Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health

What is Emotional Wellbeing / Pastoral Support?

We are proud of the Pastoral support we offer at Harlaxton CE School. We have various members of staff trained in a range of interventions including Emotional Literacy (ELSA) which can be delivered as a small group or 1:1 intervention.

Children can suffer wellbeing difficulties at many times throughout childhood, from self-esteem and belonging to bereavement and anxiety. We use a range of literature to support us including Ruby’s Worry and the Colour Monster. Encouraging children to talk and have their voice is important which we promote this in Collective Worship and weekly Personal, Social, Health and Education (PSHE) sessions.

We have seen a significant increase in need for pastoral support over the past two years especially during the pandemic. With this in mind, we have increased the amount of time we have on offer to our children to reduce the time waiting for support ensuring children get seen as quickly as possible. We also try to follow a proactive approach, where children may approach barriers due to emotional needs or family change.

This year we have introduced an ELSA support to be available at lunch times for children to either share concerns or worries but also learn and gain skills and strategies in dealing with and managing their wellbeing. So far, we have seen children seeking support for friendship and managing emotions (anger) when playing with others.

What if my child suffers with Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) difficulties?

To begin, you and the teachers may have discussions and identify that your child is suffering with social or emotional difficulties and may put some strategies in place, from visual cues, daily check-ins or a buddy system. From this, they may refer their concern to the SEND team for further support. The SEND team would then liaise with the teacher and/or parents to make sure the right intervention would be put in place to support the child/children involved. Assessments using a range of methods including scaling our concerns would happen before any intervention begins. This then supports with our assess-plan-do-review cycle and evaluate the success of the intervention. We can feedback on these sessions, although must respect the privacy and confidentiality which has been established through trust.

Any disclosures or Child Protection issues will be reported to the Designated Safeguarding Lead, Mrs Edwards or her Deputy, Mrs Whitworth and managed appropriately.

What Pastoral interventions do we offer?

In School Interventions