Pupil Support Drop Ins

• You can call to see if it is possible for a pupil to work in the Pupil Support rooms. A member of the classroom staff may accompany and work with a pupil in our rooms. Please check for room availability with PS staff. 

• Alternatively, if a pupil requires a break from class and/or staff but wants to work we can facilitate this in Pupil Support. Please check with PS staff that someone is available, ideally work would be sent with the pupil.  We also have five working PCs. 

• Pupil Support also gives pupils an opportunity to take a chance to re-group if they are finding the classroom environment or school to be stressful.  This may mean that a pupil may not be ready to accomplish an academic task, but they may wish to talk about an issue that is concerning them, engage in a social activity or merely take some time out/quiet time before returning to class.  PS staff will endeavour to communicate how a pupil has spent their time in PS with classroom staff. 

The Pupil Support service is a stepping stone between pupils and class.  We frequently engage with pupils who are upset, angry, disaffected, distracted, fearful, anxious, troubled or generally struggling to get to the place that they need to be in order to work. Pupils come to us for time and understanding.  For a shoulder.  For support. They may wish to vent, talk, scream, cry or simply sit quietly.  It is our role as a team to facilitate this and use our skills as effectively as possible to support the pupil in working out their issues and a way to resolve them.  

We also offer advice and support to our colleagues, liaise with SLT or Safeguarding Officers when necessary and communicate with parents/carers when required as part of our pastoral duty of care.  We aim to communicate as effectively as possible with all parties to provide the best of care for the pupils who engage with Pupil Support. 

Pupil Support Key Worker Scheme

With the advent of our new workspaces, we are expanding our service.  We wish to offer the pupils a more consistent approach.  We have always been a reactionary service, intervening in situations as necessary and as priority dictates.  However, we now offering more and more proactive services, with particular focus on Key Worker/Motional sessions.   

As well as these informal, but necessary, drop-in sessions, we also offer scheduled sessions with pupils.  We have established and are constantly developing our key-worker system.  The staff team on Pupil Support each take responsibility for a group of pupils.  All pupils are offered this service should they wish to partake.  Sam, Kayley, Kay and Stacey meet with each of the pupils from their respective groups on an individual basis once a week, with a view to offering more sessions when required.

These sessions will be timetabled.   

• Sam works with KS4 

• Kayley and Stacey work with KS3  

• Kay works with KS2 

The aims of these sessions are to allow pupils the opportunity to connect on a one-to-one basis with a member of staff, building a relationship which will serve to enhance their life in school and be a point of call for support and advice.  It is important that we offer pupils as many avenues for support as possible.  Our pupils receive wonderful support in class, we wish for the same with Pupil Support.  We aim to build these relationships so that each pupil has that extra level of support when they need it. We also work on Motional Interventions in our sessions. 

During the key-worker sessions pupils may wish to discuss their progress, issues in school or at home, to work on some skills for life or simply enjoy some time away from the classroom connecting with a different person and building a new and hopefully long lasting relationship that will serve them well. 

The future looks bright

We feel that the root of Chaigeley School’s success is based in the people who choose to work here and the way each of us finds a way to connect with and inspire every pupil.  Every member of staff brings their own skills and contributes to the progress and development of each pupil academically, socially and emotionally.  Our pupils find confidence and resilience through this consistent and whole school approach. Each pupil leaves school with their many and varied qualifications, a better, more robust sense of self and the knowledge that they have belonged somewhere, that they have given to us as much as they may have taken.  The core strength of Pupil Support is to develop and build on the relationships and bonds that the pupils rely on and need to complete their journey through school. 

We look forward to continuing our progress and our good work in our new space. Now that we are fortunate to have the level of staffing we need, we can begin to shape and form the service into the one we have always envisaged in our heads. We are very much looking forward to making it a reality.