PASTORAL CARE AT TDMS

At TDMS we use the Ethics curriculum, morning meetings and tutor time to talk to students about their mental health, how to deal with worries and feelings they have, and how to report these worries. We have an experienced pastoral team who support students with their wellbeing. Pastoral care begins before students even arrive at TDMS as we liaise closely with our feeder and partner schools. 

All students are placed into a tutor group. The Tutors and the Heads of Year are always happy to help students and they can be reassured that if they are worried about something, they can report it to their Tutor or Head of Year. All staff in school are trained to identify behaviours that may indicate that students are struggling with their mental health, and we also have a number of staff who are trained as Mental Health First Aiders; these staff wear white/green ribbon logo lanyards so that students know who they are. Our Safeguarding Team are also involved in students’ wellbeing and are specifically trained to deal with safeguarding issues so that students are safe in school. 

In addition to the staff who work in school, we have drop-ins via the school nurse and counsellors from The Wellbeing Crew who come into school twice a week for face-to-face appointments. Students also benefit from ‘POP – positive outcomes project’ which is a mentoring service in school run by trainee Social Workers. The Mental Health in Schools Team (MHST) provide higher need support. It is important that we identify issues early on and that we ensure that support is put in place, but in order to do this we need students to talk to us and tell us how they are feeling. 

As well as the Tutors, Heads of Year and teaching staff, students can report concerns on the SHARP system – this can be done anonymously if the report is about someone else, or students can give their name. We appreciate that some students can find it difficult to make initial face-to-face contact with the pastoral team and so using the SHARP system gives students the opportunity to reach out. The SHARP system can be accessed here.