Pastoral support at Great Torrington School is based around a House System with a mix of Vertical and Horizonal Tutor Groups.

How does it work?

Ms Miller-Marshall, Assistant Head Pastoral and Behaviour, leads the house system.  Each house has a Head of Learning and a Pupil Coach to support the running of the house system.  All pupils belong to a house: Endeavour, Endurance, Discovery and Resolution. 

Younger siblings will join the House of their older brothers or sisters. Heads of Learning are therefore able to build a strong relationship with parents and careers whilst their children are at GTS.

When joining Great Torrington all pupils will be placed into a tutor group. They will remain in this tutor group throughout Key Stage 3 (Years 7, 8 and 9), before moving into Key Stage 4 (Years 10 and 11), where pupils will be placed into tutor groups with others from their year and house.

The tutor is the first point of contact with any concerns or issues you may be experiencing with school. Click Here to view contact details.

The benefits of a house system

• Promote the school's values of Opportunity Health, Resilience, Respect, Responsibility and Relationships.
• Creates a sense of belonging when joining GTS and builds a sense of community, creating smaller family groups within the larger community of GTS.
• Provides opportunities for our pupils to take responsibility and develop leadership skills.
• Belonging to a Tutor Group and House, with older pupils allows pupils to benefit from and develop into positive role models, creating a nurturing, supportive environment.
• Mixed age House and tutor groups reflect social situations and the workplace where we mix with people of different ages.  Communication, flexibility and resilience are essential skills for our pupils to have for their future lives.

Each tutor group meets for 20 minutes at 8.50 am each day with their tutor, and with the rest of their House for an assembly each week. Assemblies provide opportunities for reflection on moral and ethical issues, celebration of achievement, the promotion of school values and for whole school communication.

Fortnightly on Thursday afternoons we have an extended House Time (40 mins) with specially planned activities to enhance the bonding of the group and interaction with their peers.

House Colours

To create a greater sense of identity and belonging to the House system, each house has its own colour. These colours are seen on form notice boards in most classrooms, the House notice boards in the House corridor and on the school tie.

Endeavour - blue, Resolution - purple, Discovery - red, Endurance - gold

House Notice Boards

The House notice boards are located in J Block entrance and are maintained by House members.  Also, the House trophy known as the “Ash Cup” along with the Sports Day trophy are located above the noticeboards.

Junior Leadership Team

The role of the House Captain provides one of the major pupil leadership opportunities within the school. Each House has 2 House Captains and a team of school leaders who are appointed from the Year 11 group who apply for the role and are formally interviewed in September. The role of the House Captain is an important one in the school community as they lead their respective Houses in each event by recruiting, promoting, directing and supporting younger pupils’ in House events.

Pupil leadership opportunities also exist in individual subjects such as Humanities Ambassadors, Maths, Sports, Performing Arts, Languages, and Literacy Leaders.