Pastoral Care at Valley Gardens Middle School

Please find below pastoral teams for Academic Year 2024-2025.

Each year group has a Deputy Head of Year and a Head of Year, who are able to assist in more complicated pastoral situations. However, the vast majority of pastoral work will be responded to initially by the Subject Teacher and the Form Tutor.

The Subject Teacher will be responsible for the follow up of any issues that occur within their lesson and make the necessary contact home, document the issue and follow up, if necessary, with a child’s Form Tutor. The Form Tutor will be responsible to pick up patterns of behaviour across subjects, issues on the yard at break and lunchtime or increasingly issues outside of school, where we extend our duty of care. These are the people who know your children best and should always be the initial point of contact, should parents have concerns.

If the Form Tutor feels it necessary to involve the Deputy or Head of Year for persistent issues where a solution is not responded to, then professional dialogue will occur between staff and parents and a plan will be put in place. Mr Baggett, our Assistant Head, has overall responsibility for Pastoral Management. Should there be major concerns expressed by parents or staff regarding pastoral issues, he is available for discussion at the earliest possible opportunity.

Communication on pastoral issues is through CPOMS, our whole school platform for sharing concerns to the relevant members of staff. The pastoral team also meets every week on a Tuesday to discuss current concerns as a group.