Pupil Monitoring

Although not a physical place, the ‘Pupil Monitoring’ is the home of all things wellbeing related in the School. This site, which can be found via the School’s intranet, acts as an explanation for all our guiding principles, as a source of support and advice, and as a repository of the useful resources that pupils, parents and staff will come across during the course of the year e.g. the School Psychologist’s parenting talks. Both the Prefects and Wellbeing Ambassadors have their own pages on the Pupil Monitoring where they post their own resources and tips.

MONITORING

Harrow Hong Kong uses a variety of means to monitor the wellbeing of our pupils. This allows us to measure and track the wellbeing of both the individual and the School as a whole, as well as providing a means to receive and offer feedback and disseminate information throughout the community

PULSE

‘Pulse’ is a regular weekly survey that asks a quick selection of anonymous wellbeing related questions and quite simply allows us to take the ‘pulse’ of the pupils’ emotional state. It is our regular, light touch monitoring system for the whole Upper School. Over time, this has allowed us to build up a picture of the ebb and flow of the mindset of our pupil body throughout the academic year, provides useful benchmarking data against other Schools around the globe, and identifies areas that may require additional focus. In addition, it allows pupils to let their tutors know how they are feeling in a more general sense, thereby promoting further wellbeing discussions between tutor and pupil.

TERMLY WELLBEING SURVEYS

Building upon the above are the termly wellbeing surveys. These surveys have been run on a termly basis since November 2020, and ask the same questions to all pupils across the Upper School. The results received provide two key pieces of data. Firstly, they allow us to highlight any individual concerns that a pupil may have and that need to be addressed with some immediacy. At the same time, the collective data from these surveys allows us to monitor pupil attitude towards some issues more specifically relevant to the context of the School

ANONYMOUS REPORTING TOOL

The Anonymous Reporting Tool is a recent initiative that provides pupils with a means of raising a concern without necessarily revealing their identity. It does so by utilising a third party provider that acts as a middleman between the School and the individual submitting the report. It has so far proved useful and has brought several significant issues to the attention of the SLT who have subsequently been able to coordinate an appropriate response.

ICT RESTRICTIONS AND FILTERING 

With the prevalence of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the modern world, it is necessary to support our pupils when using such devices. The School utilises an educational approach to this through the Digital Literacy Programme, but it also has a “backstop” in the form of our monitoring and filtering software. This provides the School with the ability to utilise a range of options that include monitoring, filtering or blocking material available online and managing the way that the physical device can be used in its own right. The system is graduated according to the year group of the pupil in question. The School’s ICT department will provide further information on these facilities at the appropriate time.

MEETINGS

Ultimately, all of the means of monitoring pupil wellbeing are collated and discussed at the pastoral meetings that take place between the different layers of the staff body. The data and information provided by these systems enables us to build up a picture of how the pupils are feeling and behaving and to coordinate an appropriate response in a timely fashion.

PASTORAL ROADMAP

The academic year is known for its structure. Each year consists of three terms, each broken into halves and all with their own unique milestones. One such example is the School’s celebration of World Mental Health Day which takes place each October, and provides pupils with an opportunity to try a variety of different wellbeing related activities over the course of an afternoon that is taken off timetable.

At Harrow Hong Kong we have developed the ‘Pastoral Roadmap’, which endeavours to overlay the key pastoral and wellbeing themes upon the calendar. In doing so, it aims to provide transparency and coherence to the key focal points for a given period of the school year, and serves as a checklist of requirements. It should be noted that whilst certain themes are more prominent at certain times of the school year, these will be revisited should the need arise.