Pastoral Carer PD package – 2024

This 1hr webinar – defining your role as a pastoral carer – focuses on the core idea that sits behind most decisions we have to make in our work – what is my role? While every school and every pastoral care leader operates differently, there are some universal considerations and reflections we can make that will help provide that clarity and communication (for yourself and others).

Some of the key ideas that will be covered include:

• Who cares anyway? Why role definition is important to you and your wellbeing
• Defining your role – what do you think it is? What do others think it is? And what do you think it should be?
• Communicating your role to others
• How do you hold firm on your boundaries?

In this 1hr webinar – practical counselling skills for pastoral carers – we will look at the applied and useful counselling skills you can make use of in your role. While you are (likely!) not a counsellor, there are certain things that you can do to help navigate some of these tricky pastoral conversations

Some of the key ideas that will be covered include:

• What are the practical counselling skills you can make use of (e.g. emotion coaching, reflective listening)
• What to be aware of when having significant pastoral conversations with students
• Identifying your school process for escalating mental health concerns

This 1hr webinar – Supporting students at risk of significant self-harm and suicide – provides an overview of caring for students, yourself and others, when there are risk issues. Of all the situations we deal with in school, this area is one that most pastoral care staff reflect on as being the most difficult and stressful. This webinar focuses on creating a series of processes that help you standardise what you do, reduce decision fatigue and create a more consistently positive system.

Some of the key ideas that will be covered include:

• The importance of having clear processes that span the continuum and timeline of risk – from initial identification to management/support and (hopefully not ever needed) postvention
• Synthesising processes and resources to develop a framework for support through each stage (including a template for risk assessment and processes for supporting a student when risk issues are identified)
• Looking after yourself and others – why doing the work now will help look after you later

This 1hr webinar – Using data to understand student wellbeing and developing initiatives to support this – will focus not just on collecting data, but more specifically, what you can do with it. The ability to understand where your students are at in terms of their wellbeing, and then adapt and develop activities in response to this, is often something that many pastoral care staff would like to do but struggle to accomplish

Some of the key ideas that will be covered include:

• Considerations before collecting data – what do you want to know and consider before you ask the questions?
• How can you actually collect the data and what technology can assist with this
• Ways to make sense of, and then put into practice, what the data are telling you

This 1hr webinar – utilising digital systems in schools – is all about creating more efficiency in your work. Almost all of us are guilty of doing things the same way we’ve always done it, even when we recognise there might be a better way to do it. Effort now = massive benefits later! 

Some of the key ideas that will be covered include:

• What is the argument for and against modernising your systems?
• Identifying opportunities to make your work more efficient
• Using templating, automation and smart systems to reduce your workload

This 1hr webinar – Boundaries, burnout and being well – explores the day-to-day barriers to looking after ourselves at work. What is it about how we choose to see ourselves and our work, what do others really expect of us and how do we manage the guilt/imposter syndrome/drive to do more so that we can work in a way that is sustainable and thoughtful? 

Some of the key ideas that will be covered include:

• What really gets in the way of creating a sustainable way of working? Your stuff, their stuff and how the ‘stuffs’ combine
• How do we determine our “pressure points” and what can we put in place to manage this?
• Saying no – knowing how to say it, when to say it and not feeling so danged guilty about it!
• Self-care (but not candles and bubble baths) – working hard now to protect yourself later