Senior School Pastoral Care
Our pastoral care is highly praised!
OLA is recognised as offering outstanding pastoral care to all members of the school community. We rightly have a reputation of being a caring and nurturing school that results in creating a harmonious environment giving all pupils the opportunity to thrive.
We place great value on care and support for the individual and our pupils interact with each other positively and with genuine care and compassion.
Previous ISI Inspection Reports highlighted pastoral care as a strength that underpins the school:
“Relationships between pupils and staff, and amongst pupils themselves, are excellent.”
“Leadership strongly promotes values that encourage respect for others.”
“The school is very sensitive to the needs of individual pupils.”
“The moral development of pupils is excellent. Pupils in all year groups have a keen sense of right and wrong and understand the need for rules.”
Pastoral care in action
The Senior School is divided into three sections for pastoral care and the monitoring of academic progress: Transition (Year 7) | Middle (Years 8 and 9) | Upper (Years 10 and 11)
Each section has its own Head who, working with the Form Tutors, quickly gets to know pupils and families very well. Further support is provided by Assistant Heads who have overall responsibility for school pastoral care. Pupil behaviour is guided by our Positive Behaviour Code that ensures pupils fully understand our expectations and the rewards available for good work, effort and contributions to school life. This system is managed digitally and is accessible to parents and pupils. We place great value on support for the individual. We help our pupils interact with each other positively and with genuine care and compassion. Pupils at OLA feel safe, well cared for and well known by all of their teachers. The school also provides a School Counsellor and School Nurse. There are many pressures on young people in modern society and the Pastoral Team meet once a week to discuss current pupil issues in addition to the many informal discussions and interventions taking place every day to help pupils to feel supported, valued and, crucially, happy.
Central to our ethos is helping each pupil to be the best that they can be. We encourage pupils, staff and parents to work together to uncover pupils’ potential and help them to grow. Our pupils achieve more than academic success and leave the school as well-rounded, caring individuals ready to make a positive contribution to the world.
