Each year team has a Year Leader and/or Student Support Officer. Each year group also has a member of the senior leadership team (SLT) attached to it. Here is a description of how each member of the year team works with our students.
Year Leaders – Their role is to support your child pastorally – the next layer up from your child’s form tutor. They will take a lead on interventions and also on following up on poor behaviour and sanctions, as well as celebrating and arranging rewards.
Student Support Officers – Work closely with your child from a pastoral perspective. They will support with rewards and celebrations, and also with sanctions. They are a key link for your child.
Senior Leadership Link – The senior leadership link has oversight of a specific year group. They work closely with Heads of Year and Deputy Heads of Year. Their focus is on how they and the academy can support students who need interventions and additional support in liaison with parents/carers, SEND staff, the attendance team and other agencies.
The Year Teams for 2025/26
All of these staff will work closely with Mrs Robinson, as Personal Development Lead; Mr Child as Pastoral Lead; Mrs Barnes as Behaviour Manager and form tutors; alongside parents and carers to make sure an effective support structure is in place for every student.
Year teams support students with transition, reading, careers, options, PSHE, regularly review key areas of learning and provide intervention and support when specific issues or concerns arise. They will also work with pupil groups to organise year group events, charity work, sporting activities and reward assemblies and celebrations.
Introducing our dogs
Badger and Mouse are owned by Mrs Hall, the Headteacher. They are both rescue dogs from Bosnia.
There are 5 staff in school trained to be Dog Handlers – although there are many more staff who would love to take responsibility too! Our five staff were specially chosen because they work closely with our pupils, in a wider pastoral role.
Although quite rare in humans, heterochromia (the scientific term for different coloured eyes) is fairly common in dogs. She is 3 years old, and has lived with Mrs Hall, Mr Hall and Rowan (currently Y5) since she was 4 months old. Badger was found on the streets in Bosnia as a starving puppy, so she finds the luxury of life at The Birley Academy absolutely wonderful!
Badger is a very common presence in our Integrated Resource, where Mrs Payling helps our pupils working in the IR to learn about responsibility, empathy, and developing confidence, as well as listening to pupils read and enjoying being brushed and walked!
She is completely black, with even her eyes being so darkest brown that they look black too! Mouse is almost 2 years old. Mouse was also rescued from the streets of Bosnia, but she was lucky to be found with her mum and litter-mates. She came to live with Mrs Hall and family when she was around 3.5 months old.
Mouse is much more timid than Badger, and so likes to spend much of her time supporting in the attendance and safeguarding team with Mrs Calvert and Mrs Shelley, where she is brilliant at hopping onto the lap of pupils who need someone to talk to, or to comfort them. She definitely has favourite pupils, and staff – and takes a little time to trust grown-ups – but is much more comfortable and trusting of our pupils!
When in school, Badger and Mouse will be listening to reading, taking humans for walks and teaching them about taking responsibility for others. They will occasionally visit classrooms, and have been inspiration for artwork by pupils, and have even been added to our rewards shop as an option for pupils to ‘purchase’ dog walking and playing sessions. Walking, grooming, playing and training are some of the responsibilities pupils will be allowed to undertake.
Badger and Mouse have been assessed by ‘The Dog Mentor’ to be suitable to work in school with children and adults – you can visit The Dog Mentor website here.
At The Birley Academy, we want all of our pupils and staff to have a strong sense of belonging. Our school dogs help to develop kindness, respect, compassion and responsibility (as well as making people smile!).
