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Pastoral care service
We welcome and value all students and want to ensure you have the opportunity to achieve your goals.
NEC’s delivery model is self-directed and self-paced learning. Many students find this flexibility is welcome. For some, occasional or regular support from a specialist tutor will enable them to reach their full potential. The list below details the types of support NEC can offer.
- Study Skills
- Personal Timetable creation
- Regular Monitoring of progress
- Meeting deadlines
- Exam preparation
- Support to access services for mental health support
Wellbeing for learning programme
NEC’s Pastoral and Welfare Officer has created a series of focused sessions throughout the year which provide NEC students with the space to explore any barriers to learning they may have. The sessions provide information and techniques regarding how to be a successful online distance learner.
- The sessions are free of charge for NEC enrolled students.
- Live, engaging and supportive.
- Every other month.
- Topics include: Getting Started, Motivation and Procrastination, Revision and Anxiety.
Initiating support
You may have had a conversation with our pre-enrolment team about the services we offer to enrolled students, and would like to put this support in place.
You may have made contact with the NEC Pastoral and Welfare Officer through the Student Support Team. Or our Pastoral and Welfare Officer may have reached out to you.
Either route is fine, and will be met with the same professional and supportive response.
Initiating support
Stage 1
The NEC Pastoral and Welfare Officer offers Stage 1 support remotely, often providing enough assistance to help students progress. This support includes three focused calls, where the officer identifies and addresses key areas of need. The calls are scheduled at convenient times and can be spread over an agreed period.
- If you are under 18 or registered as a vulnerable adult then your carer will be invited to attend the call with you.
- If you are the parent / guardian of an under 18 student, or of an adult learner who is registered as vulnerable, we will always invite you to attend meetings with the Pastoral and Welfare Officer and the student.
It may be during this stage of support that you and the Pastoral and Welfare Officer agree that further on a different type of support is required. It is at this point they will discuss the next stage.
Getting further help
Stage 2
Most students find the three Stage 1 Pastoral and Welfare Officer sessions to be sufficient to help them move forward with their studies.
Student Support
It may be that you do not require specialist support but would like to put in place regular meetings to track progress, enhance your study skills, and to support you to meet your learning goals. These can be weekly, every other week, monthly or ad hoc as you require.
This can be arranged at an additional fee:
- 30 mins – £45
- 60 mins – £60
Trusted NEC partners
Specialist support
Some students may need additional or specialist support. To provide this, NEC partners with external experts to ensure students receive the care they need for SEN or mental health concerns.
Through these partnerships, NEC students can access professional support, including a free initial consultation and discounted rates for further sessions. If you already have support in place, that’s perfectly fine.
By partnering with external organisations we can offer students access to professional support. NEC students can book an initial free consultation. After this call students can take advantage of a partner discount for further sessions. It may be that you have identified your support via other partners, and this is absolutely fine.
Areas our external partners can support include:
- Anxiety
- Autism Spectrum Disorder
- CBT
- Dysgraphia
- Dyslexia
- Dyscalculia
- Eating Disorders
- Grief Counselling
- Speech and Language Therapy
Frequently asked questions
Everything you wanted to know about pastoral tutorials.
NEC students have the flexibility to study independently and at their own pace, but some students feel that they would benefit from occasional or regular additional support. This is where our Pastoral Service can help. What is a pastoral tutorial, though, and what will happen if you book one? We chat to Karyn Nash, one of the NEC Pastoral Support Team and NEC’s Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator.
The term ‘pastoral’ might be a bit confusing, but it just refers to any support that happens outside of subject teaching. Subject tutors are responsible for answering questions about their subject, giving assignment feedback and preparing a student to take the exam, whereas a pastoral tutor supports some of the issues that can impact learning and progression. This might be support with getting more organised, or understanding how to approach independent learning. Equally it could be to do with individual learning needs or wellbeing. The important thing to understand is that pastoral sessions are driven by the student and what they need to succeed.
Initial pastoral tutorials last for 30 minutes and all NEC students can access three of these as part of their NEC course fee. Some learners feel that they would like all three of these tutorials but others have fewer. It’s really driven by the learner.
Students who have pastoral sessions are able to talk about their learning and the things that impact it ‘in the round’, not just in relation to one subject. The agendas for these tutorials are set by the student and cover the topics that they identify. Our tutors will then give guidance according to the things they have identified as important to them.
Some examples of the types of topics students ask to discuss are:
- study skills
- personal timetable creation
- regular monitoring of progress
- meeting deadlines
- exam preparation
Only if they want to. These tutorials can be very practical; they can be very personal, or they can be a bit of both. Our tutors are kind, helpful and discreet and would only alert NEC to the details of a conversation if they were concerned that what had been disclosed presented a safeguarding risk.
Please get in touch with us at pastoral.support@nec.ac.uk and me and my colleagues, Linda and Sarah, will guide you through booking a tutorial.
Usually, students who know they would like a lot of support agree the structure of their pastoral support at the same time as they decide on their academic pathway. This is a good way to make sure that the pastoral support weaves its way through their studies and is there when they need it. If they are not following one of these paths then every NEC student has access to three, free pastoral sessions as part of their NEC course fee. If a student feels as though they need more than this, they can pay for additional sessions at a cost of £45 for half an hour, or £60 for an hour. They would be allocated one of our expert, pastoral tutors so that they can build a good working relationship with them across longer term support.
Here are some real comments from learners or their parents about how pastoral tutorials have helped:
“[My son] now feels more connected to his work again and has a plan … that had slipped over recent months.”
“I thought I had really messed up, but you saved the day!”
“Thanks, I’m really thrilled with my results – I’m really pleased that I’ve got into my preferred Uni.”
“Most useful though was our conversation. It kept me on track at a point when I was close to quitting due to time pressure.”
Ready to find out more?
Please contact Pastoral Care if you require any further information.
By engaging with our Pastoral Care Service you are declaring your understanding of the service as laid out above. Information you share with NEC during your engagement with the service will be stored securely on password protected systems, and will only be shared with internal staff and NEC tutors where sharing is considered to be appropriate.
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