Positive Mental Health

All students at Glenthorne will have universal provision for their wellbeing. This means that all students are trying to work towards being effective self-managers of their own wellbeing.

 

Year team

Every student at Glenthorne has a Form Tutor, Assistant Head of Year, Head of Year and Head of House. They will see their Form Tutor twice a day at the beginning and end of each day. They are best placed to support the students in their tutor groups. Students see their Assistant Head of Year and Head of Year throughout the week and in assemblies every week. These members of staff will make sure that students know about events related to wellbeing as well as delivering tutor time activities and assemblies linked to positive wellbeing. Each student also has a Head of House who they see in a house assembly once a half term and through house events. A really important aspect of good mental health is to feel connected and to have a sense of belonging. Through their house, students can get involved in a huge variety of extra-curricular opportunities and by getting involved, they will have a strong sense of connection and belonging.

 

Wellbeing Tutor Times

We have been working hard to update our Wellbeing Tutor Times to take place every fortnight. These ran for the first time in 2020 so we are excited to have these running again every week for Wellbeing Wednesday. This programme has been designed to focus on specific wellbeing activities and priorities for each year group. Each fortnight we will have a whole school focus on wellbeing which will include these Tutor Time sessions and will also include tips displayed around school to help support positive wellbeing and mental health and meal options in the canteen to help support wellbeing.

 

Wellbeing board

In the Hub in the school there is a wellbeing board which is kept up to date with information for all students to help them to manage their own wellbeing.

 

House Buddies

All students are able to refer themselves to have a House Buddy. House Buddies are trained sixth form mentors who meet with their mentees once a week during a tutor time. We aim to match students to House Buddies who are in their House, providing students with a further opportunity to feel connected to our school community. House Buddies provide excellent support as they have been students at Glenthorne and have excellent knowledge and experience of how to be successful at Glenthorne. Examples of the sort of things House Buddies can help with include organisation, homework and friendship issues.

 

Wellbeing survey

We want to make sure that every students’ needs are catered for in terms of their wellbeing. With such a large school community, students' voice is extremely important; so that everyone is heard. To make sure that we are aware of students’ needs all students will complete a survey in the summer term of 2019. This will help us to plan what support is needed and to support those students who might need extra support but haven’t yet come forward.

 

Emotional Wellbeing Practitioner (EWP)

We are extremely lucky to have access to an Emotional Wellbeing Practitioner (EWP). They work closely with CAMHS and offer support for those students who are struggling with anxiety and/or low mood. We had similar support available earlier this year and are able to access the EWP for the rest of this term and into the next academic year. This support is accessed through a self-referral, completed by the student. The idea behind this is that the student needs to be ready for things to change and improve. The EWP self-referral form is attached here. If there is no availability for the EWP then will always work to allocate other appropriate support to the student. Please note students cannot self-refer to the CWP if they have already seen CAMHS or are on the waiting list for tier 2 or tier 3 support.  

Our targeted support is available to all students, but there is usually a referral of some sort required in order to make sure that the support is targeted appropriately. If you feel that your child is in need of more targeted support please contact your child’s Form Tutor, Assistant Head of Year or Head of Year and they will be able to discuss these options with you in more detail and work out which support would best suit their needs. ​​​​​​

 

Pastors listening support

We have Pastors who are volunteers who come into school every Thursday help some of our students. They provide a range of support including small group workshops and 1:1 listening support sessions. Generally, students are given a block of three 1:1 listening sessions. If appropriate, they will let us know whether they think more sessions would be beneficial or think that further, different support might be needed. 

 

Emotional Wellbeing Practitioner (EWP)

We are extremely lucky to have access to an Emotional Wellbeing Practitioner (EWP). They work closely with CAMHS and offer support for those students who are struggling with anxiety and/or low mood. We had similar support available earlier this year and are able to access the EWP for the rest of this term and into the next academic year. This support is accessed through a self-referral, completed by the student. The idea behind this is that the student needs to be ready for things to change and improve. The EWP self-referral form is attached here​​​​​​​. If there is no availability for the EWP then will always work to allocate other appropriate support to the student. Please note students cannot self-refer to the CWP if they have already seen CAMHS or are on the waiting list for tier 2 or tier 3 support. 

 

Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA)

We currently have two members of staff who are ELSA trained and we are looking to increase this capacity for next year. Our ELSA team can support students with a variety of issues for example self-esteem, friendships, bereavement or how to manage their emotions. ELSA sessions are great for students who sometimes find it more difficult to talk about their feelings. Our ELSA staff also plan and deliver programmes of support to students who are experiencing temporary or longer term additional emotional needs. We generally offer students six sessions on a weekly or fortnightly basis. 

 

School Counsellor

We have a full-time school counsellor who works with students for a variety of different reasons from bereavement or self-harm to family circumstances or low self-esteem. Our school counsellor will often have an initial triage with students to assess how many further sessions she thinks they will benefit from. The triage session also serves to ascertain what the students wish to get out of their sessions. We currently have students being offered blocks of between three and twelve sessions.   

 

Behaviour Support Officer

Our Behaviour Support Officer provides support to those students who are struggling to manage their behaviour. These sessions can be provided on an individual basis, in small group sessions or in workshops which take place after school. We currently offer workshops focusing on anger management, anti-bullying and tolerant attitudes. Any student who is issued with a five-day exclusion will be allocated sessions with our Behaviour Support Officer.  

 

MAPS mentoring

MAPS is a mentoring service in Sutton who we work closely with. Four MAPS places are funded by the school over the course of the year. Places are extremely expensive and always in high demand. Once partnered with a mentor, the students work with them for a full year. This has been hugely successful in the past to support students who are struggling to attend school, have suffered trauma in their lives or who are struggling to manage their behaviour.  

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Intervention groups

Based on the information from our wellbeing survey we will create intervention and support groups to meet the needs of our students. If there is a group of students who are struggling to form friendships for example, an intervention group would be used to ensure that support is there for them. 

Despite having an array of different forms of support in school, we know that sometimes students will need more specialised support than we are able to offer. 

In cases such as these we, often in collaboration with general practitioners will refer our students to specialist outside agencies such as: 

• Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS)​​​​​​​
• Turnaround Project
• Off The Record​​​​​​​