Pastoral Care

SA Cummins Dr Philip

Description

Dr. Philip SA Cummins and Bruce HodgesThe authors present a fresh, informative and thought provoking introduction to current thinking and offer a clear methodology for implementing a successful pastoral care strategy.Drawing on the best of current research and using real-life examples, the authors show how strategic thinking and planning can raise awareness, provide proactive solutions and enhance the school environment for student, teacher and parent alike, as well as offering thoughts on integrating the school into the wider community through intergenerational initiatives.

Sujets

• Informatique

Informations

• Publié par: CIRCLE
• Date de parution: 15 janvier 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783015788
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Pastoral Care - A School s Duty Of Care
Dr Philip SA Cummins and Bruce Hodges
Dr Philip SA Cummins June 2012
This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be stored or reproduced by any process without prior written permission.
National Library of Australia cataloguing in publication data:
Pastoral Care A School s Duty Of Care ISBN 978-0-9872869-5-6 ISBN 978-1-7830157-8-8
Please refer to the National Library of Australia website for cataloguing in publication details.
INTRODUCTION
In this book we explore the necessity of pastoral care within modern schools, suggest some structures for implementation, and provide some real life examples of where better pastoral care could have improved and/or did improve certain situations.
The increased size and diversity of schools have complicated their organisation. Within the school the earlier teacher/pupil bond has weakened, so that pupils are less well known. General teachers have given way to specialists; block timetabling, sets and individual programmes have disturbed the earlier teaching groups - even the class or form may have gone. From such growth the necessity of pastoral care has arisen.
This book is written in two parts - the philosophy and the methodology. Each chapter within these parts addresses a unique aspect of pastoral care, and finishes with specific considerations designed to prompt you to think about the current structure of pastoral care within your school and potential ways to improve it.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Part 1: The Underlying Philosophy For Why Schools Need To Practice Pastoral Care
Part 2: Pastoral Care In Practice
About the Authors
Editorial and Production
Part One: THE UNDERLYING PHILOSOPHY FOR WHY SCHOOLS NEED TO PRACTICE PASTORAL CARE
In this part we explore the underlying philosophy as to why schools need to practice pastoral care and suggest structures that can be put in place to do so.
The basic purposes of a pastoral care structure in a school are to ensure that each pupil is known well by at least one member of staff and that that member of staff receives adequate support in the role. The teacher in a pastoral role may be able to go much further than just knowing the pupil. S/he may be able to be of considerable help and guidance to the pupil and will be a ready point of contact between parents and the school. Another purpose of a pastoral care structure in a large school is to give pupils the opportunity to identify with a group considerably smaller than the school as a whole.
MISSION AND PASTORAL CARE
A school s mission statement expresses a school s essential purpose. Ancient Latin or contemporary language mottoes often accompany the school s crest to brand its special identity and ethos. The brand and mission statement offer a school s promise of what those who come to the school will find there. It invites expectations of the staff and of the culture of the school. It often emphasises academic excellence and breadth of learning experience. It may mention or imply pastoral care of individual children. This section presumes that a school s mission statement should include or imply the pastoral care clients of a school may expect to receive. We then discuss how teaching staff need to be supported in their role as advisors to students and parents.
Mission statements
Some mission statements include statements such as:
Each student is encouraged to reach his/her academic, physical and creative potential in a supportive environment.
We seek to motivate all students to achieve their potential through enjoyable learning experiences in a caring Christian environment.
The school encourages the pursuit of excellence in all student endeavours. It offers a liberal curriculum, outstanding facilities, and dedicated qualified staff, urging each student to perform at his/her very best.
The school fosters students understanding of themselves as learners and human beings. It encourages striving for excellence in everything.
A school may define its pastoral mission separately from its overall mission. Some pastoral missions include statements such as:
To enable students to develop as responsible individuals within a safe, secure environment.
To acquire values, attitudes and ideals which will assist students in their personal development.
Some questions to ask
In formulating your mission statements, you may wish to ask yourself some of the following questions:
Does your school s mission statement imply that excellent support and care of each student may be expected throughout the student s life at the school?
Is your school s ability to deliver such care expected of each teacher by the school, parents and students?
Are some teachers assigned to other duties because they have difficulty in relating to parents and students in a pastoral way?
Is the pastoral program delivered by trained specialists, just as the French or Chemistry program is?
Are all pastoral staff given annual training on issues that are specific to the experiential needs of students and parents at the school?
What is the Principal s role in leading, planning, supervising and evaluating the pastoral care of students at a school - in particular by training and supporting teaching staff?
Pastoral care
The parental expectation that private schools will care for individual children is one of the most powerful reasons for choosing private school education. It is therefore imperative that schools check the public claims they make in mission statements, prospectus material, enrolment contracts, student report comments, and in interviews. Such claims purport to represent the soul of a school - its essential promise to all who come.
Managing the behaviour of students or requesting individual students to leave the school, for whatever reason, is not so easy, nor perhaps as legitimate, when such a promise is made.
How then is the promise of pastoral care to be fulfilled?
Schools need to have a range of services and responses available.
Specialist services
Most schools have access to specialist services, provided in house by professional counselors and medical staff, or outsourced by referral to professional practices. The complexity of contemporary student and family behavioral and health needs requires speedy access to information and support with respect to child abuse, eating disorders, substance abuse, family relationships, ADHD, mood disorders, suicidal feelings and acts, and learning and social difficulties. Even where teaching staff are trained and retrained on such matters, they need regular updating on these conditions and how to handle them effectively.
Teaching staff
If teaching staff are expected to be deeply involved in pastoral care of students, and giving advice, not merely information and referral, to students, parents and guardians, then this role becomes part of the job profile in recruitment processes, and in position descriptions. New staff, without direct experience of the school s manner of delivery of its pastoral program may be exempt from such a role in their first year, or assigned to a mentor, until fully aligned with the school s ethos and style. An orientation package for staff is as important as that for parents or Board Members or students.
Staff involved in pastoral care need and should receive, regular professional development on all the matters they are expected to know and handle. It is very important that they know what they are not to handle but must refer, as well as how they are expected to respond to the student and family needs they encounter.
Training needs to cover the appropriate identification of symptoms, the records to be kept particularly with respect to current privacy legislation, the contexts of need for witnesses, the contexts where confidentiality cannot be guaranteed, the limits upon them which staff are obliged to inform their clients, mediation and conflict resolution, communicating difficult messages, and handling grief and loss. It cannot be assumed because staff may or may not be parents themselves, and even have naturally empathic qualities, and lots of relevant life and school experience, that they have all the relevant background and skills required to be effective contemporary pastoral carers.
Time
A key issue for schools is the time allocated for pastoral care staff and the students in their care, in groups and individually, to get together. Some schools allow one group session per week, others one per day. Staff then make appointments with individual students outside these times - before and after school, at lunch, or by withdrawal from class. These appointments may be initiated by either staff or students.
Some pastoral care staff arrange to see each of their students on a regular basis whether or not a specific cause has arisen. Other staff rely on a specific need occurring. Some contact parents once per term or once per semester as a matter of course. Others see or speak to parents only at parent/teacher nights.
Principals should determine whether the timing and occurrence of such contact between pastoral care staff and the students in their care is a matter for each staff member, whether parameters are included in the job description, or whether it is a matter of school policy, and clearly legislated and reviewed on a regular basis. It should not be left to chance or individual idiosyncrasy.
Openness
Another issue facing schools is the openness with which pastoral care staff talk about and share information about the students in their care. Some play their cards very close to their chests, and jealously guard information lest other staff blurt it out in class or misuse it in their relationship with the student concerned or other students.
A common practice is to arrange regular meetings of pastoral staff to discuss issues affecting t