Pastoral Care
We at Rushey Mead Primary feel that a Nurturing School,
is the best type of school
Therefore, we support children in a variety of ways through the element of Play to achieve their potential because:
- Play is essential for children to develop physically, emotionally and socially.
- It fosters imagination and creativity
- Encourages confidence and concentration.
- It helps children to make friends and learn about their ever expanding world.
- It allows them to learn from mistakes safely
- Play can be used to establish a relationship
- It is used when ‘talking therapy’ doesn’t work (very often with children)
We offer a variety of Interventions please see the attached documents below for our offer.
Our Pastoral Offer
A significant amount of our pastoral offer takes place in May Tree, also known as our Community Room.
Breakfast club
"It is important for pupils to start the day with a nutritious breakfast. Evidence shows that providing a healthy school breakfast at the start of the school day can contribute to improved readiness to learn, increased concentration, and improved wellbeing and behaviour” DFE (2022). We provide a breakfast club for children whose parents may be working or have appointments. We also use our club to encourage children whose attendance is low or display school anxiety. We offer a selection of cereals, toast and jam as well as other baked goods we kindly receive from local supermarkets.
Rainbows
At the end of Year 2, we use the Goodmans SDQ assessment to identify areas of need. We use this information to choose children who would benefit from additional nurture provision during Year 3. We then invite parents in to talk about the nurture provision and invite the children to attend. Throughout Year 3, the Rainbows children spend three afternoons a week attending. They access the classroom learning through a creative and collaborative method which ensures they do not miss any of the learning happening in the classroom, but access it in a way which specifically promoting positive relationships, communications skills, social skills and emotional literacy. Additionally, the children spend part of their afternoon accessing different activities including team building, problem-solving and developing life skills. The children are allocated a role of responsibility during every session which develops their independence and confidence.
Meet and Greet
For pupils who are struggling with attending school, show anxiety or school phobia, our Inclusion Manager liaises with the child and their parents to provide a bespoke support package to enable their child to attend school successfully. This often includes the child meeting our Inclusion Manager at the Community Room entrance, which is home to most of our pastoral interventions and activities, and beginning their school day there.
One to one sessions
As part of our safeguarding procedures, staff share all concerns about children using Cpoms. This system allows our Inclusion Manager (who is a Deputy DSL) to immediately provide same-day support for children. This may be a single session, but may also lead to more regular sessions depending on what the child needs.
Lunchtime Club
We offer an alternative space for children to spend their lunchtime. Children may spend their entire lunchtime there or may visit for a part of it, for example whilst they are eating. Our children eat together with our Inclusion Manager, around a table which promotes language, communication, social skills and table manners. We provide a lunchtime club for a variety of reasons, examples of this include, a child with an injury which prevents them being on the playground, children who find the dining hall a sensory overload and children who are struggling with their eating. Our lunchtime club is located in our Community Room, which is the home of our nurture provision and pastoral interventions, which means it is packed full of toys and games and sensory activities.
Anti-Bullying Coordinator
At Rushey Mead, we are dedicated to ensuring all children are happy and safe and do not tolerate any form of bullying or discrimination. All staff are dedicated to this, but we also have a coordinator who launches initiatives, provides assemblies, creates regular displays of children's work, and takes a lead safeguarding role around children's relationships.
Wellbeing Ambassadors
Our Inclusion Manager meets with our Year 5 Wellbeing Ambassadors on a weekly basis to discuss how to support everyone at Rushey Mead be happy and healthy. The team plan different initiatives and consider how to be a visible presence for the rest of the school to come to if they need support. As part of our Happy Lunchtimes initiative, the Wellbeing Ambassadors run different activities promoting positive wellbeing through child to child support.
Outdoor Learning
We have a variety of outdoor learning provision at Rushey Mead, including an allotment, Forest School, a wild area and a pollination generation garden. Whilst we provide chances for all children to access these, we offer additional access for children who would benefit from the opportunity.
Fair Share
Our Inclusion Manager works with local shops and supermarkets to collect food excess which we can share with our families.
Mental Health
We have a Senior Mental Health Lead and several Mental Health First Aiders in our staff team. They have attended training to enable them to support staff and young people with their mental health. Staff seek out people within the team to talk to if and when they need to.
Parental Support
We support parents with a variety of applications to enable them to obtain funding and support they are eligible for. Examples include, household grants, uniform funding, signposting families to food banks and Early Help support. We are also available to talk to parents for other concerns or support needs. We hold a monthly parent coffee morning which enables parents to meet with the Inclusion Manager as well as network with each other. This is an informal forum which has given many of our parents a safe place to make friends and have other adults to talk to.
Adult Learning
We offer space for parents and carers to sign up and attend ESOL (English Speakers of Other Languages) as well as Keeping Up With Your Child English and Maths classes through LASALS.
Pastoral Gallery
Positive People work