Care, Guidance & Support

Every effort is made to ensure that all pupils are known, valued and cared for as individuals. During the year prior to new pupils beginning their education at Dove House, much work is done in helping them prepare for the transition, including induction visits to the school and this helps considerably in providing a smooth and positive transition from primary to secondary school. In Year 7 the care, guidance and behaviour management of children is undertaken primarily by their Form Tutor supported by the Pastoral Team. This enables the tutor to get to know pupils quickly, and make regular contact with home.

The Form Tutor is the lynchpin of the pastoral care system. Each Form Tutor is responsible for a Tutor Group which stays together for registration and tutorial purposes. .

Part of the tutor’s role is to monitor attendance and behaviour, as well as to maintain an overview of academic progresss. This is done through tutor group activities, small group discussions and individual interviewing and counselling. The work of the form tutors is supported by a comprehensive tutor programme.  The tutor programme is designed to enrich curriculum areas especially literacy and numeracy but also develop Personal, Social, Moral and cultural aspects of a child’s education.

Tutors are required to get to know the pupils in their form really well.  They will play a vital role in helping each child through all stages of their time at Dove House, to make appropriate choices concerning their future.

Are valuable times when tutors can help their pupils feel welcome and valued and support them to develop a positive attitude before they start their lessons.

Tutors help remind pupils to use their Pupil Diary to record important information, eg homework, reply slips to be returned, things required for PE/cooking etc.

Tutors refer regularly to school’s Code of Conduct / Classroom Expectations sheet to help promote positive behaviour.

Tutors are required to understand the specific needs of all their pupils and monitor and record each pupil’s development so they can ensure the needs of the pupil are met. They make/take opportunities to discuss academic/behaviour performance and progress with individuals as often as possible and ensure each pupil knows their personal targets.

Tutors complete an Annual Review Report and contribute to the Education, Health and Care Plan (or Annual Review) meetings with parents and other interested parties.

Tutors are able to monitor positive and negative behaviour of pupils through our online behaviour tracking system.

Regular Pastoral Meetings are held where staff can raise awareness and discuss behaviour of pupils when necessary.

Tutors can use the Pupil Diary as two way method to communicate between home and school.

Tutors are encouraged to contact home with ‘Good’ as well as ‘Bad’ news – by phone, letter or praise postcard. A brief note when phone calls are made/received is kept in the pupil’s file.

Note: All records are kept in a secure place to prevent any visitors to the classroom being able to access personal, sensitive, information about pupils

Our SENCo works with teachers, teaching assistants and others to organise and deliver specific provision for children with Special Educational Needs (SEND). Our teachers are experienced in making adjustments to meet the needs of individual children.

We also have access to a range of specialist support services including:

• Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)
• Speech and language Therapists (Sp&L)
• Occupational Therapy (OT)
• Educational Psychologist (EP)
• Early Intervention Hub
• Children’s Social Care

Often the best support for family and young people is that which is most timely.  Dove House school staff work with numerous agencies to offer help if needed at the earliest opportunity. Common areas where we can help are links to our School Nurse and wider health professionals, links and information to support social inclusion and safeguarding and on occasions we also work with charities and trusts to help families going through difficult times whether financial or emotional.

As a school, we offer a range of academic and holistic interventions for all of our pupils. Interventions will be identified and delivered based on a child’s need. Interventions are carried out individually, in pairs or small groups depending on pupil’s needs and the intervention. Progress is tracked and monitored to evaluate the success of the intervention by the Pastoral team who work closely with subject teachers.

Interventions run at Dove House School include:

• Speech and Language Therapy – supporting programmes are carried out by school staff
• PALS – developing literacy skills
• Makaton – basic sign language
• Numicon – developing numeracy skills ??
• Social Understanding of Language  – improves communication in social settings
• Occupational Therapy – supporting programmes are carried out by specialist and school staff
• Relax Kids – helps with anxiety and calming
• Friendship group
• Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
• Handwriting
• Lego Friendships and Lego Communication

As a school, we are regularly looking at new interventions to support our children.  We are currently working towards the ‘Dream’.  We put the pupil center to to their learning.  The ‘Dream’ intervention is designed to inspire pupils by reaching into their world, to focus on their goals and aspirations.  Achievable ‘Steps’ are created for pupils to work towards and pupils are closely mentored by a member of staff.