Pastoral Support at John Blandy

 

Our Mental Health Lead for children is Mrs Surtees.

She is also supported in her role by a team of Senior Leaders, 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.

The role of the Mental Health Lead involves working alongside the Behaviour and Pastoral Lead (Miss Matheson) and SENDCo (Mrs young) in establishing ways to promote emotional and mental health across the school.

This includes both helping to equip staff with the tools for supporting mental health, and children in ways to communicate and self-regulate their emotions. As a school we are very aware of how the pandemic has affected everybody’s mental health and so we have made space within our curriculum to support the children with this.

We have daily check ins during the register, weekly PSHE lessons (circle times), mental health assemblies, a nurture group, a play club, time for mindfulness, and play leaders to ensure all children have someone to play with and talk to at break times.

Each year we take part in Mental Health Week to promote mental health and the well-being of all of our pupils and staff.

If you have any further questions about the role, or would like any advice, then please do not hesitate in getting in touch via the school office!

ELSA

Mrs Stanley is our ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant).

An ELSA’s role is to make and maintain healthy relationships within our school community and to help our children to feel safe and happy in school to reach their potential educationally.

ELSAs can help with lots of barriers to learning, including self – esteem, social skills, emotions, anxiety, relationships/friendships and anger management. If you feel that either of the above could relate to your child, please do get in touch.

You can leave a message or an email at the office and it will be passed on to Mrs Stanley.

Young Carers

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 assessmentand 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.