The pastoral offer encourages relationships, enables your child to integrate well with other pupils and protects your child from harm. Any problems are spotted and dealt with in a sensitive and person-centred way. Staff across the school refer to the pastoral team, the Pastoral Leader will then allocate the referral and the best plan for the needs of the student will be decided upon.

They are committed to helping students feel happy and secure, enabling them to learn as effectively as possible. They work closely with families to provide support, and liaise with other agencies constantly to make sure students are safeguarded and able to access learning.

Supporting the pastoral needs of students sometimes involves working with external agencies. In these situations, we ensure that a confidential, professional, non-judgemental and sensitive service is provided.

To ensure the physical and emotional welfare of your child, Daventry Hill School will undertake a series of initiatives to safeguard your child and promote your child’s wellbeing.

Safeguarding

Think of safeguarding as protecting, preventing abuse and ensuring safety. Here are some elements of safeguarding at DHS.

• All staff receive safeguarding training throughout the school year.
• All staff are employed through a safer recruiting process with all staff having updated valid DBS checks and references and those records are centrally maintained and regularly updated. This is known as the Single Central Record.
• The school has to ensure that appropriate measures are in place to identify child welfare and protection concerns, how to communicate with such children and how to refer to the appropriate agencies. Any concerns are dealt with in the first instance by one of the Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSL).
• Through 1:1 interventions, group work and PSHE (personal social and health education) lessons, children are taught in an age appropriate manner about risks outside the school gates and how to keep themselves safe. At a primary level, it might address topics such as stranger danger, road safety, healthy eating and Internet safety. At a senior school, it might also address mental health, stress management, sexual health and sexual responsibility.

Health care and first aid

From the graze in the playground to the trip to A&E, we have procedures in place to deal with and record accidents and illness, under the guidance of a specialist school nurse. We also support immunisation programmes and work closely with health colleagues who are supporting our children with continence, dietary and medical needs.

Promoting good behaviour and taking measures against bullying, harassment and discrimination

All staff at DHS will promote Behaviour for Learning across the school using a range of strategies and approaches. One of the worst feelings a parent can have, is that their child might suffer bullying, harassment and discrimination at school.

The pastoral team support staff and students alike with strategies including “zones of regulation”, “protective behaviours” and “restorative approaches”.

We follow a relationship policy, which is all about our core values: Respect, Resilience, Community and Tolerance.

Promoting wellbeing

Every member of school staff who comes into contact with your child, will do so from a different perspective. The pastoral programme captures the input from all these different angles and supports each child with a tailored plan. For some, it may be a short intervention to look at feelings and emotions with a pastoral mentor on a 1:1 basis. For others, small group work to look at safety and wellbeing issues may be the best approach.

Activities to promote wellbeing

Personal Social and Health Education is part of our preparation for adulthood. It encompasses many aspects of physical, emotional and digital wellbeing. Some extra pastoral activities may include observations by an Educational Psychologist to ensure best practice is carried out and students' needs are met in the classroom. We also have an Occupational Therapist on the team who can support us with sensory interventions. We have two Pastoral Mentors whose remit is to support our students to have the ability to understand and express feelings. Emotional Literacy involves having self-awareness and recognition of one's own feelings and knowing how to manage them, such as the ability to stay calm when angered or to reassure oneself when in doubt.

Pastoral care does not just happen. It is a process, and it takes up an incredible amount of time and energy. Daventry Hill School takes it seriously. Staff are assigned to it, a senior member of staff is in charge of it, and governors are responsible for it.