Pastoral Care Update
Dear Parents and Carers
A warm welcome to the 2024 School year at Shore! We extend a special greeting to our new families. It was fantastic to see so many of you at the Year 7 welcome event last Tuesday January 30. Your engagement and the bonds being formed within our community were very encouraging. It’s pleasing to report that our Year 7 boys are transitioning smoothly into School life, a testament to the thorough and thoughtful orientation programme led by our dedicated staff.
As Dr Collier has already stated, we’re particularly fortunate to be welcoming two new leaders to the Pastoral Care Team. Mr McCormack, our new Head of Students, and Ms Langas, our Head of Counselling, are both highly skilled in their fields. Their early contributions are already making a positive impact with our wellbeing and mental health initiatives.
At Shore, our mission goes beyond academic excellence. We are committed to nurturing the character and overall wellbeing of our students. This includes fostering virtues through character education and service-learning experiences that encourage boys to apply these lessons in practical, community-focused activities. By aligning these experiences with our tutorial programs, we’re not just talking about character; we’re actively engaging in its development.
We’re also expanding our social and emotional learning programmes to equip our students with the resilience and understanding necessary to thrive. Through evidence-based strategies, we aim to build strength of mind, enhance learning, and empower our boys to manage life’s stressors meaningfully. Our new Student Committee, led by Mr McCormack, has begun this week and is a key initiative in this area of wellbeing and student voice.
Our engagement with external thought leaders is an integral part of our approach. We’re thrilled to host Dr Justin Coulson on March 20, who will share his insights on resilience and positive masculinity in his talk, “Raising Young Men of Character.” In Term 2, we invite Year 7 mothers/mother-figures and sons to the “Treasured Connections” evening, a unique event to strengthen family bonds, with a similar event for Year 8 dads/father-figures and sons planned for 2025. More information to come.
Looking further ahead, we will introduce our Respect and Consent Program in Term 3. Developed in partnership with Learning Consent and Dr Joy Townsend, this initiative will be a feature of our Senior School curriculum. Please save the date for the associated parent seminar on Wednesday August 7, at 6.00pm.
Your support and involvement are invaluable to us. Together, we will ensure that our boys not only succeed academically but also grow into young men of strong character and resilience.
“Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.” Martin Luther King Jr
Best regards,
Mr D Champion
Deputy Head Pastoral Care