Pastoral Care
In early 2007 the college revealed plans to restructure how tutor groups, the main provision of pastoral care within the college, are organised, moving from the traditional horizontal structure to a more progressive vertical one. Although controversial, the plan progressed through consultation and has been put into place from September 2008.
The former structure saw each pupil belonging to a form group of around 30 pupils from their own year-group, which they remain in, together with a teacher acting as a tutor, for their entire school career. The new structure keeps a consistent teacher acting as a tutor to the group, but is mixed-age with pupils from all year groups being included in each mentoring group. This means that each group evolves every year, as older pupils leave and are replaced by younger pupils entering the school. Pupils entering the school are guaranteed, as in the past, to have at least one friend in their mentoring group.
Vertical structuring has been implemented in other secondary schools, the main advantages being seen as the mixing of ages leading to an increased sense of community, allowing for pupils to share experiences, foster understanding and reduce bullying.
Read more about this topic: Outwood Grange Academy
Famous quotes containing the words pastoral and/or care:
“Et in Arcadia ego.
[I too am in Arcadia.]”
—Anonymous, Anonymous.
Tomb inscription, appearing in classical paintings by Guercino and Poussin, among others. The words probably mean that even the most ideal earthly lives are mortal. Arcadia, a mountainous region in the central Peloponnese, Greece, was the rustic abode of Pan, depicted in literature and art as a land of innocence and ease, and was the title of Sir Philip Sidney’s pastoral romance (1590)
“Logic takes care of itself; all we have to do is to look and see how it does it.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)