Pastoral Care

At Loreto, inspired by the spirit of Mary Ward, we do all we can to ensure our students learn in an atmosphere of freedom, sincerity, truth, justice and joy. This underpins our pastoral care, and the fact that all students belong to houses named after these values acts as a constant reminder of their importance.

In each Year Group there are five forms, one for each house. Each form has its own tutor, with whom the pupils meet twice a day, and this tutor is therefore the main point of contact between home and school. The tutors will register the pupils and monitor their attendance, liaise with their parents, keep them informed about school activities, remind them about importance events, help them out if they have any problems, and generally make sure everything is going as smoothly as possible for them at school. All forms have Learning Support Assistants available to them, and lower school forms often have Sixth Form prefects working with them too.

Our Sixth Form pupils have always been a great help to the younger pupils, and they often offer them useful advice if they are experiencing problems of any sort. Sometimes pupils face significant challenges such as the death of a loved one, and should they find such issues difficult to cope with our Heads of Year are able to refer them to a trained counsellor who is based at the school.

The Heads of Year work closely with the form tutors to ensure that our students are able to work in a safe and productive environment. For this reason, form tutors will refer to the Heads of Year any pupil who persistently breaks school rules. The Head of Year may use a variety of sanctions to help establish a better approach to school life from these pupils. If class teachers are concerned about persistent misbehaviour from a pupil, they will refer the pupil to the relevant Head of Department, who will draw on a similar array of sanctions. In extreme circumstances where pupils continue to misbehave, the Head of Year or Head of Department may refer them to a member of the School Leadership Team, at which point parents will certainly be invited in to discuss their daughter’s behaviour. By ensuring a consistent approach we aim to maintain the high standards of which the College is justifiably proud.

Every September we invite all parents into school to learn about key elements to the year ahead, and this helps the school and parents to maintain a strong partnership. The pupils are all given diaries which parents and tutors are asked to look at on a weekly basis, and this helps them to keep up regular contact with one another.

All pupils take part in daily prayers and also attend various assemblies led by their Head of Year or a member of the Senior Leadership Team. Sometimes they will contribute to these assemblies themselves, and they may well take part in various other events which help them to grow in confidence, to develop their organisational skills, and to make a positive contribution to the life of the school.

In lessons our teachers mainly focus on the academic development of the pupils, they do also keep an eye on their personal development, and will often plan activities which help with this as much as with their subject knowledge. Occasionally we suspend the timetable so that pupils can take part in specific activities relating to their Personal, Social and Health Education.

For information on the Loreto “Learning For Life” (PSHE) curriculum, click here.

For information on how Loreto promotes “British Values”, click here.