Leading with Purpose in Pastoral Leadership – Pastoral Champions 2025
Pastoral leadership is often viewed as the backbone of a thriving school culture – Let me reframe here what I am saying is that pastoral leadership is the backbone underpinning the pre-requisites for student learning, setting conditions for teachers’ learning environments and it underpins the level of engagement to all learning content. In other words, strong pastoral leadership enables the foundations for strong teaching and learning to take place.
Yet, many of us in these roles are constantly juggling competing priorities. Between supporting students, leading staff, and driving improvement, it is very easy to slip into a reactive mode. But what if we could move past firefighting and start proactively shaping the culture of our schools? What if we could proactively shape the conditions for teaching and learning in our schools?
In this article, I will draw on key insights from some of the most impactful sessions on pastoral leadership, exploring what it truly takes to ‘win’ in this area. We will cover strategies for building a positive school culture, the power of proactive support, and how to embed high standards that drive success. These ideas are not just theoretical they are practical, data-driven approaches that any pastoral leader can apply to transform their school.
1. Understand How to WIN in Pastoral Leadership – Adam Brett, The Wilnecote School
Adam Brett’s session introduced the concept of empathy with accountability in pastoral leadership. He highlighted the importance of ‘understanding’ the root causes of student and staff behaviour before holding them accountable. By creating a culture where staff understand the reasons behind student and staff actions, you create space for reflection and growth, rather than simply enforcing the hierarchy of authority. This approach leads to improved emotional intelligence, both in staff and students, fostering self-regulation and ultimately ‘winning’ pastoral leadership.
Key Takeaway: Adam showed that we must move away from the “why” and shift to “understand” by developing empathy, you can build stronger, more accountable relationships with both staff and students.
Figure 1.1: Process for using “understand” in behavior management conversations from Adam Brett’s session
This approach not only supports staff and student behaviour but also creates a culture of shared responsibility and mutual respect. This was more than just a change of words, personally as a pastoral leader who is very specific about the use of terminology, this session showcased the power specific language and scripting to evoke a desired mode of thinking and enabling meaningful conversations to be conducted both amongst staff and students.
Figure 1.2: Process for using scripting and practicing before utilising in the field
Ultimately, we must highlight the importance of being extremely specific, intentional and purposeful regarding the manner of our dialogues – How the dialogue is framed is more important than the dialogue just being conducted. We can then really win if we are explicit with our approach here and then give ourselves the opportunity to practice and frame these conversations before they are utilised in the field of play.
2. Proactive Pastoral Support – Laura Donaldson, Magnus Church of England Academy
Laura Donaldson highlighted a crucial shift at Magnus Academy moving from reactive to proactive support. By embedding a proactive support structure i.e. morning late room (excellent idea!) within the school, including a pastoral support base and mental health interventions, Laura and her team ensure that no student falls through the cracks.
Figure 2.1: Impact of proactive support structure used at Magnus Academy
Her work shows how early intervention, informed by data, leads to better outcomes for students, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Two things, stood out in this session was the intentional use of collecting data conducive to demonstrating impact (this data was student driven and had students at the centre) but it was also the fact that the data collection tools were not made from scratch. Laura and her team used historical models conducive to their collective purpose where they were amended to suit the contexts of the school and to obtain the data that had correlated with the goals of the school.
Figure 2.2: Process of not reinventing the wheel – Take what may fit and remodel it to the needs of your school
Key Takeaway: Use data strategically to identify students at risk early and provide tailored support before issues escalate. Proactive pastoral support reduces the number of reactive interventions needed and helps students stay engaged with school. If we take ‘The late room’ intervention specifically stood out for many reasons.
Figure 2.3: The morning ‘Late Room’ Protocol
Number one it acts as deterrent, it also scaffolds support through the day as students can use this base to be setup for success for the rest of the day i.e. equipment, timetable, uniform checks. Students were also held to an ‘understanding’ level of accountability by filling out lateness reflection sheets that can be used at a later point during parental meetings or significant inclusion meeting to evaluate students overall progress (these reflections may provide context and also shift some attitudes amongst students). Most of all this late room intervention is a pro-active and compounding ‘protocol’ that has many strengths – It has made me critically question whilst deepen my own personal thinking of what ‘good’ and ‘effective’ proactive whole school intervention should look like.
