Pastoral care shapes how students experience school, relationships, challenge, and change.
It influences belonging, behaviour, character, leadership, and the way young people navigate adolescence.
Yet despite its importance, pastoral care is often one of the least structured parts of the school program. Lessons shift with staff changes, resources are recreated year to year, and teachers are asked to lead complex conversations without consistent support.
GROWTH was created to address this gap.
We specialise in designing developmentally sequenced pastoral care curriculum that bring clarity, consistency, and confidence to schools across Years 7–12.
Why GROWTH exists
After decades of leading pastoral care, wellbeing, and student development initiatives in schools, we observed the same patterns repeatedly: pastoral care was valued, but rarely systematised; delivery depended heavily on individual teachers; programs lacked continuity across year levels; and staff workload increased as resources were recreated from scratch.
GROWTH exists to provide schools with what has been missing: a clear, evidence-informed pastoral care curriculum that works year after year, regardless of cohort or staff turnover.
Our approach treats pastoral care with the same rigour as any other curriculum area, while preserving the relational, human-centred work that matters most.
GROWTH Education is led by Brendon Gilbert, Andrew Watson, and Chris Beechey, an experienced education leadership team with deep expertise across pastoral care, wellbeing, teaching and learning, and whole-school leadership.
Together, the team brings decades of experience working with adolescents across every stage of secondary schooling and supporting schools at both operational and strategic levels. This includes working alongside school leadership teams to strengthen pastoral care structures, align programs with school strategy, and support sustainable whole-school implementation.
Across their combined experience, the team has:
Schools work directly with this team as part of an ongoing partnership. This ensures GROWTH is not only well-designed but also well-supported, responsive to context, and aligned with the wider needs of students, families, and school communities.
GROWTH is intentionally 100% print-based.
We believe the most effective pastoral care happens when students slow down, write, reflect, and talk with others. Removing screens reduces distraction and creates space for deeper thinking, conversation, and connection.
Each student receives a purpose-designed booklet that:
For schools, this means:
Just high-quality pastoral care resources that work, lesson after lesson.
Schools partner with GROWTH because it:
GROWTH fits seamlessly into mentor, homeroom, or pastoral care sessions and supports both staff and students with a clear, structured approach.
The program draws on decades of experience leading school systems and designing curriculum that supports student development. It is evidence-informed and intentionally structured for consistency, practical implementation, and long-term sustainability.
GROWTH was developed in response to a common challenge in schools: pastoral care matters deeply, yet delivery is often inconsistent and difficult to sustain.
The result is a practical pastoral care curriculum that brings clarity and structure to student development while preserving the relationships at the heart of school life.
Our values are embedded in how GROWTH is designed and delivered.
Respect is reflected through inclusive lesson design that values student voice and difference.
Resilience is developed through age-appropriate challenge and reflection, not one-off interventions.
Integrity is built through explicit conversations about responsibility, decision-making, and values.
Connection is prioritised through discussion, writing, and shared reflection rather than digital delivery.
Growth is supported through a sequenced curriculum that evolves as students mature.
