How do Heads of House in an independent secondary school understand and evaluate pastoral care?

Teachers at secondary schools are quickly placed into roles to fulfil their many obligations to ensure a school runs smoothly. These responsibilities include the academic learning of the students and the successful delivery of a pastoral care program. Although these roles are closely related, school structures or responsibilities are frequently dichotomous, differentiating between the academic roles of teachers and their pastoral responsibilities and this can sometimes result in an obvious divide between the two very important sides of the school. Teachers, particularly Heads of House, find themselves fulfilling both roles at work. This research project involved conducting semi-structured interviews with Heads of House an independent school in order to examine their perceptions of pastoral care in school.