• Care of new admissions;
• Developing close links with P7 pupils and their teachers;
• Monitoring the academic progress and attainment of all pupils;
• Care of pupils facing difficulties – emotional, physical or to do with class work;
• Checking on attendance and timekeeping;
• Giving advice on course and subject choices;
• Preparing reports on pupils – by letter, telephone, interviews, meetings;

Linking with support agencies such as Social Work, the Careers Service, community organisations, etc.

Each pupil is aware that there is a named member of staff who knows and cares for them as individuals. Guidance staff are allocated to a group of pupils according to the House they are in. All children from one family will have the same Guidance teacher. Details are given below of the arrangements for 2020/21.

As indicated above guidance staff play a vital role in establishing and maintaining contacts with parents. Any parent who wishes to discuss a problem with the appropriate pupil support teacher should simply contact the school and arrange to meet the guidance teacher at a time that is mutually convenient. In an emergency parents should of course contact the school immediately and arrangements will be made to deal with the matter.
By the middle of 3^rd year guidance staff will know the pupils in their charge, their strengths and their weaknesses and will be able to assist pupils in making a correct choice of curriculum to be followed on entering 4^th year. Parents will also be involved in helping their son or daughter to make the correct choice and pupil support staff will assist parents in this important exercise. To this end, Guidance staff will be directing the thoughts of pupils into this area from first year onwards. In the course of 3^rd year pupils will be given a careers booklet to be taken home to parents to enable discussions to take place more fully at home. This exercise is repeated again in 5^th year to enable pupils to choose an appropriate course to study in 5^th year and 6^th year.

In addition to these arrangements a member of the Senior Management Team oversees each school stage. The arrangements for 2020/2021 are:-

• S1&S6 – Mr D Killin
• S2&S3 – Mrs M Kerr
• S4 – Mrs S Boyle
• S5 – Mr D Sheerin

The role of Guidance is so crucial to much that happens in St. Ninian’s that it is our policy to involve not only teachers promoted in Guidance but all teachers on the staff e.g.

• All staff take a close interest in the education and welfare of the children they teach;

• All of our teachers are encouraged to contribute to the ethos and the extra-curricular life of the school;

• All teachers work closely with Guidance staff in monitoring the progress, attendance and timekeeping of their pupils;

• Most teachers take part the Supporting Learners period which involved taking on a mentoring role with the pupils, as well as covering, among other things, course choice, careers and health education.