Pastoral Care And Personal-Social Education - Research Paper Example

During the first school placement, it became apparent that pastoral care via form tutor groups is an integral part of a child’s schooling. Children develop a parental type of relationship with their form tutor, quite distinct from that with their subject tutors. This led to curiosity in developing a professional understanding of the pastoral system and the desire to compare this horizontal structure with an alternative vertical tutoring scheme. The basis of the latter is having smaller groups comprising of pupils of all ages rather than groups of the same age.

This would require the adoption of the house system for structuring tutor groups instead of the year system. It is thought that this could improve learning relationships (Fincham, 1991), which could thereby raise standards as well.The study could help in working towards achieving QTS standards, in particular, those relating to safeguarding and promoting the well-being of children (Q21a), and knowing how to better support them (Q21b). In addition, the investigation could yield useful insight for implementing learning and behavior improvement programmes.

Pastoral care refers to the practice of attending to the personal, social, and mental well being of students. It involves dealing with issues related to behavior management, providing emotional support and moral upbringing. This care is meant to enable pupils to overcome such hindrances and achieve their academic potential. The arrangement to provide this care is usually in the form of either horizontal or vertical tutoring. The descriptions of both and their relative advantages are discussed in the literature review.

Best (2007) highlighted five tasks that come under pastoral care: (1) casework, (2) preventive work, (3) pastoral curriculum, (4) community building, and (5) management.