Pastoral Care Worker

Goodwood Primary School is provided with funds by the Australian Government Department of Education and Training to employ a Pastoral Care Worker.

Julie Ascher-Ellis is available Mondays and Tuesdays 10am-2:30pm. Julie.ascherellis43@schools.sa.edu.au.

1. The aim of the service is to offer pastoral support to students, staff and the school community.


2. The Pastoral Care Worker has three main roles:

i) A Pastoral Role

The Pastoral Care Worker will:

• participate in a wide range of school community activities, and support staff, to contribute to creating a caring and inclusive learning environment within the school.
• on request, provide initial support or information to students, staff and other school community members.
• with written, informed parental consent, provide on-going personal assistance to individual students, subject to duty of care, consent, confidentiality and disclosure requirements and the Code of Conduct.
• offer support or information with regard to critical situations, such as grief or family breakdown.
• be available to provide ongoing support to individuals and/or families.
• provide additional opportunities for families to feel supported.

ii) A Referral Role

The Pastoral Care Worker will:

• provide factual and impartial information about, network with, and be a link to, the support and services provided through community groups, including church groups, local council and government agencies.
• consult and liaise with student counsellors and other staff about student safety, wellbeing or learning while maintaining appropriate confidentiality, and referring students to other staff as required.
• be a mandated notifier, and thus be required to report any suspected abuse or neglect to Families S.A.

iii) A Resource Role

The Pastoral Care Worker will:

• provide a reference point for addressing social, religious or spiritual issues.
• provide access to resources from the broader community which are relevant to school programs.
• be available to give input into health and social education courses (e.g. in the areas of grief, self esteem, values or relationships).
• be available to give assistance with camps and excursions, and, where appropriate, initiate activities such as voluntary clubs or groups in the school.
• support groups such as the Student Representative Council and the Peer Support Program
• if required, assist the principal to liaise with the local church community and the school for the provision of optional 'Religious Education Seminars' in school time


3. The service offered by the PCW is accessed by school community members on a voluntary basis.


4. The PCW is line managed by the Deputy Principal, Jenny Wade, and complements, enhances and collaborates with the school well-being team, counsellors, other school support staff, etc.
   
   
5. In general circumstances, the PCW is free to engage with members of the school community. However, in every case where, as part of their role, a PCW is asked to work in an ongoing way with an individual student, informed, written parental/care giver consent must be first obtained. Parents may also request to the School Principal for their child to be excluded from any service provided by the PCW.


6. Students are able to access the PCW through Student Services.


7. A Grievance Procedure for any formal complaint is available from the School Principal.


8. The School Governing Council was consulted with about the PCW and made the decision to proceed with an application for funding for a service. Please refer to Governing Council minutes for further details.

The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of the Australian Government Department of Education and Training

Acknowledgement
This project was funded by the Australian Government Department of Education and Training.

If you would like the PCW to provide on-going personal assistance, please consult the PCW information and personal assistance form, which can be found here.

The PCW at Goodwood PS will be at the school on Mondays and Tuesdays, and can be contacted be email or through the Front Office .

The Pastoral Care Worker Consent Form can be downloaded here as a PDF (90 KB) document.