3. Get into the Green: Turning Standards into Success – Johnoi Josephs, Deptford Green School
Let us talk about the concept of ‘getting into the green’ which has been a game-changer at Deptford Green School. As a mathematician, there was unique joy hearing how Johnoi Josephs implemented a whole-school rewards system based on specific criteria, including attendance, punctuality, and behaviour points. This system created a sense of competition, but more importantly, it made success tangible it made it visible for students, allowing them to track their progress weekly and take ownership of their achievements.
Figure 3:1: “Get into the Green” tracking system – The parameters it is measures. Multiple parameter and one-score.
By connecting multiple parameters into a single score then ultimately tracking, evaluating and shifting whole school approaches according this data, being underpin by the goal to drive this score up is a superb and genius idea – It is literally killing ‘multiple birds with one stone’. This is a multiple linear approach (sorry, for the Mathematical jargon here) when implemented influences attendance, punctuality, behaviour, attitudes to learning and culture all to improve through one-key driver ‘Getting into the Green’.
Figure 3:2: “Get into the Green” tracking system – The impact and significance on ‘culture’ and being a catalyst to shift belonging, attitude to learning and more.
Key Takeaway: Use smart, strategic, data-driven reward systems (or rather ‘culture’ systems) that make success visible and tangible. The ideas explored by Johnoi showcased that the use of data metric systems that combine parameters and bring them together in one-sitting enables schools to optimise many parameters through one sole driver, which is genius.
Figure 3:3: “Get into the Green” tracking system – Data Collection sample
With time, being a limited constraint, taking time to plan, engage, employ, unite, track, evaluate and refine such systems is 100% worth the time. There is incredible scope to make such a system the fabric of school culture and can be extended through whole school rewards like special reward evenings, special ties for students in the green across a whole academic year and more – It is much bigger than a culture evaluation tool, it is the metaphorically the clothing of school culture. By setting clear targets and offering regular updates, students become more engaged (belonging) and motivated to meet expectations. Such a system helps raise overall standards by making targets intrinsically and extrinsically motivated, enjoyable, visible, achievable and measurable.
4. Building a Collaborative Pastoral System from Scratch – Laura Kehoe, Thornden School
When Laura Kehoe arrived at Thornden School, she recognized that the existing pastoral system lacked coherence. To address this, she and her team created a collaborative pastoral hub, bringing together staff from different areas to work in unison. This approach ensured that all staff were on the same page and contributed to a unified approach to supporting students.
Figure 4.1: Collaborative structure for pastoral support at Thornden School – Clear flowchart distributing the roles and clarity for each sub-sector and sector within the system.
As we know pastoral leadership, can be difficult to unite, the day-to-day work can be so reactive at times. Education is also an industry, that is shaped by our individual experiences of life, perspective, beliefs and morals so inherently there is a variation in practice amongst practitioners which enables inconsistencies to become prevalent. Laura’s work was a testament to how you can you unite a team, operations, and systems to work not in isolation but in shared critical coherence underpinned by the connected moral purpose and goals of the institution.
Key Takeaway: Collaboration is key – Having a clear flow and way of working that is transparent and shared amongst staff is even more key. By breaking down silos and optimally involving key staff in the pastoral process, you ensure that support is consistent, sustainable and effective. Creating clear roles and responsibilities helps everyone stay aligned and fosters a culture of shared responsibility for student success. What really, stood out is pastoral systems are unpredictable but there was a clear intention from bottom-top and top-bottom to provide a linear-approach and response but to equally be open to critical evaluation so as to say.
