Pastoral support and Wellbeing
At John Stainer Primary, we believe that a child’s mental health is as important as their physical health. Difficulties are a part of life and sadly, many children face significant life events that can affect their emotional wellbeing. We feel it is important to acknowledge and empower children to understand their emotions whether they are positive or negative. We aim to develop their coping skills and resilience to support them when they face challenges, enabling them to grow into healthy, well-rounded young people.
At John Stainer, we are committed to supporting the emotional wellbeing of all our pupils, staff and parents/carers. We understand that anyone can face life events which can make them feel vulnerable and need additional emotional support to manage and cope.
To support the emotional well-being needs of our school, we are lucky to have a fully a trained Senior Mental Health First Aider, a Pupil Welfare Manager and a Home School Liaison Lead (Tracy) coupled with other members of staff and visiting counsellors, we are able to provide quality pastoral care to any child when needed. The team is available to work with children and families and provide support to help them manage times of change or difficulty.
Tracy is in the playground most mornings and can help with a range of issues, domestic violence, housing, court issues, sleep issues, employment or is just a great listening ear! She runs courses and coffee mornings regularly and is a very useful person to know.
In any one day, the pastoral team may help children with their learning, with friendship issues, anger management issues, liaising with teachers, supporting behaviour management strategies and developing positive relationships with families. They are there to help children overcome any barriers that may affect their learning potential. Interventions may take place individually or in small groups. Our pastoral support addresses but not limited to the following:
- Friendship issues
- Changes in home life
- Any form of bullying (including cyberbullying)
- Self-esteem
- Settling into a new school
- The loss of a loved one
- Controlling/understanding emotions
- Transitions between schools
- Playtime difficulties
- Coping with illness
- Social skills
- Confidence issues
The Pastoral Team will support children to overcome barriers to learning by:
- Listening to children and discussing anything that is worrying them.
- Increasing motivation
- Developing emotional literacy
- Developing coping strategies, understanding emotions and anger management
- Building resilience
- Encouraging children to do their best in school and setting manageable targets
- Helping to raise a child’s confidence and self-esteem
- Developing social or communication skills
We do this by:
- Running tailored Circle time sessions
- Carrying out 1:1 ‘talk time’
- Training children to become Friendship Ambassadors
- Allowing children to take a lead role of contributing to the life of the school through our Job Centre Plus
- Running Social skills groups
- Ensuring that children receive counselling from a qualified counsellor - the Cassel.
- Working closely with external agencies
- provide quality CPD for staff to enable them to promptly respond to children’s needs
Other personalised programmes are provided as and when required
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There is nothing more relaxing and soothing than being in a tranquil space where you can pause and meditate or sit in the corner of a room with a book. Thanks to the FOJS, the children and staff are now able to do this in our fully renovated Wellbeing Garden. This space is also used for friendship groups, small group work but to also slow down and meditate throughout the day.
Parental Involvement Wellbeing Support Organisations
MindEd for families You may find information on bereavement, where to go for support, and suggestions for helping yourself and others through grief.This is a safe and reliable advice to parents and carers about young people’s mental health Website: https://www.minded.org.uk/
Parents are very complimentary of the quick support they receive with one parent telling me, “the staff have gone above and beyond to make my child feel included. There is a strong parent partnership and the relationships the school has with its families is an excellent feature of their work.
Inclusion Quality Mark 2024
OFSTED 2012 - The school’s strong relationships with parents and the commitment to supporting families whose circumstances make them vulnerable have helped to improve attendance, which is well above the national average. Specialist advice from the family support worker ensures that their needs are met.
This page was last reviewed on April 2024