Pastoral Care
We follow a DfE accredited programme called Thrive and our safeguarding lead is a licenced practitioner. At the heart of our approach is a culture of care, kindness and compassion.
Your child spends the first 25 minutes of their day with their tutor following a programme of activities designed to help them thrive in school. They also have an assembly once a week led by their head of year. Other days are themed. For example, we have well-being Wednesday when students use an interactive tool to gauge how things are going and the Friday Debate when they discuss a topic of national or international importance. A highlight of each term is our success assemblies when we celebrate all the wonderful things our students have done. Students are also in houses and compete in competitions and charity events spread throughout the year.
The pastoral structure is led by two assistant principals, one for safeguarding and behaviour respectively. We also have an operational safeguarding lead, mental health lead, head of re-engagement, re-engagement officer, anti-bullying officer, head of behaviour systems and medical officer, as well as plenty of counsellors and mentors who come to school on a scheduled basis. Casterton is an accredited anti-bullying school by the UK Anti-Bullying Alliance (ABA).
Personal development is led by four personal development directors for personal, social and health education, democracy, leadership and participation, identity, culture and community and career, aspirations and overcoming disadvantage. They foster a strong sense of community, responsibility, ambition and humanity for our students, so they will become good citizens in later life.
Finally, we mustn't forget Radar, our fully trained therapy dog!
Meet our Pastoral team.
Assistant Principals
Abi Hibbins
Mary Mindham
Head's of Year
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![]() Miss Nichols Y8 |
![]() Mr Perry Y9 |
![]() Mrs James Y10 |
![]() Mrs Henriet Y11 |
The heart of the pastoral structure is student services, which also incorporates our medical room. We don't call our students 'clients' or customers because they are people, not recipients of a business transaction. Year heads follow their year group through our school so that good relationships are established with students and their parents. They also lead assemblies and our tutorial programme.
Student Services
Miss Johnson
Behaviour Systems Manager
Mr Hicks
Head of Re-Engagement and Behaviour
Ms Brockbank
Re-Engagement and Behaviour Officer
SEMH (Social, Emotional, Mental Health)
Mrs Anelli
Head of Mental Health - SEMH
Miss Farnsworth
Wellbeing Counsellor
Radar
Therapy Dog