In an ideal world, teaching and pastoral staff would always be working together in harmony.
In practice, though, pastoral staff often find themselves caught in the middle, as they attempt to advocate for students while also trying to support their colleagues.
For teaching staff, their main priority is to get students the best grades possible, which means they need them to be in class.
For non-teaching pastoral staff, there is usually a different goal. Good grades are an aim, of course, but this can sometimes take a backseat due to some of the other issues students are dealing with.
Just getting them through the door is sometimes the first aim. Students may be taken out of lessons for support or might not make it to the lesson at all. This can cause some friction between pastoral staff and teaching staff, especially if there is a lack of communication or understanding.
What teachers wish pastoral staff knew
So, what might help to avoid some of this misunderstanding? I decided to ask teachers on X (formerly known as Twitter) what they wished their pastoral colleagues knew, and to ask non-teaching pastoral staff what they wished their teaching colleagues knew.
The responses of teaching staff largely revolved around time. For example, if a student has been removed from lessons, asking their teacher for work halfway through a lesson can be difficult to manage, especially if it is a practical subject. Teachers also won’t always be sitting at the computer in a lesson so there is no guarantee that an email requesting work will be seen in time.
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Some said they wished that non-teaching pastoral staff understood the impact of persistent low-level behaviour. This is especially pertinent if the pastoral member of staff hasn’t spent much time in the classroom before. It can be difficult to really understand the impact that behaviours that may seem minor can have when built up over time.
Another concerning theme was that teaching staff often feel undermined by pastoral staff; for example, when a teacher requests that a student is removed for poor behaviour, only to have them turn up again 10 minutes later. Some teachers also spoke about their frustration when detentions have been overturned without their knowledge, and said they felt that students were able to play staff members off against one another.
What pastoral staff wish teachers knew
On the flip side, non-teaching pastoral staff said the main thing that they wanted from teachers was trust. If they have asked for a student to be out of lessons - whether that’s due to behaviour, to support them with their mental health or another reason - teachers need to trust that this is necessary.
Many said they wished teaching staff could spend a day in their shoes, to see the things they deal with on a daily basis. One of the difficulties is that pastoral staff can’t always share everything they know about a student.
Often students can appear to be fine, despite the fact that they are struggling with their mental health or there are things going on at home. Just because a child has been laughing with their friends earlier in the day, that doesn’t mean there isn’t still a reason why they might need to miss a lesson.
So how do we make sure that the relationship between pastoral and teaching staff works in the interest of everyone?
1. Communication leads to understanding
In any relationship, communication is always key. Pastoral staff need to make sure that teachers are given adequate information as soon as possible.
Expectations on both sides should be discussed clearly so that everyone is on the same page.
Understanding is crucial, but it is hard to understand someone else’s situation if it hasn’t been communicated effectively.
2. Set boundaries
For pastoral staff, it’s incredibly important to make sure that boundaries and expectations are explicit with the students. Students need to understand that we are not to be used as a “get out of class free” card and can’t be expected to fight their battles for them.
We can advocate for them if they need support in class, with extensions for work and so on, but we must communicate to them that we are still members of the school staff. Professionalism is paramount.
3. Joint CPD
Inset days will often feature the usual generic whole-staff training, on a topic like safeguarding, before teaching and pastoral staff are split for more targeted CPD sessions.
This doesn’t help to promote understanding. Teaching staff should be sitting in on any pastoral CPD that is relevant to managing the classroom, while pastoral staff would benefit from sitting in on teaching CPD because this will give them a clearer understanding of classroom and curriculum expectations.
The strain on education staff is ever-increasing, both in the classroom and pastorally. Improving relationships between pastoral and teaching staff will be hugely beneficial not just to staff but ultimately to students, too.
Thomas Michael is a safeguarding lead
