Pastoral manager

A pastoral manager plays a pivotal role in the wellbeing and personal development of students within schools. They help create a safe environment that fosters both academic and personal growth by providing essential support and guidance.

Teachers stood with their students in front of a school

The main responsibility that a pastoral manager has is to assist students with personal and social problems. They manage behaviour; promoting positive behaviour as well as monitoring attendance and intervening with absences. The pastoral manager also ensures safety procedures are followed to protect the wellbeing of students and teachers.

They will work in schools, colleges or other educational settings meeting with students, teachers and parents to discuss important issues around a student’s behaviour and offer solutions that help improve their personal development. Building a good relationship with parents and teachers is very important to collectively work together for the needs of the pupil. The usual set hours of work may differ to accommodate meeting with parents after school or with teachers to discuss pupil’s behaviours. See below some of the main responsibilities of the role.

Personal and social challenges

Students could be struggling to engage and concentrate in lessons due to loneliness at school, family circumstances at home or find it hard to interact in social settings. This is where the pastoral team and pastoral manager can help identify the challenges the student is facing and offer a solution to help support the student. One example could be to assign the pupil a buddy that will stay with them during lunch hours and breaks to increase social interactions.

Managing behaviour

Teachers may be facing difficulties in the classroom due to a disruptive student that doesn’t want to learn and constantly behaves badly. The pastoral manager and pastoral leads can, if requested, step-in to remove the student disrupting the lesson and take them to a wellbeing room to calm down and discuss why they have been removed from the lesson and set a behaviour plan. Doing this will set clear expectations to the student and provide support for them to develop in the correct manner.

Monitoring attendance levels

Good attendance in schools is very important to ensure every pupil is maximising their potential learning time. A pastoral manager can work with other staff members and Heads of Years to spotlight pupils who are missing school regularly and skipping lessons. They can communicate with parents to get to the root of the problem and offer solutions such set early morning alarms, encourage pupils to be organised the night before and ask parents to drop their kids off at school early.

Safeguarding procedures

Safeguarding in schools is paramount to the safety of pupils and students. A pastoral manager would be in constant communication with the designated safeguarding lead to ensure the child protection policies are being followed. Where a safeguarding concern may arise, the pastoral manager would work with the parents and teachers to address the situation and cooperate with the relevant local authorities where needed.

Successful pastoral managers will possess a variety of social skills that include:

Empathy: The ability to understand and share the feelings and emotions of others to relevant parties and build relationships.
Good communication: Strong verbal and written communication skills to portray important points clearly so there is no misunderstanding.
Problem-Solving: The ability to think critically and resolve conflicts effectively, with all parties agreeing to proposed changes.
Organizational Skills: Efficient management of time and resources.
Resilience: The capacity to handle stress and emotional situations calmly.

There are many challenges that a pastoral manager will face in the role such as handling difficult cases, dealing with stressful situations and managing workload. Regardless of level, from primary to secondary and colleges; there can be a diverse range of cases to deal with on an ongoing basis. Often these will be a daily occurrence and involve dealing with disgruntled parents or difficult pupils on a regular basis.

However, with the right mentality, processes and pastoral team, the role can be highly rewarding in making a positive impact on student’s lives at school and at home. Seeing them progress in lessons, show up to school on time and develop on a social level is satisfying to see after a lot of time and effort has been invested into their development.

You can start your journey as a pastoral manager like any teacher through a BA(Hons) degree and/or PGCE course or through an Initial Teacher Training (ITT) course which would all lead to Qualified Teacher status (QTS). Or there is a route via a 13-week assessment only course provided you can demonstrate and document relevant teaching experiences, abilities and achievements.

It is also essential that you have experience in working with young people and their families, understand child protection and safeguarding legislation as well as having good IT skills and knowledge. You may need to have 2-3 years of real-life experiences of pastoral care situations before you go for the pastoral manager role. See Tes Institute courses available below to help start your pastoral manager journey.

Summer safety: 5 topics to discuss with pupils

In the final days of term it’s worth spending time on simple safety advice for pupils before they embark on six weeks of freedom, says this deputy head.

Read more Read more
Pupil mental health: what works in schools - and what doesn’t

Schools are under huge pressure to support young people with mental health challenges, but some of the techniques available could be ineffective – or make things worse, argues Dr Lucy Foulkes.

Read more Read more
7 practical ways our MAT is tackling attendance

From building a dedicated team to using robots, a director of performance explains how his trust is improving attendance.

Read more Read more
Third of teachers say more pupils coming to school hungry

There has also been an increase in the number of pupils coming into school without adequate clothing, according to a report on the impact of the cost-of-living crisis.

Read more Read more