Our pastoral care program, known as Connect, focuses on building a strong, connected school community. It is designed to give each student and their family a teacher who is there to support them throughout their time at Shirley Smith High School. This teacher is the first point of contact for families and students to discuss attendance, academic progress and social wellbeing (as well as any other issues that may arise).
At the start of each day, students meet in their connect group. The aims of the morning session are:
- To establish and develop meaningful and positive relationships between the connect teacher and the students in their group;
- To provide close monitoring of students with regard to wellbeing, attendance, uniform and behaviour;
- For students to receive school wide information via the daily notices.
Connect groups meet for an additional 60 minutes on Tuesdays. Within this time, students participate in a Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) program which focuses on the development of students as a learner, a person, a community member and a contributor to society. We also use these times to celebrate success within our school through year group assemblies and to build school spirit through house challenges.