Pastoral care | Prep School | Streatham & Clapham High School

Developing happy, inspired, confident children

Our pastoral care and personal development are of paramount importance and involve all children and adults who participate in the daily life of the school. We place strong emphasis on the creation of a supportive atmosphere, and we encourage our girls to strive to achieve their personal, social and academic goals.

From the chef in the dining room to the PE teacher on the playing field, all of our staff know our girls. Each teacher offers his or her girls day-to-day support and communicates frequently with parents, through an informal chat at the end of the day or via email, a phone call or a note in the girl’s diary.

“Pupils are highly respectful of each other and exhibit qualities which reflect their concern for justice, equality and fairness.” ISI Report, 2019

The importance of pastoral care at Prep School

We encourage our girls to take a ‘can do’ approach to their school lives and find that pastoral care encourages character-building. The girls become increasingly familiar with facing challenging situations with greater confidence when they apply the personal strategies they have been encouraged to adopt to their daily lives.

Pupil Voice

We have a lively, elected school council, giving our girls the chance to voice their opinions and share in decision-making. Every Michaelmas Term, classes from Year 3 to Year 6 vote for a girl to serve on Pupil Voice for that year. They meet regularly to discuss a large number of projects to help improve school life. It often takes several discussions and weeks of planning to launch different events and the representatives always have plenty of interesting ideas to share.

Head Girl

Each year we chose two Year 6 girls to represent the school as Head Girl and Deputy. Assuming responsibility is a key feature of our girls’ lives. The Head Girl and Deputy have many roles to perform, including presenting the Head Girl’s cup to worthy recipients each week in the Merit Assembly, reading out the week’s events in morning assembly, and addressing parents at Open Day. The Head Girl and Deputy are also members of Pupil Voice. They are respected members of the school community and are prepared to lead by example. All of the girls in Year 6 have the chance to be Prefects and assume responsibility for younger girls or subject areas.

House System

On entry to the school, each girl is allocated to one of four Houses: Daysbrook, Wavertree, Wyatt Park and Normanhurst. This creates four, smaller ‘family’ units within the school community to which the girls develop a strong affinity. Houses meet regularly for an assembly. Each House votes for a Captain.

We award House Points for academic effort and attainment, as well as for good behaviour and commitment to the school. Then, each Friday, the House Cup is presented to the winning House in the Merit Assembly. Each House also raises significant funds for its chosen charities through fund-raising initiatives.

The House system encourages our girls to develop their involvement and aspiration through academic, artistic, musical and sporting events.

Playground Pals

Playground Pals is an initiative for our older girls within the Upper School Personal, Social, Health and Citizenship Education programme that enables them to develop their self-confidence, manage the feelings of others and play a meaningful part in the Streatham & Clapham Prep School community. It does this by requiring girls to play a responsible role whilst remaining accessible and familiar to other children. They are then better equipped to develop and foster relationships and to find the causes of conflict and seek appropriate responses. The girls provide a valuable service to the younger girls by being sympathetic and proactively helping them find friends to play with at playtimes.

‘Pupils have a strong moral sense and apply their standards of morality to their own behaviour, their community and the world at large.’ — ISI Report, 2019

Co-curricular activities

Sign up to receive updates

Your interests