Student Welfare
Bullying – A Charter for Action
We are working with staff, students, parents/carers and governors to create a school community where bullying is not tolerated.
Our school community:
- Discusses, monitors and reviews our Anti-Bullying policy on a yearly basis.
- Supports staff to promote positive relationships and identify and tackle bullying appropriately.
- Ensures that students are aware that all bullying concerns will be dealt with sensitively and effectively; that students feel safe to learn; and that students abide by the Anti-Bullying policy.
- Reports back quickly to parents/carers regarding their concerns on bullying and deal promptly with complaints. Parents/carers in turn work with the school to uphold the Anti-Bullying policy.
- Seeks to learn from Anti-Bullying good practice elsewhere and utilises the support of the LA and relevant organisations when appropriate.
- Annually reviews our Anti-Bullying Advice Sheets for staff, students and parents/carers.
- Raises awareness of Anti-Bullying through assemblies and the curriculum, throughout the year.
If you wish to view our Anti-Bullying Framework, please visit the Key Policies/Frameworks page of the website.
Who to Talk To
Students are encouraged to talk to any member of staff with whom they feel comfortable.
There are a number of key members of staff within the school whose responsibility it is to oversee pastoral concerns. These are:
- Mr Marshall - Assistant Principal - Behaviour/Pastoral Lead for KS4
- Mr Handley - Assistant Principal - Behaviour/Pastoral Lead for KS3
- Your child's Head of Year
- Mr Cox - Pastoral Support
Parents/carers are encouraged to contact any of the above staff if they have any concerns.
We work with Operation Encompass to ensure we appropriately safeguard all children.
Tutor
Students meet with their tutor every morning during form time. The tutor’s role is to oversee and support students with the day to day aspects of school life, both academic and social. The tutor is often the first port of call for both student and parental concerns.
Student Support
Each year group has a Head of Year who is responsible for the support of students within their allocated year group. This includes tracking of student rewards and sanctions within the year group, planning of tutor activities and assemblies and overseeing the support needs of individuals and groups within that year group.
In Year 7-9, there is a Wellbeing Group that is run by our Mental Health Lead at school. It is something that Heads of Year and/or other key staff refer to within school. It coaches students to manage their own wellbeing by providing self care activities and the knowledge and understanding behind it. The programme is a 6 week long intervention in which the students will complete 1 hour sessions, once a week. Each week the sessions will be led by a different member of staff who have a passion for the activity they are delivering. They will share with the students how they use the activity to help their own wellbeing and offer opportunities for them to investigate it for themselves.
Teen Health (run by Leicestershire County Council) have recently launched and we are able to now refer students for one to one work and group work. They are currently offering workshops on student wellbeing and healthy relationships and more workshops will be offered in the future. Parents, carers and students can also refer themselves to the service. Teen Health will then triage each referral and offer the support that they think is best for the young person in question. Their service is a universal service that is focused on both prevention and early intervention.
Current priorities include:
- Support to improve mental health and emotional wellbeing with a focus on:
- Self esteem
- Body image
- Building resilience
- Supporting healthy relationships:
- Building positive relationships
- Reduce violence in intimate relationships
- Promoting positive sexual health and wellbeing
- Supporting children and young people to make healthier choices with a focus on:
- Reducing substance misuse particularly cannabis use
- Reducing alcohol consumption
Personal Development Mentor
Our Personal Development Mentor works 1:1 with a small number of students, using cognitive behavioural therapy strategies to help them set positive targets for themselves. The aim of these sessions is to increase students' levels of wellbeing, giving them strategies to support them more widely across their lives, and help them to make positive choices about their own self-care, including in their education.