The Salopian no. 166 - Winter 2020-21

SCHOOL NEWS 13
Surviving and Thriving (3)
Pastoral Care ‘in remote’
The role of the Housemaster/Housemistress is first and foremost a pastoral role. Standing, as he or she
does, in loco parentis, the wellbeing of pupils under his/her care is paramount. Deputy Head (Pastoral)
Anna Peak looks back on how the Housemaster/mistress body met this challenge
during the remote Summer Term.
The pastoral role of the
Housemaster/mistress is at the
very heart of our community. A
house ensemble requires its leader
to sensitively conduct the ebb and
flow of the energetic, fun-loving
and interesting personalities within.
It is a job which at its heart is the
joy of having a thousand different
conversations daily about a range of
topics, and of being frequently taught
new things by the pupils alongside
whom we live. Our pupils are the
heartbeat of the School, and for those
of us on and around site during the
Summer Term 2020, their absence,
and the silence that came with it,
was overwhelming.
Human beings are social animals.
We do not need Darwin to remind
us of this evolutionary characteristic.
Whether we like the company of
many, or a select few, the truth is we
have built modern society through
social interactions, although not
always positive. Every fragment of
communication we create builds or
weakens social bonds. As a species
we enjoy coming together to share
common values and beliefs. There
is no better environment than the
comforting arms of a community. It
is only at our most comfortable that
we are willing to risk failure, to try
something different, because we know
we will be caught when we fall. It was
with these thoughts in mind that we
designed our pastoral framework for
the remote period. We knew that we
needed to keep talking, to be there to
support the pupils as we all entered
into the unknown together, and most
importantly we knew that we must
create familiar and solid foundations
on which the uncertainty of this
‘new normal’ could be tested and
experienced.
It was never going to be easy to check
in with all pupils across multiple time
zones, single out those in need of
further support, set systems up, circle
back to make sure the support was
working and engage with families
if needed. Add to this the need
to keep a sense of house identity
during this time and keep year group
dynamics working, and you can start
to appreciate what the landscape of
remote pastoral care was beginning
to look like. How would those being
supported by social services fair as
services began to suffer with staff
shortages outside the School’s control,
and how could we ensure those who
needed to continue with more complex
counselling and mental health support
could achieve this whilst confined to
their own homes?
An early consideration we had
was whether you can effectively
Housemaster/mistress through Zoom.
As useful as it is, with its amusing
renaming options and mute function, it
is hardly socially satisfying. You don’t
get the humorous asides, the supportive
glances, the feel of a hand on the
shoulder. Yet despite the challenges,
the time constraints, and hours it
required of them in front of the screen,
our pastoral staff wrapped their virtual
arms around their Houses in remote
and kept a sense of normal, to make
sure what was needed was achieved.
But it of course felt very different from
our usual way of working. We worked
from a timetable of interactions that
each Housemaster/mistress followed,
on the face of it a very strange and
controlled way to interact, but essential
if we were to ensure no one was left
out. Despite the fact teachers are used
to working off timetables, this felt an
odd way to plan pastoral care. It’s not a
‘paint by numbers’ role, it’s something
that is felt, a need that is sensed and
then reacted to. We operated through
a year group session twice a week,
once with the Housemaster/mistress
and once with the tutor, a weekly
1:1 session for all pupils with their
Housemaster/mistress, then adding
whole house daily recorded community
messages and challenges into the mix
as well.
At this juncture I believe it is worth
pausing to acknowledge that pupils
in remote experienced the usual
pattern of good and bad days that
were really no different to when they
are physically with us. The common
issues faced across all year groups
related to an ‘all over the place’ feeling
of being unmoored; a very normal
reaction to the unfamiliar. Pupils were
reporting tiring easily, despite the more
sedentary lifestyle they were operating
under. Their brains were working
hard, juggling complex tasks whilst
dealing with the different routines.
Other common support centred around
reactions to the fact that for some,
future-based goals, projects and dreams
had disappeared overnight, and of
course for our exam year groups the
unknown really was unknown right
up to the last minute and beyond. We
encouraged the pupils not to worry
and reassured them that what they