Effective pastoral care underpins children’s personal development. 

At St James, we know from experience that with outstanding pastoral care, children feel they belong and their self-esteem is able to flourish because they recognise that they are valued and cared for.  We believe that good pastoral support focuses on nurturing the individual needs of each child, working alongside parents and carers to ensure children make good progress in all aspects of their lives during their time with us at St James.  We want everyone involved with our school to feel well-supported and to be able to ‘let their light shine.’ 

We are committed to making a difference; we are not passive players in young people’s lives but active participants who can, and do, make a real difference. These are a reflection of the school’s curriculum intent statement and core values: love, respect, unity and courage. 

Our Menu of Pastoral support at St James  

• Highly experienced, empathetic teaching and support teams who are always available to the children. 
• Dedicated SENCO, who supports families by signposting to external support and provides resources to the wider pastoral support team in school. 
• Two Emotional Literacy Support Assistants who deliver targeted work with children.  
• Healthy Mind Worry boxes in each class.  
• Assembly themes that support mental health and wellbeing  
• Spiralling PSHE curriculum where themes of feelings are discussed regularly. 
• A culture where all adults are here to help the children 'let their light shine.' 
• Open door policy for children to access Headteacher or Deputy if they are worried and need to talk. 
• TAs work as Lunchtime assistants to ensure consistency of support in structured and unstructured times.   
• We value everyone and believe in courageously showing love and respect for others and ourselves, to build unity. 
• A trained mental Health first aider available to support staff and pupils.  
• Embedded use of Zones of Regulation to enable pupils to identify and name their emotions.
• A Behaviour Policy that is underpinned by the values of the school and restorative justice
• Staff greet the children daily at the gate and provide support where needed.  
• Family Support worker to work alongside families and be the link between home and school.  
• Extra Curricular activities to support our teaching of healthy minds.  

  Through our pastoral work at St James, we aim to:  

• Support and work alongside parents in addressing pastoral concerns impacting on their child’s learning and development. 
• Create empathic relationships with all our pupils and their families, which are built on trust.  Together, our staff team works with children and their families so they can lead fulfilling and balanced lives whilst at St James and beyond. 
• Meet with parents/carers to discuss issues relating to their child and where required, support parents and carers in accessing external support e.g. through the Early Help Assessment process. 
• Work with the wider staff team to ensure effective support for pupils that builds upon the caring and respectful relationships that exist between staff, pupils and families. 
• Provide bespoke emotional support for individual children; listening and talking to children who may need assistance on a variety of pastoral issues, for example, self-esteem and confidence, bereavement, managing feelings, anxieties/worries, separation and developing social and friendships skills. 
• Recognise the importance of enabling the voice of the child to be heard, in order to promote safeguarding and well-being.  Sometimes, supporting the pastoral needs of pupils involves working with external agencies. In these situations we ensure that confidential, non-judgmental and sensitive support is provided. 

We act with determination and we act proactively to support and encourage our pupils, to improve their life chances. Our school’s ethos of ‘let your light shine", is underpinned by the bible story of not hiding your light under a basket. Matthew 5:16