Pastoral Care

At Humphry Davy School we believe that young people often benefit from more support than can be offered inside of the classroom.  

Our Student Support Team is available to offer pastoral care for a range of issues. Some of the work that the team does helps students with the following:

• Low self-esteem
• Exam pressure
• Friendship-building
• Anxiety
• Anger management
• Positive behaviour
• Attendance

In addition to a pastoral team consisting of Heads of School, Heads of House and  Mentors - the school offers joined up student services provision which includes:

• Lower and Upper School (Foundation Y7/Y8, Transition Y9 and Pathways  Y10/11) Student Support Workers: a team of experts who support students across the curriculum to access and engage with their learning, support pastoral needs, identify and actively remove barriers to learning and meet the school’s behaviour expectations for increased curriculum access;
   
• Education Welfare Officer and Attendance Officer: supporting students and parents with any issues linked to school attendance and punctuality;
   
• Mental Health First Aid/Trauma Informed School Practitioners and Restorative Practitioners: trained staff to provide mental health, restorative practice and well-being assessment and triage for students alongside our fully trained School Counsellor;
   
• Careers Lead and Careers Advisor: working across the year groups to support students with options choices, work experience, further education, employment, apprenticeship, training and higher education decisions;
   
• Student Services Co-ordinator: leading on student medical provision across the school, supporting all parental queries and providing administration and guidance on school admissions. 

We also call on the expertise of outside agencies whenever we feel it would be beneficial for our young people and we have established and maintained positive links with many service providers including; Kernow Young Carers, Hayle Youth Project, Music Therapy, Wave Project, Trelya, School Nurse, Social Care, Children in Care Team and the Early Help Hub.

We welcome self-referrals from the students themselves, requests from families, from external agencies and from our own staff.  We do our best to act on these referrals quickly – and in many cases immediately – so that our students receive the very best support possible.

Mentoring at HDS

Humphry Davy School has a long tradition of strong pastoral care and support based on mutual respect and high expectations. We recognise that the modern world is an increasingly challenging place for young people with the rise of social media and the pressures of academic assessment, notwithstanding recent pressures arising from Covid.

We believe strongly that a sense of ‘belonging’ cultured via a vertical Mentor Group is a leading attribute to the tangible ethos and value you find when entering Humphry Davy School. Each child is allocated a House and Mentor with one key adult in each Mentor group as their first port of call at the start of each day. The Mentor is the first person to whom a student will turn for help or advice and the first point of contact at the school for parents. 

The purpose of Mentoring at Humphry Davy is to:- 

• Invest in fostering good individual relationships with mentees and know them well.
• Help mentees overcome barriers to learning such as; difficulties with learning, behaviour, attendance, social or emotional issues, or any other issues that are affecting learning and progress.
• Encourage mentees to employ a ‘growth mindset’ mentality with resilience to overcome obstacles.
• Champion mentees and actively promote their individual achievements, skills and ambitions.
• Encourage mentees to develop strong communication skills and leadership/team work.
• Build a strong and supportive buddy system within the mentor group and activities that encourage cross age debate/competition/SMSC/British Values/awareness of the world and news events. 
• Ensure mentees are ready to learn by having the right tools and attitude for the school day (being on time, in the right uniform and with the right equipment).
• Insist (and check) that students catch up on work that has been missed by mentee absence.

The mentoring ethos is embedded via our 'Ways of Being HDS', summed up in four short phrases:

Do what matters most

Be yourself, always

Show you care

Succeed together

With recognised dispositions to achieve this highly promoted and recognised through our achievement and celebrations:

Enthusiasm, confidence, respect, creative, focussed, resilience, independence and responsible

Each Mentor Group is attached to one of our SIX Houses, lead by a House Lead – Aweni, Tevi, Longya, Sowena, Kemeneth or Medra - names which reflect key aspects of our school vision and values whilst increasing appreciation of our Cornish heritage:

Kemeneth – ‘Community’ (Purple) 

Longya – ‘Belonging’ (Silver) 

Medra – ‘Aspire’ (Yellow) 

Sowena – ‘Success’ (Green) 

Tevi – ‘Grow’ (Orange) 

Aweni - 'Inspire' (Blue)

Each year group is overseen by a Head of School who monitors the progress and development of each child in the cohort, focusing on their academic and personal progress and development and ensuring each student receives the support and guidance they need to remove any barriers to learning.

The Heads of School oversee the Foundation phase (Years 7 and 8) together with Transition phase (Year 9) and the Pathways phase (Year 10 and 11),  supporting, tracking and securing accountability from the team of Year Leads and Mentors to support student progress, academic, wellbeing and personal success.

Our school has developed a targeted and responsive Mentor programme delivered through Mentor time. For example; a range of topics that address a wide range of areas. For example; brain power and learning behaviours, resilience classroom, finance education, literacy, numeracy, personal and leadership, careers and aspiration, internet safety, student voice, the democratic process, philosophy and ethics, British Values, study skills, exams skills, culture, love of music, healthy relationships and healthy living. All supported by a series of assemblies (complementing the Citizenship and Personal Development/RHSE programme in the curriculum) delivered by staff, senior leaders and outside agencies.

Our Mentoring and Assemblies also incorporate students’ Social, Moral, Cultural and Spiritual development to ensure that the school provides a joined-up approach to these key areas of personal development across the curricular and extra-curricular provision at the school.

A member of the Extended Leadership Team is the Designated Mental Health Lead, working collaboratively with Anna Freud and Trauma Informed Schools. This includes co-ordination of TIS Practitioners to support students and ensuring the school takes a preventative approach when it comes to mental health provision.

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