14 pastoral questions
Does the waiter giving you a mint at the end of a meal have any influence over how much tip you’re going to leave them?
Most people will say no.
But that mint can make a surprising difference. In a study, giving diners a single mint at the end of their meal typically increased tips by around 3%.
Interestingly, if the gift is doubled and two mints are provided, tips don’t double. They quadruple—a 14% increase in tips.
But perhaps most interesting of all is the fact that if the waiter provides one mint, starts to walk away from the table, but pauses, turns back and says, “For you nice people, here’s an extra mint,” tips go through the roof. A 23% increase, influenced not by what was given, but how it was given. 1
What has this got do with pastoral leadership questions?
The study above underlines the power of reciprocity.
The key to using the Principle of Reciprocity - and building influential relationships - is to be the first to give and to ensure that what you give is personalised and unexpected.
This week I’ve rounded up the questions you’ve been asking each other.
So you can give to, and get back from, your fellow members.
Thanks in advance for helping each other out.
We - schools - Are In Beta - always learning (when we reciprocate).
🤔📍14 pastoral questions you’re asking.
⚙️ How to use this bulletin board.
To help you decide (before clicking into them):
🤝which conversations you can add the most value to and
💡which ones you can learn the most from…
…I’ve divided them into 3 groups:
Help needed, threads available to all (🤝🙏🌐)
Really helpful answers worth reading, threads only available in a private, members only space (💡👀🔐)
Really helpful answers worth reading, threads available to all (but will be moving to private, members only space soon (💡👀🌐🔜🔐 )
Before we kick off all things pastoral…
📚 Looking for subject specific conversations?
Around the Easter break, we shared 21 subject specific questions with members of the Curriculum Thinkers Community.
Covering: extended writing, AI, SOWs, timetabling and more.
💊 1. County lines assembly.
“Does anyone have an assembly on County Lines they are happy to share with me?”
🤝🙏🌐
🏫 2. Additionally Resourced Provision.
“Looking to make contact with people about the strategic and operational planning that takes place when opening an Additionally Resourced Provision (ARP)?”
🤝🙏🌐
📚 3. Alternative curriculum ideas.
“Do any of my WAIB colleagues run an Alternative Curriculum that they have designed themselves? We have for many years run the COPE course successfully for our less able and motivated KS4 students. Can anyone help with suggestions or if you have run such a course and would be willing to share your experience.
“Thanks in advance.”
🤝🙏🌐
📝 4. Behaviour policy update.
“I am looking to update our behaviour policy across the Trust (9 schools) to give greater clarity on prohibited items now things like edibles, gummies, vapes, THC and CBD have started to be a problem. Does anyone have anything that is really clear on this?
“We currently have these two lines on this which are…”
🤝🙏🌐
🤝 5. Pupil premium and parental engagement.
“Hi all, great to join the community. Assistant headteacher. Looking for discussions and ideas to close the pupil premium gap and support parental engagement.”
🤝🙏🌐
👩🏽🏫 6. Inducting new pastoral staff to a school.
“I would be interested to know the best way to induct new pastoral staff to a school. Obviously need them to know basic safeguarding, day to day operations interested to hear best practice?”
🤝🙏🌐
🌐 7. Belonging & culture in schools.
“I'd love to have a chat around improving the culture in the school to help get the buy in of students, parents and staff. Thanks.”
🤝🙏🌐
💡 8. Attitudes to learning.
“Were looking to help students see value in the learning they may not see before, or how to change their attitude away from not doing the bare minimum to avoid trouble.”
🤝🙏🌐
🍽️ 9. Lunchtime Detentions/Reflections.
“Lunchtime Detentions/Reflections - Centralised system for example lateness/uniform #Behaviour #Attendance How are we ensuring students attend? What escalation or intervention are you using for repeat offenders?”
🤝🙏🌐
👨👩👧👦 10. Complaints from parents.
“I’m really interested in how teams are finding relationships with parents at the moment; are you seeing a sharp increase in complaints?
“I’ve seen some excellent practice in resources here and we’ve introduced some strategies to help make our systems as failsafe as possible, but we are receiving more and more complaints about things which are either out of our control or rest in unrealistic expectations of what is possible in school.
“How does it look in your setting? Have you found any strategies that seem to
have an impact?
“It would be great to connect and share some experience.”
💡👀🔐
➡️ ⬅️ 11. Closing the PP gap - what's worked/working for you?
“I'm really keen to learn what other schools are doing to improve attendance, and to share any aspects of our practice that may be of value to others. I'm an attendance manager for an academy in Leeds with a big PP gap, exacerbated by the distance a large proportion of our PP cohort have to travel, so this is my main focus. Looking forward to engaging!”
💡👀🌐🔜🔐
❤️ 12. Character Education.
“Where and who would you recommend I see and engage with to see exceptional character education in practice in a secondary setting?”
💡👀🌐🔜🔐
✅ 13. Attendance.
“Was anyone else disproportionately affected by the decision to reduce the length of time registers could be open for? And if so, how have you tried to mitigate it?”
💡👀🌐🔜🔐
🚀 14. Personal development on a page.
“I am in the process of creating our school’s personal development on a page document. Has anyone done anything similar that they wouldn’t mind sharing?
Thanks.”
💡👀🌐🔜🔐
Got a question? Ask the community.
The We Are In Beta team invest 30+ hours a week helping you to get answers: keeping an eye on what’s happening, researching, replying, making introductions, signposting resources and updating our databases.
NB: due to the volume of questions asked, we now prioritise members of the Curriculum Thinkers Community and members of the Pastoral Champions Community.
Not a member?
One a personal note.
No stories about my past experience this week.
Just the deepest gratitude to everyone who’s helped out another member recently.
It means the world to them and to us in the We Are In Beta who work to bring you all together.
Thank you. Especially…
Andrew Warner (Assistant Head - Behaviour & Safeguarding at John Taylor Free School) for always helping others and asking probing questions to help others consider their why here. Work with him here.
Jane Dunnett (Deputy Headteacher, Head of Curriculum and Teaching & Learning at Fulston Manor School) for her reassuring thoughts and parent code of conduct resource here. Work with her here.
Jonathan Mounstevens (Deputy Headteacher: Curriculum, Assessment and Quality Assurance at Beaumont School) - for always helping others and asking them probing questions about their why here. Work with him here.
Andy Lewis (Deputy Headteacher - Catholic Life & Pastoral at St Bonaventure's RC School) - for recommending organisations and sharing resources about character here. Work with him here.
Julie Carrick (Head of Attendance and Educational Welfare at Greenshaw Learning Trust) for her unbelievably generous, considered and open thoughts about attendance here. Work with her here.
Adam Fortune (Year Team Leader for Year 11 at Arrow Vale High School) for replying and saying thank you to everyone one who helped him out with his question about parents complaints here. Work with him here.
Alex Scotney (Attendance Manager for KS3 and KS4 at The GORSE Academies Trust) for thanking everybody for the support provided here about PP and here about attendance. Work with him here.
Dadri-Ann Williams (Assistant Principal at Maiden Erleigh School) for replying and saying thank you to other members for their help about personal development here. Work with her here.
I hope you all get your 23% increase :)
Thanks for reading.
@NiallAlcock and the We Are In Beta team.
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