Guidance and Support
The care and welfare of every single pupil at St James' concerns us all.
Great care is taken within our transition programme to ensure that full information about each child is forwarded to us from the primary school.
Within St James' the heads of year and form tutors continuously supervise, monitor and guide pupils through their five-year stay at the school. This team enjoys a very high level of contact and co-operation with parents and anyone else genuinely interested in a particular pupil's well-being and progress. In all matters of support and discipline parents are involved at an early stage and, in turn, parents are encouraged to contact school whenever they have any worry or concern.
The Pastoral Team
Heads of Year
Each Head of Year has responsibility for the welfare and progress of all pupils within the year group. They are the member of staff who parents should contact to seek advice, discuss problems or raise matters of specific concern. Pastoral Support Managers. We have two Pastoral Support Managers, Ms Pilling (Key Stage 4) and Ms Chadwick (Key Stage 3), who work closely with pupils throughout the school offering advice and support both in curricular and extra-curricular time. They have a non-teaching role within the school. Form Tutors have day to day responsibility for 25/26 pupils. Their main role is to monitor a pupil's attendance, punctuality and general well being. It is to the Form Tutor that parents will normally send their routine correspondence. New pupils will meet their form tutor and other children in their class on the "Intake Day" in June. The Form Tutors will generally remain with their form for the duration of their time at school.
Secretary/Attendance Officer
The pastoral team is supported by the pastoral secretary/attendance officer, Mrs Harries who is the first point of contact for parents and carers with reference to any issues related to attendance and punctuality.Special Educational Needs. At St James' we have developed a comprehensive approach to this area of school life. Our assistant headteacher, responsible for Key Stage 3, works with our partner primary schools and identifies children with special educational needs before they come to St James'. We also have a member of the teaching staff who has the position of special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO) and this teacher supervises our provision throughout the school and with external support agencies including the “Learning Support Service”. St James' has a school nurse based in our medical room and all the necessary medical care is available together with a programme of health education within the curriculum. There are also staff who are trained 'first-aiders'. Our school also has the services of an educational welfare officer who deals with pupils' problems and gives support and advice to families. We are also able to call upon the support of an educational psychologist who will see pupils and parents by appointment. St James' is designed to accommodate pupils with physical disabilities and accordingly the school has no stairs and all areas of the school are accessible by wheelchair users. In addition the school follows the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act. The local authority has produced an accessibility plan for the school and this is available on request. The special educational needs policy can be found on the school’s website and is subject to review on an annual basis by the Staff & Pupils Committee of the Governing Body. The school has a named senior member of staff with specific responsibility for child protection issues. Action taken is in compliance with national and LA guidelines and in accordance with legal requirements.