Our School Pastoral Care in Senior School

At Ivanhoe Girls’ we care as much about the developing character of each girl as we do about their academic achievement.

In the Senior School every girl has her own timetable and is placed in a small tutorial group with around 14 other girls under the direct care of a tutor. This tutor meets with the group on a daily basis and comes to know every member of the group closely enough to provide strong encouragement and support. 

The sense of security which comes from such an encouraging and supportive environment fosters a strong sense of belonging and enhances self-esteem and resilience in each student, thus enabling their learning to flourish. 

The tutor group provides a strong sense of connection and belonging and a focus for many school activities, including social events and community service ventures. 

The team of tutors at each year level work closely together under the leadership of the Year Level Coordinator, to monitor each student’s involvement and achievement and devise strategies to produce a rich and diverse pastoral care program designed to expose all girls to key life skills and bring out the best in each girl as an individual. 

The Year Level Coordinators meet regularly as a group with the Head of Senior School and liaise closely with the members of our professionally qualified counselling team to provide a consistent ethos and set of expectations across the School, while acknowledging and catering for the age-appropriate levels of increasing independence and freedom which our students need as they mature. At all times very high behavioural expectations are set and very clearly communicated to the students. 

Throughout the School every girl has a range of significant adults from her tutor, class teacher, counsellors and Chaplain to provide her with guidance and a sense of connection.

Additionally, frameworks such as the Peer Support program enable senior girls to provide mentoring for younger year levels, encourage cross-age friendships, develop leadership skills and provide excellent role models for the younger students. 

International students enjoy the further support of a dedicated International Student Coordinator and an Orientation Program for all new students.