Pastoral Care

At Holmwood House, we firmly believe that providing a happy learning environment is the key to each child’s progress and future success. We provide a safe and nurturing environment where every single pupil is seen, heard, and supported on an individual level.

Through our Tutor/Tutee conferencing sessions, we aim to ensure the best possible learning experience for every pupil, where they are encouraged to take ownership of their learning.

Through our buddy, element and prefect system, we provide our older pupils with mentoring and leadership opportunities. It also allows our younger pupils to have extra support and attention from their fellow pupils, in addition to our caring staff. Staff promote pupils’ self-confidence through support, praise, and encouragement. Every child’s achievements, academically and beyond the classroom, are celebrated and recognised.

Pastoral care is regarded as a major strength of our school community.

Care, Courtesy, and Consideration are at the heart of our Code of Conduct for all pupils and staff, referred to most frequently as the 3Cs
When a child enters the school, he/she is attached to one of three Elements or Houses: Air, Land, or Water.
Our robust and caring pastoral system supports each child to be motivated to reach their potential.

Tutor/Tutee Mentoring Sessions

As part of our commitment to ensuring we provide the best possible learning experience for each child, we hold twice-yearly Tutor/Tutor Mentor conferencing sessions for pupils in Years 4-8. These sessions aim to ensure children take ownership of their learning and understand the steps required to reach their full potential. In these one-to-one meetings, we encourage pupils to reflect on their learning journey, looking at their strengths and weaknesses and identifying targets (based on our 5Rs and SPARK approach) for the next term.

We also use these meetings to discuss the wider aspects of school life and look at the responses each child made on their PASS (Pupil Attitudes to Self and School) survey to help us identify whether they require extra pastoral support; we recognise that social and emotional wellbeing is essential for effective learning and making progress at school.

An open-door policy for parents

Excellent pastoral care relies on a strong partnership between parents and teachers. By sharing insights and maintaining open communication, both can support a child’s well-being more effectively. This collaboration ensures consistent care, builds trust, and helps the child thrive both at home and in school. We have an open-door policy with parents, and we are always happy to discuss concerns and thoughts. You will always find our leadership team on the front doorstep of the school building at drop-off time, meaning that it is easy to address issues before they escalate. Similarly, it is always possible to chat to the class teacher of pre-prep children at the pre-prep building.

Our wellbeing team

Our teacher-led pastoral team is supported by our wellbeing assistants. They provide day-to-day practical and emotional support to pupils as needed. The wellbeing assistants work to identify patterns of behavior among students and collaborate with teachers and the pastoral team when additional support is required.

For our older children, we offer an initiative called ‘In a Tangle’. It gives pupils a simple and discreet way to contact our wellbeing and pastoral team by email if something is worrying them—whether it’s related to school, friendships, or something online. We’ve found this makes it much easier for children to reach out and ask for help when they need support.