Supporting Pupil Wellbeing

The wellbeing of our pupils is our number one priority at Pontypridd High School. As a school, we are here to support all pupils with both in-school support services and external agencies.

In school, we have the following available to pupils:

• Dedicated Wellbeing Managers to provide daily support
• ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistants) 6-week courses
• Eye 2 Eye Counselling Service

Pupils and parents/carers are able to request the above support for pupils.  Please contact a member of the wellbeing team to discuss referrals.
 

The following links are available for pupils and parents and carers to access further support outside of school:

Barnardos
https://www.barnardos.org.uk/support-hub/emotional-wellbeing?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIuezKyrD57gIVl5ftCh3NVwotEAAYAyAAEgK98PD_BwE

Action for Children
https://www.actionforchildren.org.uk/our-work-and-impact/children-and-families/good-mental-health/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIuezKyrD57gIVl5ftCh3NVwotEAAYBCAAEgJb1_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Place2Be
https://www.place2be.org.uk/

Mind
https://www.mind.org.uk/

Umbrella Cymru
https://www.umbrellacymru.co.uk/

Parents and Carers Supporting Pupil Wellbeing.

Supporting your child’s wellbeing and mental health is so important, but it can also be a difficult thing to do. Below you will find links to websites and images that may help approach wellbeing and mental health conversations with your children.

Please remember that you can contact our Wellbeing Team for further support with this.  As parents and carers you are also able to refer to our ELSA and Eye 2 Eye Counselling Services on behalf of your child.

Useful Websites:

Young Minds
https://youngminds.org.uk/find-help/for-parents/

CAMHS Resources
https://www.camhs-resources.co.uk/websites

Place2Be
https://www.place2be.org.uk/our-services/parents-and-carers/supporting-your-child-s-mental-health/

Action for Children
https://www.actionforchildren.org.uk/our-work-and-impact/children-and-families/good-mental-health/

Period Dignity at Ponty High

The Period Dignity Grant is a Welsh Government Initiative with the purpose of ensuring that all girls have access to a wide range of free sanitary products, whenever they need them.

When school is open, pupils can access these products from pupil services by asking for a ‘Pink Envelop’.  There is no limit to how many times a pupil can request products.

Pupils are also able to request a larger supply of sanitary products by speaking with their form tutor, Wellbeing Manager or any member of staff that they feel comfortable speaking to.

Each term a link will be sent out to enable families to request sanitary products.

Pontypridd High School is a restorative school. We place great importance on building, maintaining and repairing relationships. Staff, pupils and parents/carers who work restoratively report that this way of working leads to:

· A more respectful climate

· A shift away from sanction-based responses that aim to ‘manage’ behaviour, towards a more relational approach

· Better relationships amongst children and staff

· People being more honest and willing to accept responsibility

· People feeling more supported when things go wrong

· A calmer, quieter and more productive learning environment

Schools that work restoratively find that relationships are stronger and learning is more effective, resulting in less need to resort to sanctions and punishments.

We are committed to a whole-school approach, as this has been proven to be the most effective method to reducing bullying, exclusions, classroom disruption and truancy.

Pontypridd High School will not tolerate any form of bullying. If an incident is reported, it will be dealt with promptly and thoroughly.

What pupils should do:

• Pupils who suffer or witness bullying should report incidents to a member of staff
• Pupils who suffer cyber bullying should save texts and print off online messages so that evidence is available if needed
• Pupils should report incidents to their parents/carers

What parents/carers should do:

• If parents/carers are concerned about any incident involving pupils, they should contact the school’s Wellbeing Team by phone, in writing (letter or email) or in person.

The Welsh Network of Healthy School Schemes was launched in 1999 to encourage the development of local healthy school schemes within a national framework. 

The Welsh Government and Public Health Wales have provided funding and guidance to help health and education services working in partnership to set up and run local healthy school schemes in all 22 local authorities across Wales. 

The Healthy Schools Team in Pontypridd High work with pupils, teachers, parents and a range of partners to improve the health of the whole school community. Our primary aim is to develop a whole school approach to health through 7 key areas:

• Food and Fitness
• Mental and Emotional Health and Well-being
• Personal Development and Relationships
• Environment
• Substance use and misuse
• Safety
• Hygiene

Pontypridd High School begun its journey in the scheme in 2008. We are very proud that we have achieved the phase 6 and are working towards achieving the national quality award.

National Quality Award (NQA)

Since 2010, schools now have the chance to be awarded a national final accreditation for outstanding practice; the Welsh Government’s 'National Quality Award'. In order to achieve this final award, schools must have been part of the Rhondda Cynon Taff Healthy Schools Scheme for a minimum of 9 years and achieved all 6 phases of the scheme and have been able to evidence their good practice via a 2 day accreditation assessment by external assessors.