Pastoral Support

“A healthy outside starts from the inside”

Robert Urich

At Westfield school we recognise that the emotional and mental wellbeing of our students is the key that unlocks the door to successful learning, and fulfilling relationships and experiences, with other people, as well as the world around them.

Val Jacks

Pastoral Support

Friendship Groups

Students in Key stage 2 and above attend a weekly friendship group run by the pastoral team.

These groups are designed to teach social and emotional skills and resilience using a variety of strategies and resources including Theraplay, Partnership for Children programs and targeted social skill and relationship programs.

The groups are created by considering the age and social/emotional ability of each student. The aims of each group centre on developing targeted skills for the individuals within that group, as well as encouraging healthy friendships amongst all the students.

They have the added bonus of being fun!

Individual Interventions

For the students who require extra emotional support we also provide opportunities for individual sessions with a member of our pastoral team.

These groups are designed to teach social and emotional skills and resilience using a variety of strategies and resources including Theraplay, Partnership for Children programs and targeted social skill and relationship programs.

The groups are created by considering the age and social/emotional ability of each student. The aims of each group centre on developing targeted skills for the individuals within that group, as well as encouraging healthy friendships amongst all the students.

They have the added bonus of being fun!

Thrive

We have a trained Thrive practitioner in school, THRIVE supports children with their emotional health, well-being and social skills, all of which are needed to enable learning to take place.

Children cannot always put their needs into words, but the way children behave can tell us a lot about how they are feeling. For some children there may be an obvious reason why they need extra support. This might be due to bereavement, family break down or an identified medical condition such as ADHD. For others, there may not be any obvious trigger as to why they are finding some aspects of school and/or home life difficult.

We work alongside a number of additional agencies to ensure the correct type of support can be accessed if the emotional need is felt to be too complex for school staff to manage correctly and a higher level of support is required.

Therapeutic Approaches

provided by trained staff at Westfield include:

Yoga

to aid mindfulness & relaxation

Therapeutic Play

Skills for Life Programmes

Including Zippy’s Friends, Apple’s Friends and Passport– Partnership for Children

Additional Therapies

that we have regular access to at Westfield include:

Hydrotherapy

Play Therapy

with Hatty

Music Therapy

with Annie

Speech & Language Therapy

with Becky

Physiotherapy

with Jade & Tracy

RDA Horse riding

at North Farm, Ludlow