Why Arnold Lodge?
Children who feel safe, happy and confident are the ones who will make the most progress academically, socially and personally.
By placing the pastoral care of our children at the heart of all that we do, Arnold Lodge creates an environment where our pupils are able to make outstanding academic progress in a space where they feel able to grow.
The quality of pastoral care is outstanding, drawing strongly on the teachers’ excellent knowledge of the pupils and the high degree of trust evident in strong relationships between pupils and staff and amongst the pupils themselves.
Independent Schools Inspectorate, 2016
We understand that each child is unique, possessing their own blend of abilities and needs.
The feedback in our most recent Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) Report praised the quality of pastoral care as “outstanding”.
Form Mentors
Our Form Mentors build excellent pastoral relationships with the pupils in their form group and their parents, too. As well as monitoring each child’s academic progress, Form Mentors deal with any personal difficulties that emerge as our pupils move through their school years.
Pupils will meet with their form mentor twice a day with one session a week dedicated to Form Time.
School Counsellor
Small classes, an ethos built on kindness, happiness and confidence as well as our excellent teachers working within the mentor programme goes a long way to supporting each child. In addition to this, we also have a Counsellor in school on a full-time basis to be a listening ear and provide an extra layer of support. Some pupils will see the Counsellor regularly and some for a very short time to help them through a specific moment. Either way, our School Counsellor forms a key part of our welfare network.
We inspire individuals to blossom.
A Family School
Pastoral care is not limited to a Form Tutor, of course. Every single member of staff is part of our pastoral care and with small class sizes (on average 14 pupils), our teachers are able to continue to make certain that every single pupil in their class is happy, safe and learning to the best of their abilities.
This approach allows pupils to feel a sense of belonging at our school that gives them the security and self-confidence to thrive personally, socially and academically.
Nurturing the Whole Child
We place great emphasis on nurturing the whole child, with pupils encouraged to explore who they are and the role they play in society. Far from producing an assembly line of children all fitting the same mould, we inspire individuals to blossom.
Personal Review
We take pastoral care as seriously as we do our academic provision. For this reason, we invest in a range of methods to track pupil welfare.
Each half-term, pupils will reflect on their Attitude2Learning with their Form Tutors across their subjects to review their own progress to help them to become reflective and engaged learners.
Much like our cognitive ability tests (CAT's) for setting targets, we also evaluate our pupils’ attitude to school and self (PASS) and we regularly conduct pupil surveys to track how they are feeling about school.
This allows us to ensure that our pupils are happy, confident and safe in school and this, in turn, lets them make huge progress in an environment where they feel valued.