Pupil Family Support
Overview
At The Ashley school Academy Trust we want everyone involved with our school to feel well supported. We believe that it’s important to children and families to work in partnership with school. We understand that good pastoral support focuses on nurturing the individual needs of each child. We aim to build trusting relationships with all our children and their families. By creating this environment, we feel sure that pupils can learn, grow and thrive to the best of their ability.
The team are here to support pupils as well as parents and carers during times when life becomes confusing and troubling. Often it helps to have someone you can trust to talk to, someone who will support and listen to you and help you to work things out. The team work with all pupils and families throughout the whole school. They are able to get to know families very well and understand individual needs and offer advice suited to individuals.
The team aim to understand how difficulties may affect how pupils learn and behave in school and at home.
The team work with pupils, parents and carers to reduce stresses and strains. They work in various ways, supporting pupils in small group settings as well as on a one-to-one basis. All support is tailored to individual pupil needs. By working in this way, the team are able to build trust and communication between school and home.
The team hope you will find them friendly and approachable, so that if you are worried about your child or a difficult situation in your family you can contact them for support.
You can contact any member of the team by calling us on 01502 565439
Sam Bover leads our Pupil and Family Support team, she has lots of experience and has worked at our school for many years. Sam is assisted by Jakke Swan and Clare Hinchliffe. They have wide-ranging experiences of working with children in various settings.
What We Offer
We are the Pupil and Family Support Team (PFS) and between us, we have a wealth of experience. We work with pupils and families across the whole school supporting them through different stages of their time at the school, offering interventions, signposting, advice and a listening ear.
We work with pupils and families from initial meetings during children’s first steps into school when they transition from other schools, right through to year 11 when they graduate and transition to post 16 options.
The connection between school and home is essential and working in partnership supports positive outcomes. For some adults coming into school can be difficult, so our aim is to make such visits manageable, friendly, helpful, informative and, where possible, fun. We have monthly Parent and Carer Get Together meetings in school which offer a chance to come together to socialise, find out more about school, give us feedback and support each other. We also have regular family social events throughout the school year.
As a Trauma Informed School, we are able to support pupils and parents/carers at times when relationships can feel strained, offering bespoke sessions to rebuild and develop relationships between children and parents/carers.
We also run regular parent/carer behaviour support workshops which give parents and carers time and space to discuss behaviours their children may be displaying. Learning more about what could be driving certain behaviours and what can be provided to enable positive changes. The workshops are friendly, informal and non-judgmental. Any parent/carer/grandparent of a child at the school are welcome to join us.
We provide bespoke support for pupils working on individually designed intervention sessions that are specific to their needs and area of support required. The intervention sessions include such topics as Boys 2 Men, E-Safety and Emotional Regulation. Interventions are engaging, having a mixture of support, learning and fun in order to achieve a positive outcome. All interventions aim to give pupils the knowledge and skills to develop and grow.
With the increase of online influence and use of technology we provide support in keeping safe online.
A change in a young person’s life can be daunting for pupils and their parents/carers. At The Ashley School Academy Trust, key adults support pupils in making transitions throughout the school. We have a dedicated Transition Support Worker who will support you and your child through the significant transition of leaving school.
Transition in year 11, to post-16 College or a Training Provider, can feel like a huge change for pupils and their families. We support to ensure that the transition goes as smoothly as possible and that you and your child are kept informed and supported throughout the process of change.
Every pupil will have a Careers Interview in year 10 and 11, aimed at supporting your child to articulate their goals for the future and how to achieve them. These interviews are used to help pupils identify which colleges they might want to apply to and the work experience they may do alongside their studies in year 10 and 11.
Pupils are supported with their college applications and will be invited to an informal interview by college, with their parent/carer. Several transition visits to their chosen college are arranged in the Summer Term, to ensure that pupils feel confident about their new academic setting in September.
During year 10 and 11 parents/carers and pupils can also request to be referred for Independent Travel Training, to support pupils to learn how to make their own way to school/college on public transport safely. If travel training is not suitable, parents will be able to apply to Suffolk County Council Post-16 Travel during the Spring of year 11. Since most full-time college courses are 3 days a week, our aim is to help young people access volunteer roles, paid employment and social activities they can do in the days they are not in college.
Ultimately, transition in Key Stage 4 is about equipping pupils with the skills they need to lead fulfilling lives beyond school, with opportunities to socialise and contribute to their local community.
