Blog

The Pastoral Care at BSS promotes positive behaviour

27 Mar 2023

At British School in Sofia, we have created a comfortable environment for communication, interaction, encouragement, and discipline, which allows students to reach their full potential not only intellectually, but also in terms of communication skills and self-expression. It is almost impossible to describe this model of the British educational system implemented at British School in Sofia with a single word or a brief expression. Broadly speaking, it is a pastoral care – the moral and social integration of children and adults in the school.

While we make efforts to teach our children how to become good people, we ourselves learn a lot because regardless of age or life role, everyone lives in symbiosis with others. Every person strives to be happy, but the pursuit of happiness is a process that is particularly difficult in school, where many children need to be better understood and accepted, which affects their sense of happiness. Therefore, our teachers, counselors, and psychologists make efforts not only in the classroom, but also in every interaction with students, as it happens in a large family. On one hand, there is good discipline, rewards, and respectful attitude; on another – communication that must be effective, tolerant, and two-way.

In our school family, we have two people who help with this communication, building positive relationships at all levels: between students, between students and teachers, and between teachers and parents. These are Miss Katya and Mr. Rado – our Pastoral Care and Behaviour Leads:

Katya Nikolova is responsible for moral and social integration and an English language teacher with a teaching qualification from Forth Valley College, Stirling, and a diploma in "Translations in the Public Sector" from the Chartered Institute of Linguists, London. She has experience in schools in the United Kingdom, Spain, and Bulgaria. Katya has been part of the British School in Sofia team for 11 years.

Radomir Kunev is responsible for moral and social integration and a Bulgarian language teacher for foreigners. He graduated in Bulgarian Philology from Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski". He believes that every student has potential that needs to be unfolded and that every child deserves a good education. He always tries to improve himself so that he can set the best example for his students. Rado has been part of the British School in Sofia team for 3 years.

The position of Pastoral Care and Behaviour Lead may not be well-known in Bulgaria, but it is a pedagogical model that focuses on an individual approach and solutions for each situation, relating to relationships and behavior, including communication breakdowns, discipline problems, and feelings of unfairness.

Often in communication, people feel misunderstood or misinterpreted, leading to feelings of dissatisfaction, demotivation, anger, or a desire for isolation. The Pastoral Care and Behaviour team is there to mediate and find the shortest path to mutual understanding and compromise.

Miss Katya and Mr. Rado often take on different roles to help: as parents, teachers, mediators, arbitrators, counselors, and mentors. They have already earned the respect of both the children and their parents, which makes their job easier. For the children, they are a wise friend to turn to if they have a problem, but also an adult who can reprimand them if they break the rules.

For the administration and teachers, they are colleagues who understand the difficulties they face and can give the best advice. For parents, they are experts who understand their children's needs and can provide an objective assessment of any situation, as well as recommendations for effective communication.

The Pastoral Care and Behaviour team also takes care of motivating the students, which is always important for them to achieve their goals, and when they succeed, they are encouraged and admired. The policy in the British School in Sofia is always to focus on positive behavior, with excellent achievements receiving praise, and missed opportunities being corrected. Rule violations are shown if necessary.

The Pastoral Care and Behaviour model is also applied in terms of relationships between teachers, between teachers and parents, and between teachers and administration. These relationships, in the classroom, between teachers and staff in the school, between administration and parents, are key to the success and improvement of our students. Therefore, the British School of Sofia team ensures that everyone in the school is understood, evaluated fairly, respected, and appreciated.

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