In order for our pupils to enjoy a successful education, they must feel safe, happy and empowered to achieve their aspirations. Building mental resilience and developing strong mental health is key to this. At North Wootton, we acknowledge that at times additional support may be needed to achieve this with some pupils and that a comprehensive, tiered approach may be needed.
In line with other groups of pupils who could be seen as vulnerable in their learning, our school has a senior leader in charge of the monitoring of pupils who may need this additional support and coordinating this both with school resources and external agencies to ensure pupils can achieve their potential.
Our Pastoral Support Team
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Senior Mental Health Lead Miss Buschman is the senior leader who overseas all pastoral support structures within the school, including the PHSE curriculum, pupil tracking and referrals to external structures. |
Child Mental Health Practitioner Mrs Barnes is a trained Mental Health First Aider who supports pupils each afternoon. She is trained in Thrive, ELSA and is currently completing her Trauma Informed Schools qualification. |
Adult Mental Health First Aider Miss Graham is a trained Mental Health First Aider used for school staff. However, she is also available for parents who may need signposting to external agencies. |
The aims of pastoral support at North Wootton Academy:
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To provide and coordinate tiered support that meets the differing needs of all children so that each child is equipped with the skills to cope with life.
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To support children to address social, spiritual, mental, emotional and physical needs through the education that we provide.
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To actively track the vulnerability of pupils and ensure that those who may need some intervention are identified early through teacher discussion and leading pupil voice within the school.
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To maintain an atmosphere in which children feel secure, are encouraged in their learning, growth and social development and know that they are valued within a healthy and safe environment.
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To reassure parents/carers their children are being educated in a safe and nurturing environment and help provide additional support when needed.
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To encourage pupils to recognise and reflect upon our core TEAMWORK values (Transform, Empower, Achieve, Motivate, Wonder, Open-mindedness, Respect, Kind).
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To work with a range of parents, support staff, outreach agencies and other schools to ensure the continuity and progress of individual pupils.
The role of the Pastoral Support Team
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To support and work alongside parents in addressing pastoral concerns impacting on their child’s learning and development.
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To work with staff in ensuring good pupil support and build upon the caring and respectful relationships that exist between staff, pupils and families.
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To provide pastoral support to individual and groups of children; listening and talking to children who may need support in a variety of pastoral issues, for example, self-esteem and confidence, bereavement, managing feelings, anxieties/worries, separation and developing social and friendships skills.
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Responding to situations as they arise within school.
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Meeting with parents/carers to discuss issues relating to their child.
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To ‘signpost’ families to outside services for appropriate provision and suport.
What is our tiered approach?
- Stage 1 - Within the classroom we have a number of support structures, such as weekly check-in assemblies where pupils are asked to discuss their feelings; emotion pegs where pupils can indicate how they are feeling and ask for support, and a PHSE curriculum to looks to educate pupils about their mental health. In addition, the school has a pupil-led Wellbeing Team who can be used to support with low-level issues within the class.
- Stage 2 - Where teachers or families have indicated that some additional support may be needed, pupils are added to a triage list and allocated either Thrive or Emotional Literacy Support (ELSA) sessions with Mrs Barnes. The first of these tends to be a long-term programme of support linked to diagnosed issues or significant life events such as cancer within the family. ELSA is a six-week programme that tries to teach specific strategies for coping within the class or with worries in general. This list is reviewed each half-term to decide how we prioritise Mrs Barnes' time. An additional element of this is playground check-ins. Mrs Barnes has a lunchtime duty on the Junior playground every lunchtime to enable pupils to check-in informally where more comprehensive support is not available.
- Stage 3 - On a termly basis, the school aims to meet with representatives from the Mental Health for Schools Team (MHST) in order to anonymously discuss the kinds of issues that are being dealt with in school. This can result in the team offering some group sessions where we have identified a specific area of need or recommending a six-week support session with the family and child. In both cases, parents and carers would be invited in to discuss this option as consent is required for such a referral.
How do I make contact?
Any pupil who has a concern should approach their teaching staff, speak with the pupil Well-being Team or simply pass their emotion peg to an adult to indicate they have a worry.
For parents/carers,if you have a pastoral concern regarding your child, then you can phone the school, speak to your child’s class teacher or make an appointment to see a member of our Pastoral Team via the school office. Please call the school office on 01553 672385 or email office@nwt.eastern-mat.co.uk.
Staff are always ready to listen and act on pupil concerns, which means that any difficulties can be addressed quickly.