The Pastoral System

How a child settles into the Academy, feels happy and secure and is encouraged to do well will determine his or her success. With this in mind, we try to provide a holistic approach to student care which supports every student throughout their secondary career. We seek to empower students to be able to make a life for themselves that is fulfilling, enjoyable and responsible.  These aims are central to the Aspirations’ Framework.

There are number of very important people in our pastoral system:

Form Tutor: Every student will meet with their tutor before they join Budmouth and that will stay with them through key Stage 3 and 4. This relationship is vital as it allows the tutor to get to know the student and establish a continuity of care. Each tutor group belongs to one of our 4 ‘Schools within Schools’.  Attenborough, Hawking, Shelley and Turing are vertically arranged and comprise students from Year 7 to 13.

Heads of School: The Head of School leads a team of tutors who, in turn, belong to the subject areas’ associated within that ‘school’.  Every student belongs to one of the four ‘Schools within Schools’.  These provide a basis for students to work together in a number of ways including: School Council, competitions, events, charity fundraising and to take on important student leadership roles associated with this.

Pastoral Support Leaders: Our Pastoral Support Leaders are not members of the teaching staff and they have a dedicated role to help support our students’ social and emotional well-being.  They work closely with students who need additional support and will liaise with Heads of School, Teachers, Senior Leadership Team, outside agencies and, of course, parents.

Student Support Centre:

Our Student Support Centre offers a safe base with a calm, nurturing environment. The team of Mrs Lawrence, Mrs Leigh, Mrs Wellaway and Mr Cheeseman are able to offer a range of interventions including ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant), Resilience, Anxiety and Self-Esteem Support, Social Skills and Transition groups. We also use Boxall Profiling to support timetabled, personalised sessions.The emphasis of all interventions is to remove barriers to learning and support young people in achieving their full potential.

Our Student Support Centre has confidential intervention spaces, as well as rooms for group activities and private study, and a comfortable lounge and kitchen area. We offer a Breakfast Club, held before the start of school, allowing students a calm and sociable start to the day and the opportunity to talk to members of the team.

We are a wholly inclusive centre and operate with an open door policy.

School Counsellor: We are fortunate to employ a full time counsellor. Our confidential counselling service can be accessed via self-referral (students over the age of 13 and deemed Gillick Competent) or via referral from members of our pastoral support team.

For further information about Pastoral Care at Budmouth please contact Vice Principal Mr P Midworth: pmidworth@budmouth-aspirations.org.

Bullying at Budmouth Academy

 Is defined as the repetitive, intentional harming of one person or group by another person or group, where the relationship involves an imbalance of power. Bullying is, therefore:

  • Deliberately hurtful.
  • Repeated, often over a period of time.
  • Difficult to defend against

 Bullying can include:

Type of bullying Definition
Emotional Being unfriendly, excluding, tormenting
Physical Hitting, kicking, pushing, taking another’s belongings, any use of violence
Racial Racial taunts, graffiti, gestures
Sexual Explicit sexual remarks, display of sexual material, sexual gestures, unwanted

physical attention, comments about sexual reputation or performance, or

inappropriate touching

Verbal Name calling, sarcasm, spreading rumours, teasing
Cyber-Bullying Bullying that takes place online, such as through social networking sites,

messaging apps or gaming sites

Through our PSHE curriculum and assemblies, the academy will educate our students on the harm of bullying and the action students can take to reduce its incidence and overcome its consequences.

We will publicise across the academy and at regular opportunities guidance to students on who they can approach for support should they be bullied. This also includes WHISPER our anonymous reporting system.

The following steps may be taken when dealing with incidents of bullying:

If during a lesson a teacher may apply normal sanctions and follow up after the lesson as set out below.

  • If bullying is suspected or reported, the incident will be dealt with immediately by the member of staff who has been approached. This member of staff will report the incident to the appropriate Pastoral Leader

(Head of School, Pastoral Support Leader).

  • The Pastoral Leader will interview the alleged victim and record all on a witness statement. The extent of the bullying will be ascertained and the name of the alleged perpetrator(s) identified. This should be recorded in SIMS as a linked document to the student’s file. The Pastoral Leader will arrange for any required support for the student (e.g. Academy Counsellor, outside agency support). An entry will be made into the school’s electronic bullying log.
  • The Pastoral Leader will interview the perpetrator(s). This student will be required to reflect on their behaviour and its consequences, give a reason for them and identify steps they will take to prevent a repetition. They will be issued an Academy sanction for the harm they have caused.
  • The Pastoral Leader will communicate with the parents of both the victim and perpetrator to inform them of action the academy has taken.

BUDMOUTH ACADEMY

ANTI-BULLYING CHARTER

For pupils who experience bullying behaviour:

  • they are heard and they know how to report bullying and get help
  • they are confident in the schools ability to deal with the bullying behaviour and steps are taken to help them feel safe again

 

For pupils who engage in bullying behaviour:

  • sanctions and learning programmes hold them to account for their behaviour and help them to face up to the harm they have caused
  • they learn to behave in ways which do not cause harm in future, because they have developed their emotional skills and knowledge

 

For the school community:

  • the whole school community is clear about the anti-bullying stance the school takes and all pupils are clear about the roles they can take in preventing bullying, including the role of bystanders

BUDMOUTH ACADEMY 

ANTI-BULLYING STRUCTURE

Where next

Principal's Welcome

Thank you for your interest in Budmouth Academy. Whatever your reason for visiting our website, I hope that you are able to access the information…

Principal's Welcome

We use cookies to analyse usage of the website.
Collecting this data allows us to make the website work as well as possible.

Find out more