• Safeguarding

We believe that happy children learn and therefore children's mental health and well-being is important to us.

Our Mental Health Lead for children is Mrs Surtees who is also supported in her role by a team of teachers and support staff across the school.

Mrs Surtees has undertaken Mental Health Training delivered by Thrive. This training was accessed through the DFE Mental Health grant available to schools.

Staff have also received training in the Emotional & Social Curriculum, delivered by the Mulberry School. The Emotional and Social Curriculum is an intervention that we use to help support children both 1:1 and in small groups to help improve children's emotional well-being.

Who is our ELSA?

Mrs Stanley is our ELSA. ELSA stands for Emotional Literacy Support Assistant. As part of her work, Mrs Stanley will work with children on a 1:1 basis or as part of a small nurture group.

She will help support children to talk about their worries or concerns and help build up their emotional literacy, being able to talk about their feelings.

Our ELSA is based in The Meadow, our nurture room, an area that provides a safe, warm, nurturing environment to help support our children. We are very grateful to Faringdon Rotary Club who donated £3000 to help convert our old staffroom into the Meadow. 

If you feel your child would benefit from Mrs Stanley's support, please contact the school office.

 

Young Carers at John Blandy

Pupils who fulfil a caring role at home often have many additional responsibilities aside from school. A young carer may be:

• Looking after a parent, sibling or other relative.
• Providing physical, emotional or social support.
• Looking after someone with a physical illness, disability, learning difficulty or a mental health condition.

At John Blandy, we understand that these additional responsibilities mean that pupils who are young carers sometimes need some extra support to help them thrive and succeed at school. Because of this, John Blandy has a lead member of staff for young carers who co-ordinates the following support for students:

• 1 on 1 support including assessment and a safe space to talk about their responsibilities
• Liaising with teachers and other staff in school where necessary about a students caring role to help them with things like homework and access to extracurricular activities.
• Support and help with funding in order to access extracurricular opportunities or improve a student’s wellbeing.
• Awareness raising activities across the whole school through assemblies, the Young Carers display board and PSHE classes.

We aim to understand and meet the needs of pupils who fulfil a caring role at home and encourage parents/carers to let us know if their child is a young carer.

If your child might be a young carer please contact Mrs Stanley, via the school office. Pupils can also self-refer to the service. 

At John Blandy, we have a thriving Young Carers' group that runs once a week and is run by Mrs Stanley. The children have great fun and it is an opportunity for our Young Carers to have space to chat with their friends whilst doing arts and crafts or take part in games, both inside and out!