Pastoral Support

We are very lucky to have a pastoral care support team at Cliffeale primary school. Pastoral care support is led by Mrs Prestidge and delivered by Mrs Crossland and Mrs Banks.

An effective Pastoral Care system is essential to provide for our children as they encounter the rapid changes which are taking place in society. Children require all the skills necessary to deal with the rising pressures of media, family, education and peer pressure that they encounter in their daily lives. We believe, at Cliffedale, effective Pastoral Care should contribute to the creation of a supportive atmosphere for the whole school community.

Pastoral Care at Cliffedale, is composed of different policies, programmes and procedures which encourage each individual child to develop their full potential by catering for their spiritual, moral, emotional, intellectual, physical and social needs, in a safe and secure environment. Each child will be encouraged to develop personal, social, emotional and academic skills to prepare them for the ‘outside world’.

Mrs Crossland and Mrs Banks are trained to deliver the following programmes:

Lego therapy-social skills, sharing, collaboration, problem solving 

Playing with LEGO in a therapy setting promotes social interaction, turn-taking skills, sharing, collaborative problem-solving and the learning of concepts. It can be used to target goals around social skills, language and motor skills. By using a commonly adored tool like LEGO it capitalises on its existing motivation and supports self-esteem by allowing the participants to demonstrate their skills in a social situation. It also sets up a positive opportunity for guided social problem-solving to help develop social skills that can then be used in other situations. 

Feelings detectives-explores emotions, coping skills. 

The Feelings Detectives is a 12-week coping skills intervention programme specifically designed for young people aged between 7 and 13 years with social communication and interaction difficulties, including autism. The programme teaches coping skills to help young people manage anxiety using cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) principles. Young people can train to become Feelings Detectives led by the adult Lead Detective. 

Solution focus- problem solving. 

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) is a short-term goal-focused evidence-based therapeutic approach, which incorporates positive psychology principles and practices, and which helps children change by constructing solutions rather than focusing on problems. In the most basic sense, SFBT is a hope friendly, positive emotion eliciting, future-oriented vehicle for formulating, motivating, achieving, and sustaining desired behavioural change. 

Elsa-emotional support, friendships. 

The Emotional Literacy Support Assistants (ELSA) programme is an initiative that was designed by Educational Psychologists to build the capacity of schools to support the social emotional and mental health needs of their pupils from within their own resources. This is delivered in groups. 

Drawing and talking therapy-for children who have experienced trauma or have difficulty explaining how they feel.  

Drawing and Talking allows individuals to discover and communicate emotions through a non-directed technique, setting it apart from existing solution-focused and cognitive-based therapies and interventions. 

Drawing and Talking enables school staff to assess the social and emotional skills of young people quickly and effectively, ensuring they can respond in the right way. Targeting support and action plans can be put in place almost immediately, with tailored strategies and activities that meet the needs of the individual student. 

One decision-for younger children develops social skills.  

In an ideal world, children would arrive at school socially developed and ready to learn but this is not always the case. As such, high-quality life skills education is essential for all students to reach their full potential. 1decision provides an interactive bank of resources which supports PSHE, RSE, Health education, SMSC development, and safeguarding. 

Social skills for EYFS 

Personal, social and emotional development (PSED) supports children to learn to get on with others and make friends, understand and talk about feelings, learn about 'right' and 'wrong', develop independence and ultimately feel good about themselves. Fun out door activities. 

Social stories. 

A Social Story accurately describes a context, skill, achievement, or concept according to 10 defining criteria. These criteria guide Story research, development, and implementation to ensure an overall patient and supportive quality, and a format, “voice”, content, and learning experience that is descriptive, meaningful, and physically, socially, and emotionally safe for the child. 

The invisible string-used if a child has experienced loss of some sort. 

Specifically written to address children’s fear of being apart from the ones they love, The Invisible String delivers a particularly compelling message in today’s uncertain times that though we may be separated from the ones we care for, whether through anger, or distance or even death, love is the unending connection that binds us all, and, by extension, ultimately binds every person on the planet to everyone else. 

CBT art- used for all aspects of wellbeing 

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, is a highly effective psychological treatment used to treat mental disorders like depression, anxiety, and substance abuse, making it one of the most popular methods. 

But it’s not all talk, as many people seem to think it is. CBT aims to help you recognize detrimental thought and behavior patterns and modify them to positive and helpful ones. Activities.

Anxiety gremlin 

Starving the Anxiety Gremlin is a unique and award-winning resource to help young people understand different types of anxiety and how to manage them, including panic attacks, phobias, social anxiety, generalised anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder. Based on cognitive behavioural principles that link thoughts, feelings and behaviours, the techniques described help young people to understand why they get anxious and how they can ‘starve’ their anxiety gremlin in order to manage their anxiety.