Junior School pastoral care
Pupil wellbeing is at the heart of all our thinking and teaching
OUR PUPILS
We take great care to ensure that pupils joining the school are made to feel welcome and settled. Pupils are placed in one of five classes across the year group and assigned to one of our four houses.
Pastoral care is deeply embedded in the ethos of the whole community. Form tutors provide the first point of contact for children and parents. We have an Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) who is available to all pupils, along with a Family Wellbeing Practitioner and two counsellors. Our Learning Support team work closely with pastoral and wellbeing teams to attend to children’s individual learning needs.
HOUSE SYSTEM
Each child will have a Head of House who helps them fully engage in the life of the school, offering a consistent point of support during their four years in Junior School.
There are regular events and activities across the year, which help to build team spirit and enable pupils to form friendships across the year groups, try new skills and develop leadership qualities.
We retain very close links with our Senior School, to which most pupils transfer at age 11, providing a secure continuity of education.
Every child is nurtured and encouraged to grow to the best of their ability making it a happy and positive place.
Junior School parent, 2024
SCHOOL VALUES AND CHARACTER EDUCATION
Highgate Junior School aims to nurture core values such as curiosity, respect, empathy and determination through our Character Education programme.
We have three simple expectations of our pupils:
- To demonstrate respect for oneself and others
- To understand, reflect and learn from experiences
- To embrace successes, failures and challenges and own it
In Years 3 and 5, all classes have 25 minutes of Principal’s Time to support their social and emotional development. All pupils engage in weekly circle time and form times, which support the development of important life skills such as organisation, self-awareness, empathy, emotional regulation, motivation, resilience and problem solving.
The pastoral care is everything you could possibly want for your child. Junior School parent, 2024
Each member of staff helps to foster a sense of belonging. Junior School parent, 2024
The pastoral care, wellbeing and SEN support at Highgate is exceptional at every level. Junior School parent 2024
OUR PARENTS
We strive to foster an authentic partnership with our parents/carers; working together to support the academic and emotional growth of the young people in our care.
We believe it is essential that parents/carers are provided with objective, constructive and regular feedback on the progress of their children. We provide parent-teacher consultation evenings twice a year, full academic reports at the end of each term and staff are available outside these times should parents/carers want extra support.