Figure 4.2: The levels of intervention within each subsector
Pastoral interventions are easy to become just a set of tick boxes that have been completed for students but a lot more intention and human understanding is needed. The difficulty of pastoral leadership in making it linear is you are dealing with and evaluating the ‘human’ aspect of development and so ‘understanding’ and openness is key.
Figure 4.3: Levels of communication and action thresholds are clear and structured – 158 Referrals made but only 23 made the SLT panel demonstrates that there the threshold of action may appear linear but there is an important dialogue that has to occur for ‘understanding’ for optimal decisions to be made.
The approach to pastoral intervention should clear having the child at the centre and evoking a sense of mattering but the level evaluation and critique cannot be too rigid and needs human understanding at the forefront, some times easily forgotten in schools.
5. Habits for Success Curriculum – Toby Neave & Lily Pace, Sewell Park Academy
At Sewell Park Academy, the ‘Habits for Success’ curriculum was developed to ‘explicitly’ teach students the essential personal habits they need to succeed. Toby Neave and Lily Pace shared how their school explicitly teaches habits such as resilience, time management, and self-motivation as a complement to academic content. These habits are revisited regularly (with intentional interleaving retrievals planned within the scheme of learning i.e., assemblies led by key staff, rewards assemblies directly related to this curriculum), with staff providing rewards when students demonstrate them, creating a school-wide culture of accountability and personal growth.
Figure 5.1: Whole school ‘Habit Curriculum’
More significantly, this was not just a matter of talking about and presenting these habits but having a direct scheme of learning (that is adaptable according to the context of the year groups), directly teaching and checking for understanding whilst showcasing and celebrating this learnt behaviour through the direct observation of seen behaviour by pupils. Like, Toby and Lily alluded to we have moved from a time where we may have expected students to have internalised suitable ‘social-norms’ but in the modern day where our young people social exposure is disrupted by a multitude of materials and mediums it is even more important to disrupt and explicitly break the cycle of this influence.
Figure 5.2: Clear and explicit expectations of teaching social-norms
Young people are no longer going through authentic and normal cycles of social development we are talking about young people who some have spent more time behind a screen in their lifetimes than having conversations with people and this is extremely alarming in itself.
Key Takeaway: Educational success is not just about academics it is about embedding positive habits that help students thrive in all aspects of life. Of course, building a school-wide curriculum and embedding this curriculum into the format of a school is a widespread process, however it is needed. With a clear methodology and shared ownership of the process it is more than possible and it can be refined along the way – The first step is to unite the purpose of such a curriculum towards the needs of the school. Primarily, it is our duty as anchors of the next generation to strategically address, teach, and take complete ownership of the holistic development of young people. By integrating an explicit behaviour and habits into our curriculums and reinforcing them regularly, we build a foundation for long-term success both inside and outside the classroom.
Call to Action:
In the end, pastoral leadership is not just about managing behaviour it is about setting the conditions in which strong teaching and learning can happen. When we take a proactive approach, we create an environment where both students and staff are equipped with the support, clarity, and motivation needed to succeed. As we have seen through the strategies shared in these sessions from proactive support and high standards to fostering collaboration pastoral leadership is the foundation upon which all learning thrives.
By investing in the right structures and intentionally shaping the culture of our schools, we ensure that every student has the chance to engage with the learning content and reach their full potential. The goal is clear: to create an environment where learning is not just possible, it is inevitable. When pastoral leadership is aligned with the needs of both students and teachers, the results are transformative, setting the stage for true educational success.
In order to implement these strategies in your school, start by assessing your current practices. Are you reactive or proactive? Do your students have clear, tangible goals? How are you fostering collaboration among your team? How are using intentionally scripting and using language to foster ‘understanding’ and ‘accountability’?
Explore the full sessions to dive deeper into each strategy and find ways to adapt them to fit the unique needs of your school community.
Again, pastoral leadership is about more than just managing behaviour and being that ‘authority’ figure. It is about empowering students with the skills and support they need to succeed, and working collaboratively with your team to make that happen. With the right structures in place, we can create environments where every student is set up for success.
