TES Connect 2026 Summer

Doing Well by Doing Good

Growing Through the Pastoral Journey

One of the most significant developments this year has been the integration of community engagement within pastoral structures across year groups. By embedding age-appropriate experiences into the pastoral journey, students build a deeper understand ing of service over time. In Year 8, for example, this has taken shape through place-based inquiry. Guided by Mr Richard Luke, the Dean of Year 8, students explored the Yang Ming Shan National Park, which our secondary campus is situated in, asking questions about its eco logical significance, its relationship with local communi ties, and their own role within it. The Year 8 House Tutor team, Ms Christine Wu, Mr John Herbison, Ms Lianna Wittenberg, and Mr Tamas Szvet, lead the students em barking on a journey to create a community-friendly guide, using a Year 8 student lens, to connect our com munity with this precious natural resource. At the same time, this year has also seen a major step forward in structured service learning within pastoral care. Led by Ms Esther Wainright, the Dean of H1, and her tutor teacher team, Ms Briana Samuelson, Mr Corey

Sanderson, Ms Katie Leahy, Mr Paul Lee, and Mr Paul Wright, six student groups have engaged in a sustained five-month service-learning programme. This has been a powerful and successful experiment in intentionally embedding community engagement into student de velopment. Across these groups, students have moved through cy cles of inquiry, action, and reflection, learning not only about community needs but also about collaboration, responsibility, and the complexity of real-world engage ment. This sustained model has helped shift service learning from isolated experiences into an ongoing developmental journey. Together, these pastoral initi atives reflect a growing understanding that community engagement is not an add-on, but an integral part of how students grow.

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