Pastoral Care

Our Pastoral Care is based on the belief that students achieve their best when they are motivated and secure, where there is mutual repect and trust and where help and support is always at hand.

We operate a Year system for pastoral care, alongside which we have a traditional House system with three Houses named after benefactors: Fereby Hicks Townsend

On entry to the school, all students are placed in tutor groups under the care of form tutors until the end of Year 11. When making these arrangements we take family ties into account but we also see that each House has children of varying abilities. The welfare of the children in each year is the responsibility of the Head and Deputy Head of year.

It is now customary for the Head of Year to be responsible for the year group from Year 7 until Year 11, when they move into the Sixth Form. We have three assistant headteachers responsible for Key Stages 3, 4 and 5.

Schools are the training places for the citizens of the future and we give students ample opportunity to develop their skills and sense of social responsibility.

In Year 11 we select about 40 of those students whose work and behaviour have singled them out to be good role models for the younger students. These studetns become prefects and carry out useful functions around the school. In Year 12 we have at least a dozen students that are Senior Prefects. As part of a team-building exercise we have taken our senior prefects on an abseiling challenge in the Clifton Gorge.

Separate year groups have editorial teams that produce a termly newsletter. One of the highlights for Year 11 is for a committee of students to produce the annual Yearbook and the Year 11 Prom. Students arrive in sytle in all forms of unusual and glamorous transport for the Year 11 Leavers dinner.

Charity work is given a very high profile within the school. Every two years we hold a whole school sponsored walk which in 2004 raised in excess of £7000. The school's main chairty is the Save the Children Fund and in most years we also donate several thousand pounds to other local and national charities. The school is involved in supporting a school in Botswana and raised £4000 for a kitchen to be built for the many orphaned children who have to grow their own food. We have had a Sixth Form Fashion Show to raise money for Cancer Research.