Dedicated yards for each year group during break and lunchtime
Dedicated yards for each year group during break and lunchtime
Mrs Simons, Pastoral Year Lead for Year 7 at the dedicated yard for Year 7 students
When parents were at secondary school, they can probably remember what it was like when all year groups were spread out across the whole school (both inside and outside) and the unenviable task of keeping students safe and supervised.
At Giles Academy, we know that by providing dedicated yards for each year group with staff visible in each yard, it creates a happy student community, a sense of belonging and enables students to safely socialise with their friends.
On the aerial map of Giles Academy below, you can see how each year group has their own area before school starts, during morning break and at lunchtime. At these times, the respective Pastoral Year Lead for each year group will always be in their own yard.
An aerial view of Giles Academy showing where the yard for each year group is located (click image to enlarge)
Mrs Simons (née Dobrianskyj) is the Pastoral Year Lead for Year 7 and our students really appreciate having Mrs Simons in the yard every day as she is easy to speak to and always on hand to answer any questions they have. They enthusiastically described Mrs Simons as caring, kind and helpful as she is understanding, will help with any problems and regularly praises them.
This really helped our Year 7 with their transition from primary school as students at Giles Academy come from over 25 different primary schools, so no one will ever feel alone as they will make friends quickly and feel part of our family community.
When there is wet weather, the school has allocated areas for each year group inside the school and these are once again supervised by our dedicated team of Pastoral Year Leads.
As well as each yard being supervised by the respective Pastoral Year Lead, students will see other senior school staff and teachers in each yard during break and lunchtime. Mr Wright (pictured above) has recently joined Giles Academy and will be taking over the pastoral and behaviour responsibilities from Mr Cooper (who will be staying at Giles but returning to his passion as an English Teacher) in September, which means Mr Wright is getting to know as many students as possible.
During lunchtime, students do not always have to be on their yard, as there is a variety of extra-curricular sport and subject based activities throughout the week to choose from. The library is always open for everyone to make progress with their reading and literacy or students can get active by playing sports such as Basketball, be creative in the Art drop-ins, sing in the Choir Club, develop communication skills in the new Debate Club or attend the many subject intervention/revision sessions.