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Wellbeing and Pastoral Care

The School values of Respect, Responsibility, Resilience and a Love of Learning are at the heart of everything we do.

Respect for each individual and taking responsibility for one’s actions are intrinsic to our Pastoral system and structures, and to our safeguarding procedures. (Safeguarding and Child Protection policy)

We are committed to embracing and nurturing our young people.  We have sought to give our students a ‘greater voice’ within school through:

  • Letter from Mr Hall (Deputy Head Pastoral) regarding Mental Health and Wellbeing
  • More frequent student questionnaires focused upon well-being and their mental health
  • Training Peer Mentors to act as support and guides to younger students who are struggling academically and/or pastorally
  • Increasing the time available for students (and staff) to access the School Counsellor
  • Having a greater focus upon mental health and well-being in assemblies, ‘Thought for the Week’ and within the use made of Registration Time for students to discuss issues around the Mental Health agenda
  • Raising awareness of peer-on-peer abuse as well as teaching our students how to keep themselves safe in their relationships, online as well as face-to-face encounters, via PSHE/RSE and use of Form Time

We look to nurture tolerant, empathetic, selfless individuals who possess the knowledge and skills to protect themselves and to look out for one another. We look to offer multiple opportunities to experience leadership and some of that is again to encourage a spirit of togetherness, care and compassion. We look to encourage a dialogue between students and staff, to establish mutual respect and thus enable students to feel safe and secure in coming forward with their concerns. By explaining our dual concern for the victim and perpetrator of any abuse, our measured response to incidents where the care and safety of our students is at the centre of everything we do, we can hope to reduce the incidents of abuse that go unnoticed. Much of this is achieved in a thousand and one daily interactions with staff and students in our community, but also in how we communicate our care and compassion for those in our care.

Likewise with staff, questionnaires, time taken to ask about staff well-being and always making management decisions with workload and well-being in mind, we want to encourage open and honest dialogue. It is important to us that staff feel valued and able to report abuse and are listened to in a non-judgemental way. Staff receive updates and training on Safeguarding issues and the School follows the guidelines laid down by Trafford and ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ issued annually with regard to the handling of any allegations against staff.

We seek too to engage with parents as much as possible and encourage them to contact the School with any concerns they may have about the safety and happiness of their sons. We regularly conduct questionnaires with parents to gauge how well they think we are keeping their children safe, secure and happy. Where there are concerns we seek to address these in an open manner. We seek to work with parents, and in conjunction with outside agencies where this is necessary, to bring about fruitful and productive outcomes for all.

We work closely with Trafford First Response Teams and attend the local Safeguarding meetings from whom we receive a regular monthly bulletin. We employ a School Counsellor two days a week. Students are usually referred to her though parents and students can self-refer. We seek to support students identified through a variety of avenues:

  • Some experience emotional and behavioural outbursts that lend themselves to investigating further for the right type of intervention
  • Some come through outside agency information
  • Some come through peer-on-peer abuse e.g. bullying
  • Some through SEND recommendations
  • Some through observations from the Pastoral Team or staff (Form Tutors)
  • More and more from older students who feel empowered by the Pastoral Team to openly seek further advice and support as they struggle through their own personal issues/crises
Meet the TeaM
PHOTO TITLE

Mrs H Short
Head of Year 7
 (Admissions & 
Induction/Deputy DSL)

Mr R Cammack
Head of Year 8

Mr T Ayebare
Head of Year 9

Mr D Birchall
Head of Year 10

Mrs E Chapman
Head of Year 11

Mr C Kidd
Head of Year 12

Dr Z Hepden
Head of Year 13

There is an appointed member of the Governing Body who is responsible for overseeing Safeguarding in the School, and a regular termly meeting of a Governor Student Welfare Committee (and there is an equivalent for the Staff). Here Governors are kept abreast of the overall picture as regards safeguarding, exclusions, attendance, attainment etc

We place great store upon the relationships within the school between staff and students. The rich curricular and extra-curricular life in the School helps reinforce this atmosphere of togetherness, and that we are all on a journey of fulfilment and service. We receive young students at 11 and hope to see them through to maturity at 18, embarking on their lifelong journey with happy memories, safe and content that they have had the best experience they could possibly have had while with us. While they are here, we see them as ‘our sons’ to be moulded and nurtured in order to blossom fully when they leave.

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