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"Castle School Education Trust is committed to high quality education across the primary, secondary and sixth form key stages. Our schools cover the South Gloucestershire area. We encourage independence within each school within a strong framework of values."

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Mangotsfield Secondary

  • NOVEMBER KEY DATES: 13th Y10 Parents' Info Evening, 19th/20th All year Flu Vaccinations,  27th Y11 Parents' Evening (bookings open 13th at 6pm)

MENTORING

At Mangotsfield School we want to generate an ethos of belonging. We have  mentoring groups made up of students from a specific year group.

The role of our mentors is to gather knowledge about each student which enables them to form a strong, positive relationship with each one and their home.  Our students will stay in the same mentor groups for 5 years and hopefully remain with their same mentor throughout. This means that their mentor will know them better than anyone else in the school.

Through seeing the same students each day our mentors play a key role in monitoring and supporting the  behaviour and progress of their mentees.  Mentors are also well placed to notice changes in student behaviour and engagement and communicate this with home.

What are the key responsibilities of the mentor?

At Mangotsfield School mentors are expected to:

  • Be the first point of contact with parents/carers
  • Monitor the academic and personal progress of students within their mentor group, particularly attendance, behaviour and student well-being.
  • Provide information to other staff about their mentees, for example liaising with subject teachers.
  • Co-ordinate the way the school can meet each of their mentees’ needs.

What is the mentoring structure at Mangotsfield School?

Each day mentoring takes place between 8.45 am and 9.10 am after line ups

What are line ups?

  • Students line up in the quad at the start of each day. 
  • The whistle goes at 8.45am. At this time students should be lined up silently and in alphabetical order. 
  • The mentor will then walk up and down the line in order to check uniform and equipment. 
  • Key messages from the Heads of House will also be delivered during line ups.
  • Mentors lead groups to their mentor base, in a single file, dismissed by their head of house.

Mentoring Programme

DQ: What is the Character Curriculum?

Our Character Curriculum at Mangotsfield is about demonstrating our school values in a way which goes beyond the subject curricula. We are encouraging our students to make links between the school values and wider life through a range of examples from current affairs or historical stories. We deliver the Character Curriculum during Monday morning mentoring sessions, with a clear focus on oracy and ‘no opt out’. Every mentor group in the school from year 7 to year 10 follow the Character Curriculum. 

 

How is the Character Curriculum delivered?

The Character Curriculum is delivered using mini whiteboards to record individual ideas followed by a range of guided discussion techniques for students to discuss the ideas raised in the current session. 

 

The structure of each session looks like this:

 What is the Strong Roots programme?

‘Knowledge, or more specifically prior knowledge, is one of the most crucial factors influencing a person’s ability to learn . When students are introduced to new ideas and concepts, they try to make sense of them by relating back to what they already know. The ability to recall previously learnt facts from memory assists the acquisition of new knowledge, allowing students to connect more complex ideas with their existing understanding. The weaker prior knowledge is, the more likely students are to develop misconceptions’ EEF 2021.

 

  • Strong Roots time is a regular morning slot every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday  used to increase recall and develop schema. 
  • Students will follow a timetable of recall sessions linked to their learning from the prior term using the knowledge organiser. 
  • Year 11 will follow a slightly different programme linked to the recall of core subjects. 

An explanation of the strong roots process and why we do it can be found in the videos on our Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/@MangotsfieldSecondarySchool/videos

What is the Reading Programme?

At Mangotsfield School, mentors read to their mentees four times a week during mentor time. 

Regular reading helps children to develop their vocabulary and their knowledge of the world. This, in turn, helps them to understand challenging subject textbooks at secondary school as well as other reading that they are given in class.

In particular, we are keen to improve students’ levels of literacy, knowing how important this is to their future success.  However, we also want students to enjoy reading and to develop a love of books. This is why the books have been carefully selected.

The books are all aimed at young adults and the books all feature main characters who are similar in age to the children being read to. Books like The Hunger Games enable children to imagine what it would be like for them if they were, like Katniss Everdeen, put into an incredibly difficult situation and left to their own devices. The books also feature inspiring young characters who manage to overcome incredible difficulties through courage and determination.

Students will read 3 – 4 books per year. The books are chosen to become gradually more challenging with each year. In Years 7 and 8, the students read shorter, more accessible books. By Year 10, students are reading more challenging texts.

The choice of books will continue to be monitored.

The ability to read well is a key life skill and our aspiration is to nurture and to develop this ability in all our students.