considered to be at risk and staff who are “case managing” their situation, and reviews that list on a fortnightly basis.
The primary aim of Pastoral Care at Ballarat Grammar is the affirmation of the place of the individual within a supportive community. Breaking that community down into House groups has proved to be a highly successful means of facilitating that. While the School Values point to the attitudes and behaviour that make for a healthy, secure and productive environment for young people, they also endorse the outreach that has become a hallmark of many students’ lives at Ballarat Grammar. The full implementation of Home Rooms acknowledges the need for the extension of the impact of the “significant adult” and group identity into the middle school classroom and complements the nurturing culture that has characterised the School over many years.
