What We Do To Support

At The Stonehenge School we have a team of highly trained pastoral staff who support the mental health needs of the pupils. This is overseen by our Senior Mental Health Lead. We also ensure that all staff are aware of signs to look for that may be warning signs of an issue. We work to support parents, and have peer mentors who will support other students in the school. Our PSHE curriculum also supports pupils to understand their own mental health and provides strategies that may be useful.

Warning signs

All staff will be on the lookout for signs that a pupil’s mental health is deteriorating. Some warning signs include:

  • Changes in:
  • Mood or energy level
  • Eating or sleeping patterns
  • Attitude in lessons or academic attainment
  • Level of personal hygiene
  • Social isolation
  • Poor attendance or punctuality
  • Expressing feelings of hopelessness, anxiety, worthlessness or feeling like a failure
  • Abuse of drugs or alcohol
  • Rapid weight loss or gain
  • Secretive behaviour
  • Covering parts of the body that they wouldn’t have previously
  • Refusing to participate in P.E. or being secretive when changing clothes
  • Physical pain or nausea with no obvious cause
  • Physical injuries that appear to be self-inflicted
  • Talking or joking about self-harm or suicide 

 

Supporting pupils

Baseline support for all pupils

As part of our school’s commitment to promoting positive mental health and wellbeing for all pupils, our school offers support to all pupils by:

  • Raising awareness of mental health during assemblies, tutor time, PSHE and mental health awareness week
  • Signposting all pupils to sources of online support on our school website
  • Having open discussions about mental health during lessons
  • Providing pupils with avenues to provide feedback on any elements of our school that is negatively impacting their mental health
  • Monitoring all pupils’ mental health through assessments, e.g. a strengths and difficulties questionnaire
  • Appointing a senior mental health lead with a strategic oversight of our whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing
  • Offering pastoral support, e.g. Pastoral Manager, Progress Leader ,ELSAs, Counselling (both Face to face and online).
  • Access to school nurse.
  • Making classrooms a safe space to discuss mental health and wellbeing through interventions such as:
  • Worry boxes
  • Website reporting of concerns direct to a pastoral mailbox.

 

Assessing what further support is needed

If a pupil is identified as having a mental health need, the Pastoral team, will take a graduated and case-by-case approach to assessing the support our school can provide, further to the baseline support detailed above in section 8.1.

Our school will offer support in cycles of:

  • Assessing what the pupil’s mental health needs are
  • Creating a plan to provide support
  • Taking the actions set out in the plan
  • Reviewing the effectiveness of the support offered

 

Internal mental health interventions

Where appropriate, a pupil will be offered support that is tailored to their needs as part of the graduated approach detailed above. The support offered at our school includes:

  • ELSA 1-1 sessions
  • Pastoral 1-1 sessions
  • Time-out pass
  • Counselling (school based: Anna Freud, CAMHS or other appropriate agency referral based on need such as Fear free (DV), Motive8 (drugs), Treehouse (bereavement)
  • Group Wellbeing sessions: Exam Stress, Mindfulness, Talking and Drawing therapies, Tapping techniques, Young Carers, SPLASH.

 

Individual healthcare plans (IHPs)

A pupil will be offered an individual healthcare plan (IHP) or Provision Map (PM) if the advice from outside agencies suggests this would be beneficial in supporting a young person or a pupil has a range of needs that are best supported by the use of a Provision Map for all staff to see to access support strategies to help.

IHPs are written in collaboration with the pupil, their parent/carer, and any other relevant professionals, including tutor, Pastoral manager or support staff who can help meet the needs of the young person.

The pupil’s IHP will contain the following details:

  • The mental health issue (and its triggers, signs, symptoms and treatments)
  • The pupil’s needs resulting from the condition
  • Specific support for the pupil’s educational, social and emotional needs
  • The level of support needed
  • Who will provide the support
  • Who in our school needs to be aware of the child’s condition
  • What to do in an emergency (use a safety plan if appropriate)

 

Making external referrals

If a pupil’s needs cannot be met by the internal offer our school provides, our school will make, or encourage parents/carers to make, a referral for external support.

