Pastoral Care
At PGHS we care for the physical and emotional wellbeing of every pupil. We aim to provide a supportive environment where each pupil can develop as a unique person and adopt a positive attitude to health, fitness and self-image. It is essential for every pupil to feel that they are an important part of the community able to contribute to the life of the school. Each pupil’s happiness is important to members of staff and to other pupils.
Being part of the Palmers Green High School community involves learning to respect others and to live alongside people holding different opinions.
Class Teachers in the Lower School and Form Tutors in the Senior School, who work closely with the Deputy Head, are the first point of pastoral contact and are readily available to talk to both pupils and parents. Alongside a supportive PSHEE programme of study, Form Time across the whole School provides excellent opportunities for group discussion, where pupils can talk about a wide range of topics and current affairs not connected to academic work. There are also plenty of opportunities during the school day when pupils can arrange to have a private word with a member of staff of their choice.
A robust pastoral programme, overseen by the Head and Deputy Head, ensures that every pupil is known as an individual and given every opportunity to thrive. Important elements of this include:
- Weekly pastoral meetings, held for each year group, where every pupil is discussed.
- A PSHEE curriculum from Year 1 – Year 11, which has been designed to promote positive relationships and to develop kindness, tolerance and respect for others.
- Special sessions and workshops to support the key transition points: from Nursery to Reception, Preps to Juniors and Year 6 into the Senior School.
- In Year 7, a thinking skills programme helps to develop communication skills, critical evaluation and improve self-expression. Our excellent Mentor Scheme pairs a Year 7 pupil with one from Year 10, helping the transition to secondary school and providing peer support and advice.
- A Mental Toughness programme in Year 8, which builds resilience and coping strategies and develops pupils’ target setting skills.
- Regular pupil progress meetings.
Tooled Up Education
We firmly believe in the importance of partnership between home and school, and this is why PGHS subscribes to a digital platform called: Tooled Up Education. This gives our families and our staff access to a digital library, packed full of evidence-based resources. Tooled Up is curated by one of the UK’s leading experts on parental engagement in children’s lives and learning, Dr Kathy Weston and her experienced team.
Tooled Up is an organisation with the mission to give every parent and teacher the tools needed to develop children into young adults who are self-confident, self-sufficient and full of self-worth; curious about the world and passionate about learning; digitally skilled and digitally resilient.
Girls on Board
At PGHS we use the Girls on Board approach, which helps girls, their parents and their teachers to understand the complexities and dynamics of friendships. The approach empowers girls to solve their own friendship problems and recognises that they are usually the only ones who can. Girls on Board sessions are non-judgmental and reflective, designed to raise empathy amongst the girls and it is that empathy that fuels the search for harmony and resolution. By empowering girls to find their own solutions, parents need worry less, schools can focus more on the curriculum and the girls learn more effectively – because they are happier.
