Pastoral
Pro-active pastoral care underpins all of our activities: pupil wellbeing is at the heart of everything we do
Ellern Mede Moorgate School offers a hugely supportive, caring environment focused around the individual needs of each student. We do this through small class sizes, remarkable academic and pastoral staff, and collaborations within a broader multi-disciplinary team and other agencies such as Local Authorities.
Wellbeing
We are committed to providing a holistic programme of education with health for all our students and see our academic and pastoral pursuits as deeply interrelated. We believe that, alongside pursuing their academic potential, our students should also develop life skills and experiences that enable them to thrive and flourish within and outside of the classroom, and in their time beyond Ellern Mede.
Being a setting for the provision of specialist education to children and young people with eating disorders, we are aware of the nuances and complexities that their needs might entail. Our approach to education and wellbeing is led by dedicated and trained specialists who understand how to deliver appropriate support.
Every child is assigned a key teacher upon admission to the school and will continue to have a key teacher throughout the complete duration of their time with us. This key teacher has the direct and daily responsibility for monitoring their key child’s overall experience and wellbeing at the school.
The key teacher takes on many roles for the key child while they are at the school. These include:
- Regularly and effectively liasing with the young person’s parents, the home school and the Special Needs Educational Co-ordinator.
- Establishing a relationship with their young person that is supportive and motivational.
- Ensuring that the progress, attainment and motivation of the young person is represented through the Multi-Disciplinary Team Meetings and the Care Plan Approach.
- Regularly assessing and reviewing student’s Individual Education Plans (IEPs)
- Creating a personalized programme of study that is consistent with their learning at the home school
- Work in partnership with the clinical team, parent, and home school to provide a successful re-integration for the young person
Key Teachers are at the heart of a child’s experience at Ellern Mede and they help to ensure that student voices are heard, that their needs are met, and that there is an ongoing dialogue between Ellern Mede and the home school.
Key Teachers
An Education, Health and Care plan (EHCP) is a powerful methodology that brings a child or young person’s education, health and social care needs into a single, legal document. Having an EHCP in place can enable children and young people to access a more intensive level of specialist help, that goes beyond what is available through SEN support. This means that young people can have a support plan, up to the age of 25, that is considered and reviewed through a holistic and structure overview of their needs.
We often find that after a child has received both education and health support at Ellern Mede Moorgate that there is a need for a more formal arrangement, which could take the form of an EHCP in the ways described above.
We know that navigating through the EHCP process can sometimes be a complex and difficult process. However, our depth of skills and knowledge will help parents and young people through the whole EHCP process. Ellern Mede has an excellent track record of successfully applying for EHCPs and working in close partnership with local authorities to ensure that children and young people feel fully supported through, and beyond, traumatic periods in their life.
Education, Health, and Care Plans (EHCPs)
Re-Integration and links with the Home School
We understand that re-integration can be a challenging process for children and young people. However, at Ellern Mede, our multi-disciplinary team plans and implements a fully planned programme of re-integration that works in partnership with home schools, helping to ensure that students are as prepared as they can be for when they leave our care.
This process begins at the early stages of admission and informs everything from the curriculum that student learn – making sure that they are in tandem with their mainstream peers – to the continual communications that Key Teachers have with home schools.
Additionally, the re-integration process may involve a number of visits to the home school, the provision by Ellern Mede School of a detailed reintegration plan supported by communication between ourselves and the home school in the future. We work with the staff of the home school to prepare them for how to manage the child’s difficulties in the school setting.
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