Coláiste Chríost Rí is an evolving Christian community committed to Catholic education; we pursue academic and sporting excellence within a unique Gaelic culture and tradition. Our curriculum maintains a creative balance between preperation for the workplace and development of the person --- Mission Statement

Aims and Objectives
A Programme of Pastoral Care sketches the larger and happier landscape of community care and caring. This is how we cherish, support, and empower committed Christians discovering dignity, responsible citizens becoming aware of heritage, and maturing young people learning essential life skills. Our programme accords with our Catholic philosophy; our Gaelic culture; our dedication to work; our commitment to home - school partnership; in essence, with our genuine effort to create a sense of community. Inside and outside the classroom, a positive, purposeful, task-oriented, yet relaxed, warm and supportive climate are the features of our Programme of Pastoral Care.

Pastoral Care
Caring means taking care. And in Coláiste Chríost Rí taking care is pupil-centred; pupils come first. The Pastoral Team includes Subject Teachers, Class Teachers, Guidance Counsellor, Chaplain, Deputy Principal and Principal. Linking up with you, the parents, this team ensures a pupil's well-being and welfare at all times in a secure, happy learning environment. As with our Code of Behaviour and Discipline Management, a partnership approach informs the implementation of our Programme of Pastoral Care.

Care in Theory
Maintenance of the well-being and welfare of young people, and management of their behaviour, their problems and difficulties, demands appropriate interventions by the Pastoral Team. A programme must deal with specifics; it must have definite approaches.

A first approach is a firm belief that the caring collaboration of staff and parents is not just an end in itself, worthy though that may be, but the basic and necessary foundation for the school's main task of caring for its pupils. Next is the creation of the pupil-centred community which will make a difference in their lives. Creating a secure and happy learning environment involves a number of important factors:

• a firm but fair disciplinary climate
• a high teacher expectation of pupils
• good pupil-teacher relations, and
• good pupil involvement in their school

A high level of management-staff consultation and parental involvement is a final, a necessary and a dynamic approach.

Care in Practice
Goodwill is not enough! It is not sufficient that Pastoral Care be implicit in our school culture. In our Mission Statement and Prospectus, the explicit aim is an acceptance by parents, pupils and teachers that we will work together as in a family. Community spirit rates high in Coláiste Chríost Rí. Ultimately, it is this sense of community that matters. So in Pastoral Care the practicalities of caring are explicit, are incorporated in a programme with a parent-staff-management support structure.

In practice, our programme commences with transition from Primary to Secondary. This is a major landmark in any student's schooling - a smooth transition for some, a traumatic one for others. In Coláiste Chríost Rí, great care is taken with the Induction period - the whole process is proactively planned and actively monitored by the Entrance/Induction Team. A Chaplaincy service ministers to the personal and spiritual needs of students, especially at this time. Thereafter and throughout a pupil's schooling, there is a Guidance/Counselling Service. During each school year, provision of Study Centres in the evening helps students seeking optimum working conditions. Health Education ensures a healthy mind in a healthy body. Home-School Links are maintained as distinctly necessary in a partnership approach; the parent-pupil-teacher triangle is kept intact.

Induction
Early days in Coláiste Chríost Rí are busy but bright. An induction period introduces pupils to 'the way we do things around here'. A pupil is welcomed by his Form Teacher, Subject Teachers and the Principal. Rules, especially those relating to his safety and security, are highlighted. The Timetable is explained. He is shown his base classroom, specialist rooms and facilities generally. His anxiety about new faces and places is allayed. He is made to feel at home. The Class Teacher - the pupil's day-to-day contact person - has responsibility for the class and takes a special interest in each pupil. Parents, having been briefed beforehand, will have prepared their boy to fit in. At an Information Evening, they will have received a comprehensive Prospectus, setting out our Vision, our Curriculum, our Caring Programme, our Code of Behaviour, and our way of Discipline Management.

Chaplaincy
In a school, belonging is important. And befriending. We need others, we need to know that we are not alone. Belonging for us, means that as a community we are a group of people befriending and helping each other. While everybody helps a pupil in the process of befriending, the Chaplain plays a very active role, especially in the early days. At the Chaplain's prompting, a pupil may become involved in social work and will be encouraged to care for others - for the old, the lonely, and the needy. The Chaplain, too, organises space: physical space in the Séipéal, sacred space at special times, and inner space at Assembly time - to make room for prayer. We befriend God.

Guidance/Counselling
Ongoing provision is made for educational and vocational guidance for all and for the more specialised personal counselling individual pupils need. Pupils are alerted to the choices facing them at various points and are helped with decision-making. The wider programme focuses on examination technique, study skills, subject choices, career classes, and interview drills and skills. In Individual Guidance sessions, pupils are made aware of their particular strengths and given an understanding of the career options open to them.

Work and Play
In the classroom, courtesy, co-operation, and genuine commitment are expected. There is a meshing of the teacher's aspiration to teach with the pupil's ambition to learn. Supervised Study Centres in the evening provide a meaningful backup to Junior and Leaving Cert students seeking an optimum work-study setting and ambience. In Social and Health Education, in Sport and in Extra-curricular Activities, we provide outlets and opportunities for well-rounded personal development. We encourage high levels of participation so that a boy grows spiritually, physically, culturally, and emotionally as well as intellectually. We work - classwork and homework combined - a forty-hour week, but we would produce a very 'dull boy' if it were 'all work and no play'.

Parents and Teachers
Parents play a big part in the pastoral care of our pupils. Parents are represented on our Board of Management, and are involved in the Parent's Council. Since we consider collaboration with parents important and regard our work as an extension of theirs, home-school contact is established and maintained. We keep a boy's family fully informed of his application and achievements. Parents may arrange to call to the school at any time. Through Parent-Teacher Meetings, a Prospectus, Progress Term Reports, a Newsletter (Rí Eolas), and various Information Leaflets, the home-school link is sustained. Helpful Information Seminars on matters of pastoral concern are organised by the energetic Parent's Council.

Helping a boy grow is a duty we both share. Before ever the Spice Girls were heard of, we cared for Spice Boys - the acronym Spice being our rule of thumb for a holistic approach in nurturing our pupils Spiritually, Physically, Intellectually, Culturally, and Emotionally. Our Pastoral Care Programme is founded on this holistic approach. It ensures that, with your help, a pupil starts securely, continues satisfactorily, and finishes successfully his years in Coláiste Chríost Rí.