Pastoral support

Our school prides itself on the pastoral support it gives to our children and their families and there are many ways in which we can help.

Please speak to Mrs Pepper (Headteacher and Designated Safeguarding Lead), Miss Lawley (Deputy Headteacher and Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead ), Mrs Robe (Family Mental Wellbeing Lead and Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead) who can all give detailed help, support and guidance. We are also supported by our ELSA, Mrs Dakin, our SEND team, Miss Kendall-Day and Miss Jackson,  as well as our highly trained teaching and support staff team.

Here are some of the services we provide or can signpost you to.

Early Help

We can make referrals to the Children's Services Early Help team. This team are there to give families support, guidance and in some cases, training and the tools to help.

These are some of the services they provide, which we can refer for:

• Family Support for short-term parenting and behaviour support
• Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners to help with children age 8 years and over who are anxious or depressed but aren’t involved with the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS)
• Pathway Co-ordinators where cases are complex, children have been excluded from school and there are many services already involved that need co-ordination
• Group support including support for managing anger, Special Educational Need and Disability, keeping safe and feeling safe

Family Wellbeing Service

We can also refer to the 'Family Wellbeing Service' who provide intensive family support for families who have a range of needs which impact on family functioning including:

• A range of health and or mental health concerns
• Anti-social behaviour or criminal activity
• Unemployment or housing difficulties
• Education difficulties including children at risk of exclusion
• Domestic abuse
• Family Support and Guidance

At our school, we have an ELSA  in school full time (see below), as well as our Family Mental Wellbeing Lead, who provide us with direct support for pupils and their families. The help on offer can take many forms, including 1:1 work with pupils in school and home visits to parents to offer guidance at home.

ELSA- Emotional Literacy Learning Support Assistants

Mrs Robe and Mrs Dakin are both trained ELSAs, who support referred children (referral can come from staff, parents, GPs and social services. There will always be children and young people in schools facing challenges that detract from their ability to engage with learning. Some will require greater support to increase their emotional literacy than others. ELSA is an initiative developed and supported by educational psychologists. It recognises that children learn better and are happier in school if their emotional needs are also addressed.

The majority of ELSA work is delivered through group work, but sometimes individual sessions are more appropriate.

The School Nurse Service

The school nursing teams offer support and a confidential service to children and young people with emotional health and wellbeing concerns, behaviour, continence, and growth concerns. Parents are also offered parent information sessions which cover the following topics:

• Healthy bladder, healthy bowel (Continence)
• Promoting Positive Behaviour
• Understanding and managing your child’s anxiety

These sessions provide parents with knowledge and strategies to help them support their child.  School nursing teams offer 1-1 support to children and young people to improve their health and wellbeing and offer supportive websites and a chat health texting service for young people and parents to contact if needing support and advice regarding a public health concern.

Referrals to the school nursing service can be made via school, parents texting chat health, GPs, and other professionals:

• Parent chat health texting service - 07520615382
• Chat health texting service – 07520615387
• Health for Kids website link - www.healthforkids.co.uk
• Health for Teens website link - www.healthforteens.co.uk
• Cluster 1 school nursing phone number – 0116 215 6290