Pastoral
Pastoral Care
The personal development, health and wellbeing of our students is of most importance to us. As a parent, you need to feel assured that your child will be well looked-after throughout their school journey, as it is this sense of safety and support that underpins student well-being and good progress. Ensuring student well-being is fundamental to Rishworth's structures for support, advice and guidance.
We pride ourselves on a pastoral care programme that centres around the Form Tutor; a teacher who will be a key person in the day-to-day care and support of every student throughout their time at school. Form Tutors have daily contact with our students and are the first point of contact for parents/carers.
- There is an experienced team of designated Child Protection staff.
- All staff have responsibility for ensuring the highest level of pastoral care is provided.
- All staff are part of our mentoring scheme. This scheme is for students that have been identified through formal and informal monitoring and are identified as having a low feelings of self-esteem, organisational issues or are showing signs of being disengaged.
- All staff are trained in child protection procedures to ensure the safeguarding of all students.
Both Rishworth Prep and Rishworth Senior prides itself on excellent standards of pastoral care. The welfare of our children is paramount and this is reflected in our ISI inspection reports. Our staff are committed to guiding and supporting our pupils in the School’s values and vision.
Each form teacher is responsible for the pastoral welfare of their pupils and is the main point of contact for parents. Form time occurs first thing in the morning and immediately after lunch and this allow pupils to build positive relationships with their peers, and our small class sizes enable us to really get to know the children.
Using our online registers, we can track and monitor attendance and punctuality of our pupils. We use an MIS system called iSams to track and log behaviours, both good and bad. The Head has overall responsibility for pastoral matters and reports to staff regularly on all matters. All pupils have contributed to our mutually agreed Student Code of Conduct and abide by them.
PSHCE Curriculum
The school has developed a PSHCE curriculum that incorporates a range of topics and themes, with a particular emphasis on wellbeing. Various speakers and external agencies visit the school and provide workshops covering a variety of topics from drug awareness, keeping safe and e-safety. We have organised talks by the NSPCC on important safeguarding matters, ‘Stay Safe, Speak out’, as well as arranging for pupils to undertake First Aid Training.
Behaviour
Our Rewards and Sanctions policy reflects our positive approach, rewarding good behaviour. We do not tolerate bullying and have a strict anti-bullying policy in place. We also encourage all pupils to speak openly about their mental health and to seek help when appropriate.
All pupils are given a House from Reception age and collect ‘Golds’ as part of the House Competition. Certificates are awarded to individuals who collect 10, 25, and 50 Golds across the term. We award Headteacher certificates to pupils who have made particularly good progress in a specific area, demonstrated excellent citizenship, or demonstrated one of our ‘key values for life’. Our weekly achievers assembly is a time when we collectively celebrate success in and out of school together.
House and Tutorial System
All children and staff belong to one of our four houses named after local dams :
- Boothwood (Blue/Purple)
- Ringstone (Red/Gold)
- Scammonden (Yellow/Black)
- Baitings (Green/Silver)