Why is pastoral care important?
All parents/carers want their children to be safe and happy at school. Pastoral care is all about making sure this happens. Education and health are closely linked and studies have shown that children with good health and wellbeing are likely to achieve better academically. Good pastoral care in school is fundamental to the development of character and skills, which will be of great importance to children in later life.
Mrs Wright is one of our Learning Mentors and is based in The Den in the afternoons.
She will be spending time with children in small groups and on a 1-2-1 basis. In these sessions, she will be able to support children in school who are experiencing temporary or longer term additional emotional needs.
The needs of a child are individual but some of the common areas supported by our pastoral support include:
- Friendship issues
- Low self-esteem
- Low levels of resilience
- Anxiety or worries
- Difficulties managing feelings of anger
- Attendance
- Developing social skills
- Organisational skills
- Illness and bereavement
- Divorce and separation
Mrs Rowntree is one of our Learning Mentors and also our SENDco Assistant.
She is based in The Rainbow Room and offers a variety of interventions to children across the school.
Mrs Rowntree places happiness and wellbeing at the heart of the classroom creating a learning environment where children feel safe to make mistakes and practise a growth mindset.
Some of the interventions taking place in The Rainbow Room are;
Drawing and Talking Therapy
Drawing enables a child to express in a visual form, worries and preoccupations from deep in the mind that they would not be able to talk about.
Lego Therapy
Lego therapy is used to help children develop their social communication skills. They learn skills like turn-taking, sharing, listening, conversation, teamwork, shared attention and problem solving.
Bucket Therapy
Bucket therapy is a fun way of developing younger children’s early attention, engagement and turn taking skills using their favourite toys.
Nurture Groups
Nurture groups aim to develop children’s vital social skills, to develop confidence and self-respect and develop positive relationships with their peers and adults who work with them.
Rainbow Room Referrals
Supporting children with ‘on the day bespoke’ interventions, following English and Maths lessons, or in preparation for future lessons as requested by class teachers.
Speech and Language
Supporting children to achieve their speech and language targets as requested by their speech therapist.
