Emotional & Social Development
Support for Emotional & Social Development
At New Brancepeth Primary Academy we consult with a range of agencies and partnerships to facilitate arrangements for supporting children and young people with pastoral, medical and social needs. The class teacher has overall responsibility for the pastoral, medical and social care of every child in their class, therefore they would be the parents’ first point of contact. If further support is required, the class teacher liaises with the SENDCo for further advice and support. This may involve working alongside outside agencies such as Health and Social Services, and / or the Behaviour Support Team / EWEL Team. We also have staff trained to run additional interventions to develop the social needs of children e.g. through Lego Therapy / Time to Talk.
Views of all children are considered through Pupil Questionnaires – Pupil Voice, the School Council representatives and regular discussions with children as part of the school’s monitoring cycle, focussing on different aspects of school life e.g. learning, environment, behaviour etc.
School accesses the services of an external specialist counsellor and children can be referred to the services for a range of needs. School also buys into a crisis SLA (Service Level Agreement) and time with the Educational Psychology service from the Local Authority.
Examples of interventions / provision offered to support children’s Emotional and Social Development are:
Support for children with Speech, Language and Communication Needs:
- Support / advice from SENDCo.
- Makaton / PECS / Communication Boards.
- Lego Therapy / Time to Talk.
- Additional, appropriately skilled adults routinely used to support flexible groupings.
- Access to targeted small group work with class teacher or TA.
- Access to intervention group work with class teacher or TA.
- School staff access to enhanced and specialist training including LA training regarding meeting the needs of pupils.
- Additional, appropriately skilled adult (e.g. TA) for focused support during unstructured times e.g. lunchtime supervision / targeted extra- curriculum activities, supervision in the playground.
- Access to a quiet, distraction-free environment in which to deliver intervention groups.
- TA and class teacher to liaise with SALT (Speech and Language Therapy) as appropriate.
- Access to specific SALT sessions.
- All TAs have recently had training from SALSP on leading SALT interventions.
- School may consult the teachers from the Enhanced Resource Provision for SLCN for advice on best practice.
- Allocated time for professional meetings.
Support for children with Social, Emotional and Mental Health Difficulties:
- We consult with a wide range of agencies and partnerships to ensure the pastoral, medical and social needs of SEND children are met. The class teacher has overall responsibility for the pastoral, medical and social care of every child in their class, therefore this would be the parents’ first point of contact. If further support is required, the class teacher liaises with the SENDCo for further advice and support. This may involve working alongside outside agencies such as Health and Social Services, and / or the Behaviour Support Team / EWEL (Emotional Wellbeing, Emotional Literacy) Team.
- School accesses the services of a specialist counsellor and children can be referred to the services for a range of needs. Staff can also seek support for children in their class.
- Staff have accessed Attachment Training delivered by Kate Cairns Associates.
- All staff have accessed training in the Zones of Regulation and children are encouraged to recognise how they are feeling at key points in the school day. There is a Zones of Regulation display in each classroom and the children place their pictures on which emotion they are feeling as they come into school. This allows staff to spend time 1:1 with children who might need some additional emotional support.
- Access to quiet, calm spaces within school. We have turned one of our classrooms into a quiet / calm space which children can access if they need to.
- Access to sensory / brain breaks for children who need them.
- Positive relationships with trusted adults for children with SEMH difficulties.
- Individual Emotional Barometers for children who need work around the level of feelings.
- Future Steps have prepared whole class strategies to support SEMH within classes.
Support for children with Medical Needs:
- The school has a policy regarding the administration and managing of medicines on the school site.
- Parents need to contact the school office / class teacher if medication is recommended by Health Professionals to be taken during the school day and appropriate forms must be completed by parents / carers and staff.
- On a day-to-day basis the Admin Staff generally oversee the administration of any medicines.
- As a staff, we have regular training and updates of conditions and medication affecting individual children so that all staff can manage medical situations.
More details on how we adapt information, our environment and curriculum can be found in the Accessibility Plan, our SEND Policy and our Teaching and Learning Policy which you can find in the School Policies section of our website.
If you would like to discuss your SEND requirements in detail, please contact the school to arrange an appointment.
The following padlet contains information for parents / carers on the Mental Health and Wellbeing Support we are able to provide in school and also signposts parents / carers to external agencies who provide support.
