At St Thomas More Catholic School we endeavour to support all students in achieving their maximum potential in all aspects of school life.
The pastoral system is centred on the Form Tutor as a first point of contact. Form Tutors are the key people in the school life of their tutees; they remain with their tutor group throughout Key Stages 3 and 4 thus enabling the forging of valuable relationships between the form tutor and tutee and home.
The Form Tutor’s role is to guide and support the development and progress of each individual student in his/her care. Each year group has a Head and Assistant Head of Year who also remain with the year group throughout both Key Stages. It is their responsibility to monitor students’ social and academic progress and development thus ensuring that appropriate intervention takes place as required.
Students are further supported by a team of non teaching staff. This team includes our St John Vianney staff, our lay chaplain and our attendance and inclusion manager.
We also work closely with external partners such as Blakemores, the NHS and educational theatre companies, to ensure the best outcomes for our students.
Everything we do in our school is aimed at helping our students realise their potential, whatever their starting point, so that they can grow into informed, thoughtful and responsible young citizens.
We firmly believe that all students have a role to play in the smooth running of our school therefore they have the opportunity to express their opinions through the School Council. Other examples of student involvement in taking on responsibilities are our Youth SVP Group, Lourdes Group, and FABS. By encouraging student participation we aim to empower them to manage any difficulties they may have and to develop high self esteem which enables academic and social success. Our Life Skills programme further develops the concept of creating citizens who are able and willing to play their full part in society.
Our Acceptable Behaviour Code, which was devised by students and staff, outlines our behavioural expectations and it underpins our Behaviour policy.
Underlying everything we do is our mission statement which places an emphasis on establishing Christian values which entail respect for oneself, all members of our community and the wider community and the environment in which we live and work.
As a school we are firmly committed to developing and maintaining strong home school links therefore we welcome and encourage parents/carers to be closely involved in all aspects of their child’s life in school. We know that this supportive partnership is invaluable as it can enable us to better meet the individual needs of each student.