The six Heads of Year lie at the heart of the Farnborough Hill pastoral care system. When a student arrives at the school, she comes under the care not only of a Form Tutor, who changes every year, but also a Head of Year who has overall responsibility for her well being over several years.
Miss Katie Price (pictured with some Lower School students), Mrs Lynn Glover and Mrs Laura Craven are all heads of the Lower School and take it in turns to welcome our new intake of Year 7s. They stay with their year group for the next three years, helping them to settle in and negotiate the pitfalls of secondary school. Then, in Year 9, they see them through the process of choosing their GCSE options before handing them on to Miss Karen Gibson or Mrs Elissa Nelson, who are with them for their crucial KS4 examination years.
Mrs Catherine Dales, our Head of Sixth Form, takes them on through their A levels and, with the help of Mrs Alison de Winter, our Head of Careers, sets them on the path to the right university.
The great advantage of the system is the continuity it provides. Our Heads of Year get to know the girls in their care, and their parents, very well. They act as the first point of contact for parental concerns and deal with a great range of academic, personal, social and disciplinary issues.