At Highlands School we strive to support students as they develop into happy and well-rounded individuals, well-equipped for later life. Our values of determination, aspiration, respect and equality are at the core of our pastoral system.

We provide appropriate support for individual students' differing educational and welfare needs. Our pastoral team includes 23 members of staff dedicated to the well-being of students. Eleven of these staff are not classroom based and are therefore available throughout the day to support students. The pastoral team consists of heads of year, pastoral assistant headteachers, and a pastoral lead deputy headteacher as well as a dedicated school counsellor, welfare office, family liaison officer and wellbeing assistant

We pride ourselves on creating a strong ethos of cooperation with parents and carers, which emphasises regular communication between home and school.

The pastoral team

At Highlands there is a dedicated pastoral care team who offer pastoral support in various ways to our students. 

Each year group has a committed year team which is comprised of:

• A form tutor who students will see daily and delivers PSHE once a week to the form group. 
• A behaviour mentor who supports the head of year with safeguarding, welfare and behaviour. 
• A head of year who oversees the holistic achievement, safeguarding, welfare and behaviour of their year group.
• An assistant headteacher who leads on specific aspects of our pastoral and behaviour provision and who manages a year group.
• A deputy headteacher who leads the pastoral provision at Highlands school.

In addition to the year team, we also have a devoted pastoral team including:

• Family liaison officer who is a deputy designated safeguarding lead who also carries out referrals to, and liaises with, external agencies.
• Inclusion officer who is also a deputy designated safeguarding lead and supports all looked after children in the school to ensure they engage positively with education.
• School counsellor who offers one to one counselling for a caseload of students.
• Welfare officer who is the lead first aider and provides medical care and support for students.
• Pastoral administration officer who is responsible for all admin relating to pastoral matters and is the clerk to the governing body discipline committee and complaints panel.
• Behaviour co-ordinator who leads the serious incident process and all behaviour investigations. 
• Wellbeing assistant who runs the student well-being room and runs well-being intervention groups to provide emotional support for students.

Almost all the members of the pastoral team have completed the mental health first aid certification. This means that the team are trained to have an in-depth understanding of mental health and factors that can affect the wellbeing of young people and are equipped with the skills to spot the triggers and signs of mental health issues. The mental health first aiders are trained in how to reassure and support a young person in distress and to guide them to the support they need.

At Highlands School,  safeguarding young people is the number one priority of all staff. All staff members are trained on how to recognise the signs of abuse, wellbeing concerns and mental health issues in young people, and then how to report these concerns. We have an executive safeguarding team who operate a rigorous system for following up safeguarding concerns and coordinating support for our vulnerable students.

Safeguarding 

At Highlands School, safeguarding young people is the number one priority of all staff. All staff members are trained on how to recognise the signs of abuse, well-being concerns and mental health issues in young people, and then how to report these concerns. We also have an executive safeguarding team who operate a rigorous system for following up safeguarding concerns and coordinating support for vulnerable students. 

The executive safeguarding team consists of the following members:

• Michele Phillips - Deputy headteacher and designated safeguarding lead responsible for strategic safeguarding.

• Matt Miller - Safeguarding governor/chair of governors 

• Jody Larter - Assistant headteacher, deputy designated safeguarding lead and child protection lead (with specific responsibility for Y7 * Y8).

• Aygul Husseyin - Assistant headteacher and deputy designated safeguarding lead (with specific responsibility for sixth form)

• Shiv Hutchinson - Associate assistant headteacher, head of Y11 and deputy designated safeguarding lead

• Anna Michaelides - Assistant headteacher and deputy designated safeguarding lead (with specific responsibility for Y9 &Y10)

• Denise Norton - Family Liaison officer and deputy designated safeguarding lead. 

• Nina Harrington - inclusion officer and deputy designated safeguarding lead (with specific responsibility for looked after children)

• Lori Charles  - School counsellor and deputy designated safeguarding lead.

We have a closely monitored safeguarding email address, staysafe@highlearn.uk, is used by members of the school community to report a safeguarding issue or concern about a student’s wellbeing. 

Pastoral curriculum

Education forms a crucial part in our safeguarding provision at Highlands School. Our high quality Stay Safe Curriculum teaches young people how to keep themselves and others safe and healthy. Our Stay Safe Curriculum is delivered by a range of teaching staff, depending on the topic, who are all trained to deliver sensitive topics. 

Our Stay Safe Curriculum is focused on three core themes

• Health and wellbeing 
• Relationships
• Living in the wider world 

Our Stay Safe Curriculum is based on three principles that run through each of the above themes 

• We all have the right to be safe and respected 
• We are able to recognise dangerous and unsafe situations and people 
• We can help ourselves by talking to a trusted adult and know where to obtain support on specific issues

Our Stay Safe Curriculum is delivered in the following ways 

• Weekly assemblies (led by heads of year and SLT)
• A sixty-five-minute PSHE lesson per week (taught by form tutors)
• A relationships and sex education programme (taught by specialist teachers) delivered in off timetable days in Y9-13 and during citizenship lessons in Y7-8
• Special feature newsletters

PSHE (personal, social, health and economic) education at Highlands School

Our vision for PSHE

At Highlands School, we believe that our high-quality, personal, social, health and economic education will stay with our students for life. Our DARE values (determination, aspiration, respect and equality) are at the heart of everything we do at Highlands School, and our PSHE curriculum embodies these core values. 

What makes PSHE so important?

PSHE education helps young people to stay safe, healthy and prepared for life's challenges and opportunities. Through PSHE, students will develop the knowledge, skills and attributes needed to manage their lives, now and in the future. 

From making responsible decisions about friendships, to succeeding in their first job, PSHE education helps students to manage many of the most critical opportunities, challenges and responsibilities they will face growing up.

PSHE education helps students to stay healthy, safe and prepared for both life and work in modern Britain.

Assemblies

Our weekly, themed assemblies form a key part of our stay safe curriculum and cover a variety of themes including:

• Online safety
• Healthy relationships
• Staying safe and how to report concerns 
• Black history month
• Mental health awareness
• Rewards
• Child on child abuse
• LGBTQ+ history month
• International Women's Day
• British values
• Consent and health relationships
• Equal opportunities