Haxby Road New Earswick

Haxby Road New Earswick

York

YO32 4BZ

Tel: 01904 552100

E-mail:

Website: www.josephrowntree.co.uk

Dear Parent/Carer 6th July 2017

I am writing to you to inform of some important changes that are being made to the Pastoral Care systems in school for September 2017.

For a period of time now we have been looking at ways in which as a school we can improve further our already strong pastoral systems. Pastoral support needs in schools have changed significantly in previous years and many schools across the country have been moving to different models of staffing to try and improve their provision. Following a period of consultation in the school and listening to feedback from students, staff and parents, we are now in a position to move ahead with some changes which we feel will vastly improve the effectiveness of our pastoral systems.

Traditionally in school we have had our pastoral systems build around the different year groups through our Heads of Year. This staffing has been supported by our team of non-teaching Pastoral Managers who are vital in order to enable reactive but also timely proactive work to go on with our students. From September however, we will be moving from Heads of Year for years 7-10 (current years 6-9) to four Progress Leaders, who will each work across one of our four Houses. Each Progress Leader will have two house tutor groups, that they take responsibility for from years 7, 8, 9 and 10. Progress Leaders will be responsible for the strategic leadership of the respective houses including pastoral care, safeguarding and academic monitoring. We are looking for this new role to build bridges between the pastoral and academic aspects of school life, in order to boost pupil progress. Each House will also have a designated non-teaching Pastoral House Manager who will take on the lead on most of the day to day aspects of the pastoral care with students within their house, and they will be a key point of contact for students and home alike. The Progress Leaders have been allocated to houses as follows:

·  Miss Shepherd – Malala House (formerly Morrell)

·  Mr Day – Attenborough House (formerly Temple)

·  Miss Zettel – Rowling House (formerly Wilberforce)

·  Mr Watkins – Ali House (Formerly Seebohm)

As a school, we are conscious that we do not want this change in pastoral system to unsettle students in any way, and will ensure that students are fully aware of who they can speak to and seek help from in school. We will also ensure that for those students currently receiving support from the pastoral team, that there is a thorough handover where a staffing change is affecting them.

Year 11 (current year 10) have been kept separate from the pastoral changes, and will continue to be supported by their Head of Year, Mr Scott within their existing year system. We felt that stability was best for these students at such an important point with their GCSE studies.

We are really excited about the changes that are being made for September and feel that they will enable us to better support all of our young people. Students will be being introduced to their new Progress Leaders over the next week and staff will be in touch with you directly in due course to introduce themselves and offer opportunities to come in and meet with them early in the autumn term.

I would like to wish you all a good summer and to thank you for your support of the school over the past year.

Yours faithfully

A P Haigh

Deputy Head teacher

HEADTEACHER: Mr R Crane, MA (Hons), NPQH

DEPUTY HEAD: Mr G Davies, MA (Dist) DEPUTY HEAD: Mr A Haigh, BSc (Hons)

“Working together to achieve success”