Pastoral Care
Excellent pastoral care is key to happy children and a happy school. Without happiness, children can not learn to the best of their ability, so our emphasis on positive mental health, kindness and caring for others forms the backbone of our community; a community which genuinely includes children, staff and parents.
Our children are further supported by a senior mental health leader and a qualified therapist (BABCP).
The moment a child enters Littlegarth, they are cared for by their class or form teacher who is always the first point of contact for parents and staff. From Nursery to Year 3, the class teacher is usually with the children for the majority of each day. With small class sizes, teachers get to know their class, or any new pupils, quickly and builds up a positive relationship with each child.
In Years 4-6, children have a form teacher who greets them each morning, sees them before they go home at the end of the day and will be one of their specialist teachers. Small forms mean that teachers can quickly get to know their new class and to work individually with children through our special tutorial system and through daily conversations with their tutees. The form teacher or class teacher puts the pastoral care of each child at the forefront of their work and is keen to work with their tutees’ parents to ensure healthy communication and that children’s needs are always our collective priority.
Merits are used to reward good work, behaviour, manners or any other occasion when staff members feel a child deserves positive recognition. Merits are received by children from Year 1 and are collected towards House totals, with a weekly and termly cup awarded to the House with the most Merits; on Speech Day the final trophy is awarded to the winning House Prefects, taking into account all House competitions and Sports Day entries.
Our three Houses are named after famous local artists: Constable, Gainsborough and Munnings and children are placed in a house at the beginning of Year 1 and children wear a House badge on their uniform with pride.
Our Year 6 children all become School Prefects and each term we give individual children extra responsibilities linked with specific Houses or activities such as art, music and sport. The children take their responsibilities extremely seriously and they enjoy rising to the challenge of being a School Prefect and setting a good example to others in their role as senior ambassadors of Littlegarth. Each year two Head Prefects and two Deputy Head Prefects are chosen as key role models for the rest of the school.
Our commitment to ensuring the happiness of your child is at the heart of what Littlegarth believes in. The emphasis we put on the importance of the individual, and supporting each child in their personal development, has established our reputation as one of the leading schools across Suffolk and Essex.
