Pastoral Support

Here at The Gloucestershire Learning Alliance (GLA), we know that sometimes individuals require additional support above and beyond the normal classroom structure to reach their full educational potential (Department of Education, 2017). Alongside additional and differentiated classroom interventions, each GLA school has access to an extensive range of internal pastoral support systems and interventions for our children.

Springbank Primary Academy has the Pastoral Room where children can access support and guidance from our Pastoral Support Team. On this page, you can meet the people who work in the Pastoral Team and find out about how we can support your child to achieve ‘Outstanding Outcomes’ in both academics and beyond.

Meet the Pastoral Team

Mr Danny Barthorpe – School Improvement Team & Trust Behaviour and Inclusion Lead

I have the privilege to oversee the Pastoral Provision across the GLA Trust. In my role, I get to work in each school supporting the Pastoral Lead to identify areas for support, have fidelity to GLA systems/structures and measure impact for the pupils. Over a decade of working within the GLA, I have seen the Pastoral provision grow and children flourish under the support given by the wonderful people working within the team.

Mrs Anna Almond - Pastoral Lead

Mrs Lisa Sharman - Senior Mental Health Lead

Mrs Di Allaway - Team Member

Mrs EmJ Hunter - Team Member

Mrs Elaine Oakey - Team Member

Interventions

All GLA Schools use carefully chosen interventions to support pupils’ positive social, emotional and mental health development. Within Springbank Primary Academy we see pupils with a wide range of needs ranging from bereavement to social issues. Here in the Pastoral Team, we understand the vast impact these additional needs can have on not only academics but life too. To support this we have developed expertise in a range of interventions to help.

The interventions offered have been tried and tested and are proven to show a positive impact for the children we support. Interventions have a number of benefits:

To embed the core values of each school and the GLA in pupils for everyday school life.
To support pupils in how to remove their barriers to learning to enable them to reach their full potential.
To support the welfare of pupils and their families within the whole school community.
To promote life-long learning and individual growth.

These are the types of interventions we offer:

Research & evidence-based interventions. A vast majority of interventions used within pastoral support are evidenced through extensive research to show a positive impact for children. Each intervention used may stipulate a set order, time, frequency or structure to the session to maximise this positive impact. Some examples of researched and evidence-based interventions used within the GLA include:
- Time to Talk
- TalkAbout
- All About Me
- Banish your Self Esteem Thief
- My Hidden Chimp
- The Transporters
- Starving the Anxiety Gremlin
- Hamish and Milo

Nurture-based interventions – Nurture interventions are short-term, focused interventions for children with particular social, emotional and behavioural difficulties that create a barrier to learning within a mainstream class. There is great emphasis on emotional literacy, language development and communication. Pupils are immersed in an accepting and warm environment that helps replace missing/distorted early nurturing experiences and helps pupils develop positive relationships with both teachers and peers. (www.nurtureuk.org).

Each school operates an open-door policy which adds an element of a safe place in which all pupils can speak to an adult if needed. The open-door strategy is implemented during breaktime and lunchtime for all pupils to access.

Therapeutic interventions - A Therapeutic Intervention is an intervention to improve the well-being of someone who is in need of help but refuses it or is otherwise unable to initiate or accept help. Supporting traumatised children (ACES) often requires a therapeutic approach, which is usually required by social care. Some therapeutic interventions used within the GLA include:
- Draw and Talk
- Lego Therapy
- Sand Play
- Circle Time
- CBT

Referral Process & Intervention Cycle

There are four main ways to refer a child for pastoral support across the GLA. These are:

A verbal request to a member of the Pastoral Team.
A request for pastoral support from classroom-based staff within our Pupil Progress Meetings. This can include an electronic request for support through our online platform CPOMS.
A direct request for support from a parent.
A request for support direct from a pupil.

Should you feel your child requires additional support or help, please speak directly to the classroom teacher or a member of the Pastoral Team. In Addition, there is a range of ‘self-help’ resources of strategies you can find on this page.