Pastoral Information
Form Tutors
Form Tutors are the students' first point of contact as they progress through school, building relationships as well as monitoring academic and personal progress, behaviour and attendance. Once a fortnight in tutor time, tutors lead a session from our Headstrong programme, which promotes and develops emotional health and wellbeing. View the Headstrong material.
Peer Mentors
Students from Years 10 and 12 have the opportunity to volunteer and train as Peer Mentors. This scheme is a valuable way to support our younger students who may be struggling with the transition to secondary school, friendships, or other concerns. Peer Mentors are trained and supervised by the Pastoral Team, fostering communication and developing skills that mentors and mentees alike will use later on in life.
Pastoral Team
The Pastoral Team work in conjunction with Form Tutors and Heads of Year to support students struggling with a range of emotional, social and health concerns.
The Pastoral room is a light and friendly space where students can sit quietly or speak to qualified and experienced Pastoral staff. The team offer a listening ear and ongoing emotional support.
- Head of Pastoral Support: Tara Batt-Corcoran
- Deputy Pastoral Lead: Hannah Mellor
- Pastoral Assistants - Years 10 & 11: Kate Parker, Charlene Weaver
- Pastoral Assistant - Sixth Form: Trudy Hankin
- Pastoral Administrators: Kate Parker, Bobbi Virdee
Outside agencies
Where appropriate, students and families may be referred to professional therapists in school for 1:1 or group sessions, including counsellors through NESSie (North Herts Emotional Support in Schools Service https://nessieined.com/), or mentoring with the Phase team (https://phase-hitchin.org/).
Where students or families require a higher tier of support around mental health, wellbeing and safeguarding, the Pastoral Team may liaise with external professionals to support a student’s treatment plan in school.
Further support
Apart from the below links to local sources of support, we have a huge list of other sources of help on our Useful Links page.
Also take a look at our A-Z Information for Parents page, where you will find a wealth of downloadable material covering all areas of wellbeing.
Our Support - Upcoming Events page has downloadable round-ups of webinars, workshops and local events, which are published weekly.
Bereavement support
Building resilience
www.gritcharity.org/the-program
Counselling help
www.tilehouse.org/young-peoples-counselling
Crisis support & early intervention
Self-referral for mental wellbeing
www.hpft.nhs.uk/wellbeing-service
Young carers in Herts
Youth projects
www.ychertfordshire.org/support-for-young-people/north-herts
Youth projects for young people with additional needs
www.ychertfordshire.org/youth-projects-for-young-people-with-learning-disabilities