Named Person

Pastoral care teachers begin getting to know young people when they are in primary,  by talking to and sharing information with primary staff, chatting with P7 parents at open evenings and visiting primary classes.

New pupils, including our new S1, will have a 1-to-1 informal interview with their pastoral care teacher soon after joining to check how they are settling into life at Lochend. Where possible, pastoral care staff teach personal and social education (PSE) lessons once per week to pupils in their house group. They may also teach them in their subject specialism. Throughout their time at Lochend, we aim to ensure that a young person’s pastoral care teacher remains a constant in their lives. This allows young people, their families, and their pastoral care teacher to build and sustain positive relationships which support the child to progress through school and into a positive post-school destination. There are frequent opportunities for pupils to get to know pastoral care staff. The pastoral care base is located on the first floor within the Health and Food Technologies corridor and the door is always open for pupils.

Monitoring the wellbeing and progress of each young person 

Pastoral care staff monitor attendance closely. If your child is absent from school you should phone the Pupil Absence Reporting Line on 0141 287 0039.  If an absence is expected to last more than a few days, or the matter is a sensitive issue, such as a bereavement, or a serious illness, contagious disease, or physical injury, we ask that you contact the school directly to speak with your child’s pastoral care teacher. 

In order to safeguard all young people, our staff team follow clear attendance procedures. Actions to support attendance vary from text messages to alert parents/carers of morning absence, telephone calls from pastoral care staff, emails, letters home, home visits, attendance interviews at school, good attendance recognition certificates, and rewards. It should be noted that absence from school without reasonable excuse is a legal concern and can lead to prosecution if persistent.  However we do everything we can to plan support around supporting better attendance with you in as far as possible which is why we are always happy to speak with parents and carers as early as possible.

Pastoral Care teachers have tracking conversations with pupils timetabled throughout the year to talk about their progress in subjects, and also help pupils create plans to improve. Pastoral care staff will contact you directly to discuss any concern they have regarding your child at school. Pastoral care staff are also available at all parents’ evenings and will be happy to talk with you without a prior appointment on these occasions.

A Point of Contact

If you have any questions or concerns about the progress or wellbeing of your daughter/son, please do not hesitate to contact their pastoral care teacher and we will work with you to support them in school. Where advice, guidance and support is required from other agencies, for example health services or psychological services, the pastoral care team will discuss this with you and can work with you to coordinate this.

Supporting Young People

Pastoral Care teachers deliver lessons on health, relationships, substance misuse and planning for choices and changes. Through these lessons and conversations with young people, we aim to prepare our young people to make informed choices towards a happy, healthy and successful life. We work with young people to value and respect others through conflict resolution, anti- bullying and equality education and celebrating diversity.

Positive Destination Planning

All teachers fulfil young peoples’ entitlement to Careers Education as set out in the Career Education Standard. This includes providing young people with the opportunity to develop their Career Management Skills throughout the curriculum by linking learning to employability skills and relating their subjects to the world of work.

There is a wider pupil support team around your child, including Careers Advisors, DYW Coordinator, a Principal Teacher of Transitions, Work Coaches and MCR Pathways Coordinator, who work together with pastoral care to help your daughter/son sustain a positive destination after school. This is known as the Opportunities for All team. Should you wish more information about this, your child’s pastoral care teacher can help.

Addressing Historic and Emerging Needs

When a young person needs additional support for their learning or a life situation which arises we work together as a team to plan for this, taking into account the needs and thoughts of you and your family. Where we need to work with Social Work services, Health, Psychological Services, Specialist services then we can make joint plans with you and your child to support their wellbeing.

Attendance 

Excellent attendance ensures your child makes effective progress in their learning. The school’s senior management team or pastoral care staff may request a home-visit regarding the attendance of your daughter/son where attendance is less than 90% and/or absences are unexplained. We will require reasons for any absences, and will support you by explaining the absence processes. Discussions with parents/ carers and young people help advise the Pastoral Care team of any support which may be required to ensure excellent attendance.

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