The Principal, Term 3 Week 4 2026

Educating Hearts and Minds

At Pulteney, we are deeply committed to the wellbeing and pastoral care of every student. We know that students perform at their best when they feel valued, safe and secure, when they have a strong sense of belonging, and when they know that the adults around them genuinely care about them.

This commitment sits alongside our pursuit of academic excellence. We are a school renowned for personalised learning, where students are truly known and understood. Our aim is to educate both the hearts and minds of our young people, helping them to thrive academically, personally and socially.

This year, our Heads of School, Heads of Student Wellbeing, Support and Services, Heads of House and Tutors, in conjunction with our student leaders, have continued to review and explore ways to strengthen our secondary school taught pastoral curriculum through our ‘Activate’ and ‘Amplify’ programs. Our pastoral and co-curricular programs must provide the support, challenge, connection and recreation that enable our students to be at their best.

The review is an opportunity to consolidate the best of our current practice while strengthening those areas where we know there is room for improvement. We envisage our pastoral and wellbeing curriculum to be carefully tailored to the age and stage of our learners, ensuring that students are equipped to navigate the challenges and opportunities of personal growth as they move from adolescence into adulthood.

Our goal is to develop in our students a passion for relentless curiosity and the capacity to be agile in their thinking. But we must also model these qualities ourselves. If we commit to thinking and working creatively, nurturing a desire for deep learning and demonstrating genuine respect for diversity, we will be better placed to educate the hearts and minds of our students.

Our pastoral care leaders and teachers play a pivotal role in this work. Through the relationships they build with students, they provide encouragement, guidance and support, while also serving as important role models. At Pulteney, we want our students to grow in confidence, face challenges with optimism, strive to be better, and experience the satisfaction that comes from hard work, perseverance and effort.

We also seek our students to understand what it means to be a ‘Navy Blue’, to demonstrate good character, integrity, respect, courage, service and a commitment to others. These are qualities that will serve our students well not simply during their years at Pulteney, but throughout their lives.

As part of our ongoing review, we are exploring opportunities for our year groups to work together more closely. We want our senior students to provide meaningful mentoring and guidance to younger students and to create more opportunities for students to learn from, support and encourage one another. We are also looking at ways to create stronger structures for service, enabling our students to contribute more meaningfully to our community beyond the gates of Pulteney.

Perhaps most importantly, our aim is for every student to feel connected and to have a strong sense of belonging.

Pulteney has a long and proud history of being a place of belonging. Students who left our School many years ago, still speak with an undeniable sense of connection to this place. Our traditions have always been safeguarded by strong relationships and a shared sense of identity.

One of the most powerful expressions of this identity has always been our Houses.

Over recent years, we have seen a wonderful resurgence of House activity and House spirit across the School. We now want to supercharge our four Houses, creating even more opportunities for belonging, meaningful service, leadership, mentoring and participation. House should be a place where every student knows they matter, where they can contribute, where they are supported by others and where they can experience the joy of being part of something larger than themselves.

Our commitment to pastoral care extends beyond the students themselves. Earlier this year, we introduced a series of Parent Masterclasses, designed to provide parents and carers with practical strategies and insights to support their children through the various stages of their development. These sessions have been highly successful, and we are looking forward to welcoming parents to our Term 3 Masterclass at the end of this term. Further details will be shared with families in the coming weeks.

Pastoral care is not an additional program that sits alongside learning. It is fundamental to the way we educate young people. When students feel known, connected and supported, they are better able to learn, take risks, recover from setbacks and pursue excellence.

Our aspiration is simple: we want every Pulteney student to be the best version of themselves.

For our students to leave us not only with strong academic foundations, but with curiosity, resilience, confidence, compassion, character and a deep understanding of who they are and what they can contribute to the world.

That is the work of pastoral care. It is the work of educating the whole person. And it is at the very heart of what it means to be Pulteney.

Greg Atterton
Principal