Care and Guidance

Our Pastoral System

Every student is treated as an individual in our fully inclusive and caring community. At Sheldon we pride ourselves on the quality of care, guidance and support given to our pupils across all year groups. Our pastoral support systems ensure that students are happy in school and are ready to learn.

Positive rewards play a significant role in Sheldon and students can gain praise points through our online Epraise system and earn certificates and prizes.

We have six core values that students should adhere to and these values underpin our approach to managing behaviour. These ‘Sheldon Six’ mean students should: arrive on time, be respectful, come equipped, dress smart, engage fully and follow instructions.

Home and School Partnership

The pupil / parent / school relationship is very important at Sheldon. As soon as a pupil joins the Sheldon community, a series of links are forged between home and school.

Year groups are organised into tutor groups under the guidance of the same tutor, head of year and deputy head of year from Year 7 through to Year 11. Parents have the opportunity to meet the tutor and involve themselves with Parents’ Forums for each year group. The tutor is the first point of call between home and school, as the tutor sees their tutees twice every day. A regular dialogue is established between home and the school via the tutor. Every pupil has a planner and parents are encouraged to use this for simple communication with school.

Each tutor group has a tutorial session at the start of each morning and afternoon. During these sessions the tutor leads a programme of tutorial work designed to enhance pastoral care, develop study skills and review work and progress. In addition, each tutor uses one teaching period per week to work with individual children from their group. These one-to-one sessions enable every pupil to discuss and review progress with their tutor on an individual basis and to set targets for future work.

Sheldon operates a comprehensive reporting system, featuring annual written reports on each subject and two additional interim reports. Parents’ evenings enable parents to meet staff to discuss progress and identify targets. Parents’ Forums meet regularly with the head of year and members of the senior management team to review practice and discuss future developments.

Pastoral Team 2023-24

Pupil Support Team

Our pupil support team, made up of six pupil support workers and a full time counsellor from September, provide additional support and mentoring for students who need it. They will work with parents and teachers to ensure the right support is put in place in order for students to be ready to learn in class.

Child Protection

Sheldon School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

We want every child to feels safe and our tutor programme is designed to ensure all children know what to do and where to go when they need help. This help is available from a wealth of people with wide-ranging skills and experiences depending on the need of each child. These vary from the tutor, head of year, deputy head of year, prefect team, sixth form mentors, pupil support workers, school nurse, school matron, Relateen school counsellor and our Child Protection Officer.

Mr John Rumble is Sheldon's Designated Safeguarding Lead. Please contact Mr Rumble if you need to make us aware of any safeguarding concerns.

Dr A Simpson (Deputy Headteacher), Miss S Mundy (Assistant Headteacher), Mr Eugene Spiers (Assistant Headteacher), Mr J Scourfield (Assistant Headteacher) and Miss M Owen (Head of Year 11) are our Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads.

It should be noted that it might be necessary for the school to contact Social Services in the event of any child protection issues.