PASTORAL CARE
STUDENT PASTORAL SUPPORTS
Dear Parents and Carers,
In trying times, I believe it is important to remind our school community of the various pastoral supports we offer here at SJE and in our wider Shoalhaven Community. I have outlined these below and encourage parents and carers to contact the school and speak to their son/daughter or person in their care’s Year Coordinator.
PALS:
The Pastoral and Learning Support Teacher is the first person your son/daughter or person in your care will see every morning. We try to make our junior PALS groups smaller in order to create an optimal environment for connection between staff and students. We do this in the hope that, if there is ever a need, they can reach out to their PALS teacher who can then begin the process of appropriate support. While it is not always the case, we try our best to maintain the same PALS teacher and student group from years 7-12 in order to avoid students needing to re-tell their stories each year.
YEAR COORDINATOR:
SJE is blessed with some amazing Year Coordinators who give their absolute all in the support of our young people. If there is ever a pastoral need that you believe extends beyond the PALS teacher, the Year Coordinator should be your first contact. Again, the Year Coordinators move with the students through their years to develop a close connection with them and their stories. Year Coordinators are also able to support in making counsellor referrals for our students in order to connect them with our Catholic Care Counsellors who do a great job in helping our students develop wellbeing strategies in the home and school environments.
CATHOLIC CARE COUNSELLORS:
As mentioned above, our Catholic Care Counsellors, Nina and Craig do an amazing job in working with our students in developing those individualised strategies to manage any stresses that may come their way in both the home and school environment. If we are able to understand what the cause of the concern is, we are able to work with the student, the counsellors and families in order to develop some fantastic proactive strategies aimed at building resilience but also confidence in being able to work toward a holistic management.
Again, if there are any concerns, please do not hesitate to contact your son/daughter or person in your care’s PALS teacher, Year Coordinator or myself via the school number. I have also attached a range of fantastic external supports that can be accessed in the Shoalhaven as well as some additional e-services.
ACF SUPPORTS:
One of the exciting initiatives that has been in operation this year and working side-by-side with our Year Coordinators, Subject Coordinators and classroom teachers are our Academic Care Facilitators (ACF). Our ACFs work closely with staff to identify those students who may not be reaching their full potential. They work collaboratively with students to explore a range of areas from pastoral to learning styles to ensure that key, individualised, strategies are developed and communicated to teachers in order to assist them in growing as learners. The ACFs identified below:
Mr Watson - Years 7 and 8
Mrs Frew - Years 9 and 10
Mrs Isemonger - Years 11 and 12.
APPLICATION AWARDS FOR REPORTS
With Semester 1 reports just around the corner, I wanted to communicate one key change in our reporting and awards process. In previous years, the Application Award has been awarded to those students who have applied themselves consistently across their subjects, however, this year we have moved toward a more value and growth based reporting focusing on a student Achieving, Developing or Needs Improving in their specific profiles. As such, the Application Award will move from a semester award to an annual award and will look at celebrating those students who have sustained efforts in achieving their profiles or affirm and celebrate those students who have grown in their ability to successfully achieve their profiles from Semester 1.
If there are any questions with regard to this, please do not hesitate to call the school and talk to myself.