A pupil could be referred to:

  • Their GP or a paediatrician
  • CAMHS(parental referral)
  • Mental health charities (e.g. Samaritans, Mind, Young Minds, Kooth)
  • Local counselling services (HCRG)

 

Supporting and collaborating with parents/carers

We will work with parents/carers to support pupils’ mental health by:

  • Asking parents/carers to inform us of any mental health needs their child is experiencing, so we can offer the right support
  • Informing parents/carers of mental health concerns that we have about their child
  • Engaging with parents/carers to understand their mental health and wellbeing issues, as well as that of their child, and support them accordingly to make sure there is holistic support for them and their child
  • Highlighting sources of information and support about mental health and wellbeing on our school website, including the mental health and wellbeing policy
  • Highlighting available resources and training for parents and families on our newsletter.
  • Liaising with parents/carers to discuss strategies that can help promote positive mental health in their child
  • Providing guidance to parents/carers on navigating and accessing relevant local mental health services or other sources of support (e.g. parent/carer forums)
  • Keeping parents/carers informed about the mental health topics their child is learning about in PSHE, and share ideas for extending and exploring this learning at home

When informing parents/carers about any mental health concerns we have about their child, we will endeavour to do this face-to-face. If for any reason this is not possible then a phone call from one of our Pastoral team to discuss our concerns and schedule a further meeting if required or felt it would be useful.

These meetings can be difficult, so our school will ensure that parents/carers are given time to reflect on what has been discussed, and that lines of communication are kept open at the end of the meeting.

A record of what was discussed, and action plans agreed upon in the meeting will be recorded and added to the pupil’s confidential record.

If appropriate, an individual healthcare plan (IHP) will be created in collaboration with parents/carers (see section 10.4).

Supporting peers

Watching a friend experience poor mental health can be very challenging for pupils. Pupils may also be at risk of learning and developing unhealthy coping mechanisms from each other.

We will offer support to all pupils impacted by mental health directly and indirectly. We will review the support offered on a case-by-case basis. Support might include:

  • Strategies they can use to support their friends
  • Things they should avoid doing/saying
  • Warning signs to look out for
  • Signposting to sources of external support
  • We will use our Year 9 and 10 mental health champions to support their peers both in supporting specific individuals and those who are supporting others.

 

Signposting

Sources of support are displayed around our school and linked to on our school website, so pupils and parents/carers are aware of how they can get help.

The Pastoral team will be available to provide further information to pupils and parents/carers if they want to learn more about what support is available.

Assemblies and tutor time activities to promote and signpost to age appropriate support and resources.

 

Whole school approach to promoting mental health awareness

Mental health is taught in PSHE

We follow the PSHE Association Guidance teaching mental health and emotional wellbeing.

Pupils are taught to:

  • Develop healthy coping strategies
  • Challenge misconceptions around mental health
  • Understand their own emotional state
  • Keep themselves safe

For more information, see our PSHE curriculum

Creating a positive atmosphere around mental health

Staff will create an open culture around mental health by:

  • Discussing mental health with pupils in order to break down stigma
  • Encouraging pupils to disclose when their mental health is deteriorating
  • Using the Pastoral team to support and refer pupils with concerns.

Training 

All staff will be offered training so they:

  • Have a good understanding of what pupils’ mental health needs are
  • Know how to recognise warning signs of mental ill health
  • Know a clear process to follow if they identify a pupil in need of help
  • We have trained over 30 of our staff following the Mental health first aid programme in order to better understand and offer support to young people with mental health issues.
  • We have trained our Pastoral managers to a high level in a variety of specific mental health concerns in order to better support a range of concerns our young people present to us with.

Support for staff

We recognise that supporting a pupil experiencing poor mental health can affect that staff member’s own mental health and wellbeing. To help with this we will:

Outline the support offered to staff, e.g.

  • Treat mental health concerns seriously
  • Offer staff supervision sessions
  • Support staff experiencing poor mental health themselves
  • Create a pleasant and supportive work environment
  • Offer an employee assistance programme