The school commits to a high quality pastoral care system. The aim is to
- Ensure the personal and social well-being of each boy by addressing issues of physical and emotional health and development, behaviour, and moral and social education
- Guide each boy's academic progress and ambitions
- Encourage each boy to contribute to the school and house community
- Manage behaviour, encouraging tolerance and respect through rewards and sanctions
- Protect each boy but still challenge him
The House is at the heart of the pastoral care system, creating the small group identity that allows boys to feel secure and contribute meaningfully to house as well as school activities. The aim of the school is continuously to review the effectiveness of the house system in this respect by
- Ensuring that the needs of both boarders and day boys are equally well served
- Upgrading the physical condition of the houses to a standard that competes with other similar schools
- Developing the roles of housemasters and house pastoral teams through regular review and professional development to ensure consistency and continuity of care
- Committing to the provision of a full but flexible boarding education in a predominantly boarding school and ensuring that the school maintains the 'outstanding' quality rating achieved in the 2008 Ofsted Boarding Inspection
- Ensuring that the interests of overseas boarders are appropriately protected and promoted through liaison with the International Co-ordinator
- Ensuring that the views of boys are considered in the management of houses
- Working with parents to involve them in the pastoral care of their sons
The school also recognises that the house system must be backed up by other supporting structures in the delivery of pastoral care. This will involve
- Ensuring an effective PSHE programme to promote a healthy, fulfilled and responsible lifestyle and to strengthen emotional intelligence
- Developing the student voice agenda on school as well as house issues
- Having robust child protection, anti-bullying and health and safety cultures
- Providing a caring and efficient medical service, primarily to boarders
- Promoting the role of the School Counsellor to the whole school community
- Developing the role of the Welfare Group in the sharing of information on those pupils deemed to be 'at risk' and helping housemasters to write welfare plans for those with particular difficulties
- Responding appropriately, through SMT and Governor monitoring, to all external legislation and guidelines, including the National Minimum Boarding Standards, the Every Child Matters agenda, and Safer Recruitment procedures.