Pastoral

The success of our school lies in the high levels of respect shown by all members of our community towards each other. Students flourish because of the strong pastoral care on offer.

Pastoral Structure

For students in Years 7 – 11, their form tutor is their first port of call. Their tutor sees them every morning and supports their personal development through form time activities.

Our full time, Heads of Year are based in a central office and available to students throughout the day. Heads of Key Stage 3 and 4 co-ordinate the pastoral provision for all students, working closely with the SENDCo, Safeguarding Leads and a Deputy Headteacher who leads our work in this area. 

As students move into the Sixth Form, they also have a daily tutor time. Students also take part in tutorials and receive 1:1 guidance about their post-18 options. The Sixth Form Leadership team oversees the whole curriculum and provides opportunities for students to develop their interests and talents through a wide range of societies, trips, events and leadership roles.

We are a large, diverse and vibrant community seeking to serve one another and to enable each member to fulfil their unique potential.  We are enormously proud that we have achieved the Anti Bullying Alliance award - a tribute to the positive and respectful interactions between students and the way that they support and encourage one another.

Behaviour which seeks to bully, intimidate or discriminate against others is not tolerated. This includes unhelpful or derogatory language which may have been described as ‘banter’.  Students and staff have been trained to identify and challenge homophobic, biphobic, transphobic, sexist and racist language and we are clear as a community that ‘It’s not ok’.

Students are encouraged to report any language or behaviour which makes them feel uncomfortable, either to a trusted adult in school or via this email address: itsnotok@bishopstopford.com.

We are very proud of the behaviour of our students and their positive attitude to learning. Our behaviour process supports students in regulating their actions and rewards celebrate the excellence demonstrated by our students every day. Our rewards process celebrates their every day commitment to learning and reflects the belief that good character is not formed in a week but grown “little by little, day by day” (Heraclitus).

The Department for Education (DfE) regularly issues guidance to support schools for two reasons:

  1. To support schools to enable all students to learn safely and achieve positive outcomes;

  2. To support the home-school partnership.

The DfE has recently made some significant changes in advice around managing behaviour. It has advised schools to create ‘live’ documents for parents which show how behaviour is being managed. These move beyond policies and are intended to show the processes used to respond to behaviour. These are by necessity updated more regularly than overarching policies, in line with DfE guidance, changes in the local context and school specific developments.

We trust that these documents provide the practical information you need to understand the steps we take to continue to create a positive environment for learning.

 

Behaviour Policy

Extraordinary Sanctions

Mobile Devices Policy

The Bishop Stopford Award

Bring Your Own Device - Student Expectations

Acceptable Use - Student Expectations