I READ with interest the article by Laura-Jane Filotrani, where she expressed concern about the move away from pastoral care in schools (Social Skills Matter As Much As Exams, News Shopper, February 22).

I completely agree learning cannot take place if there are underlying social and pastoral issues which need attention.

As a teacher and former head of year, I now run a student support department of seven non-teaching staff in a grammar school.

The department consists of five pastoral leaders, an attendance officer and a teaching and special needs assistant.

The form tutor mostly teachers in this school but some are non-teachers is still in the front line for help and advice with their students and works closely with student support staff.

We are at the forefront of such changes in education, and we are in our second year using this system.

Change is not always negative. We have found by moving away from having teachers in charge of pastoral care, we have been able to employ people who have experience in counselling, child protection and other relevant experience and expertise.

They are not teaching and are therefore available to students at any point during the school day, in or out of lessons as appropriate.

The pastoral support we are now offering our students is second to none.

It is vastly better than the patchy service we offered a few years ago, when a teaching head of year was in charge of each year group.

MRS H C GODFREY

Student support manager