“We provide the opportunity for every student to develop into responsible, self-aware, confident and capable young people equipped to cope with the challenges of the 21st century.”
“We provide the opportunity for every student to develop into responsible, self-aware, confident and capable young people equipped to cope with the challenges of the 21st century.”
In St Joseph’s, the child is central in all that we do. We pride ourselves on the pastoral care provided to our students by all members of staff through the provision of a nurturing, caring and supportive school community. In St. Joseph’s Grammar School, pastoral care permeates all aspects of school life and is integral to the academic, social, physical, emotional and spiritual education of our students. This is achieved through our pastoral care arrangements and provision. We hope to assist each student to apply themselves fully and confidently to the learning process and hence acquire the knowledge, understanding, values, attitudes and skills necessary for a successful and satisfying school experience and future personal and professional life. We provide the opportunity for every student to develop into responsible, self-aware, confident and capable young people equipped to cope with the challenges of the 21st century.
In particular, our aim is to help: –
The pastoral care of our students means responding to their needs at a period of their young lives when they are growing physically and acquiring a wide range of knowledge and skills. Personal Development is fundamentally about the holistic development of our students. The Personal Development Programme is designed for our students with the qualities, attitudes, values, knowledge, understanding and skills necessary for personal development. It also aims to facilitate the acquisition of social competencies and to encourage responsible social participation. The Personal Development Programme is delivered in a weekly timetabled series of lessons which have been planned in a progressive manner. The programme includes topics, relevant to each year group, to enable our students to:
The topics for this programme, which may be added to in response to the needs of individual class groups, address the following ten key themes: –
Our Personal Development Programme also includes topics on personal safety for each year group which aim to develop the skills, values, attitudes, knowledge and understanding to help them resist or avoid potentially dangerous situations and to reject inappropriate behaviour.
Important elements of this personal protection education include age related information on Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE), Substance Abuse, Bullying and e-Safety.
St Joseph’s Grammar School does not condone the misuse of drugs. However, we recognise that there has been a considerable increase of drugs in recent years in Northern Ireland. We believe that our school has a vital preventative role to play in combating the misuse of drugs by young people and we therefore include a Drug Education programme in our curriculum. We see our role as that of a caring community committed to the physical, mental, social, emotional, moral and spiritual health, safety and well-being of our pupils and staff. The drugs education programme provides opportunities for students to acquire the values, skills and aptitudes which enable them to make informed choices.