ONeill Maria - Proactive Pastoral Care

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Dedicated to pastoral leaders, the unsung heroes of education systems, who empower young people to take charge of their lives, and to my parents, who empowered me to go after my dreams.

Thank you.

Who have you empowered today?

Contents

by Dr Pooky Knightsmith

)

I had a pretty tricky childhood. On reflection, its amazing that I survived, let alone that I grew to thrive. For both the surviving and the thriving I owe a debt of gratitude to my school; a place where I was valued, loved, kept safe and stretched. So I write this foreword not in my role as an expert in the field, but in my role of a child who made it to adulthood thanks to people like you.

Im writing this during the pandemic and I get overwhelmed with emotion when I think of the role that our schools and the everyday heroes within them have played in helping our children and communities find their way through. The role of the school has been growing for years to the delight of some and the horror of others; but the bigger, brighter, more brilliant role of schools as hearts of their communities and havens of safety even in the most difficult times will, I believe, be firmly cemented in the nations conscience forever more.

This book is a real gift to the community of people who care for children in our schools. It provides the framework, practical actions and questions for exploration that will enable you to take your pastoral care to the next level as either an individual or as a whole team. Dip in and out and make it your own because no two schools are the same; but let Maria guide you as she has guided so many every day in her generosity of spirit, her willingness to embrace what works and learn from what doesnt, and her remarkable ability to get things done.

Imagine Maria by your side along with the thousands of others who, like you, put their students at the heart of their everyday and are always looking for ways to care more, to care better, to enable every student not just to survive but to thrive.

Following a training session I recently delivered about our role as the providers of pastoral care, I was challenged by a senior leader who said, Were here to teach them, not to love them. I disagree. Love takes many forms and I believe that by teaching our children, keeping them safe and enabling them to reach for the stars we commit the ultimate acts of love

And this book is a roadmap to that love. Good luck with your travels and from the bottom of my heart, thank you to each and every one of you for caring.

Dr Pooky Knightsmith

Overview

This chapter will:

define proactive pastoral care

look at reactive and proactive pastoral care structures

consider who should be responsible for proactive pastoral care

discuss what proactive pastoral care involves.

It should be mentioned that the term pastoral care is something that is unique to the British educational system, so our international colleagues often become confused and surprised, as the word pastoral carries religious connotations for them: they imagine shepherds caring for their sheep in Christian religious communities. We can see how this could in some way contribute to the definition of pastoral care in education. However, as pastoral care is such a big area of responsibility, there still exist many variations and differences in definitions even within the national communities.

When delivering training, I often ask colleagues to tell me what pastoral care means to them. Very often pastoral care is associated with reactive safeguarding, dealing with behaviour, issuing sanctions, attending safeguarding meetings and many more jobs that will fall into the same category. This reactive approach has been prioritised due to increased accountability and results, as well as budget constraints. While a necessary part of the pastoral role, a reactive approach alone will never bring about long-term and effective change in a school community, in terms of how pupils achieve academically and develop into well-rounded young adults, and in terms of their levels of happiness and wellbeing throughout their time at school. In order to achieve long-term change, we need to turn our attention to one of the forgotten and neglected elements of pastoral care: proactive pastoral care. Before we go any further, I am going to define how I view proactive pastoral care, which will be the starting point of this chapter and the book as a whole.

What is proactive pastoral care?

Proactive pastoral care is the essential element of pastoral structures that focuses on creating, embedding and nurturing a communitys wellbeing culture. Proactive pastoral care is preventative in its nature and has many long-term benefits: strengthening community values, promoting character education (formally and informally), and embedding a successful pastoral curriculum just to name a few.

As pastoral leaders, we prioritise our daily tasks and it comes as no surprise that the reactive elements take priority due to their urgent nature. At the same time, if we dont develop our proactive pastoral provision, we end up in a reactive vicious circle and we struggle to make positive, long-lasting changes.