Pastoral Care at Coloma Convent Girls' School

[carolb54]

My DD will be joining Coloma Convent Girls' School in September 2015. I have been informed by a parent that her DD have been invited to attend sessions over the summer 2015.

We have not received any notification that we need to attend. Just rang the school and was informed that if your DD was not called in then they do not need to attend.

Have anyone else (who will be starting in September 2015) received any such notification? For parents who have received such notification in the past, so you know what this was about and why they called your DD in?

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I am a teacher at a mixed independent secondary school. This seems bizarre to me. The only reason I can think of for inviting some students and not others would be the primary school from which they are feeding into Coloma? Perhaps the other girl you mention comes from a school that doesn't usually send students to Coloma or is less closely tied to it than your daughter's school?

If you know the other girl's parent well, could you ask for more information? When you called the school, did they offer any explanation for why your daughter didn't need to attend?

The other parent should probably not have said anything.
The comps round here often run "settling" sessions over the summer for kids who they think may not settle well for one reason or another.
They are very low key and invitation only.

My DS had extra settling in sessions at his comp when he moved up, because he has an SpLD and his primary felt that he was quite nervous about the whole moving up process. These weren't in the holidays though. He was far from being the only one at those sessions.

Most schools I've worked in have run sessions for kids they think might struggle to settle. The reasons are wide ranging and it gives the child time to adjust and get to know the school without the rest of the rabble there. I think it shows pastoral support is quite high on the agenda.

Some state schools are now running summer schools for the new Y7s, especially those that might need a bit of extra help academically. By invitation only

Thanks everyone for your response. I did ring the school but they did not divulge too much information. I guess they might have chosen a few whom they think might have problems settling into school. This particular child from what I have been told can be a handful at times and one parent in particular did mentioned to me that she was not happy that the child was going to the school and that she was going to take up the option of writing into the school to have her child excluded from any class that this was going to be in. At this school you do have the option of writing in if you would like your child to be in a class with someone particular whom you think might help your child during their transition from Primary to Secondary or visa versa - if you do not want your child to be in the same class as a particular that you think might cause your DD issues etc.

Again thanks for your responses. My eyes will be widely open since I will be a part of this school coming September.