Meet the Team: Episode 1

The pastoral team would like to take a moment to help you understand a little bit about who we are and what we do within the school. The word pastor comes from the Latin which means “shepherd” and that pretty much sums up our team quite nicely. Just as a shepherd looks after the health and wellbeing of their flock, we look after the emotional health and wellbeing of your child as this an important part of the Stephen Longfellow approach.

Your son or daughter is treated and respected as an individual, and to help us tailor our support for them we offer a range of services. The Green Room is used to give students the opportunity to reflect on and discuss any issues that may be affecting them and Mentoring Support provides personal one to one time which can be used to help a student experiencing difficulties with areas of the school curriculum. Another very important part of our role is to make contact with you as parent’s, so that we can work together to help our students realise their full potential. Student welfare is critical to us and we are actively involved in both Safeguarding and Child Protection matters.

As you can see, we are able to offer students assistance in many ways, we use Provision Mapping to gather relevant information from all support services including our Careers Advisor, the SENCO team, Director of Physical and Mental Wellbeing, Wellbeing Coaches and the Pastoral Team itself – this gives an overall picture of how each student has made use of our services and helps us in identifying areas which need further development.

Tom has had the desire to become a PE teacher since he was in Secondary School. Having a sporting background, it was Tom’s dream to make sport his life and help other people in realising the impact that sport and PE can have. Tom’s mind was made up whilst working in a school pastoral team, seeing the daily the impact that outstanding teaching could have on a student’s life.

On deciding to join our school, Tom said “The Stephen Longfellow Academy was a new and exciting project in an already outstanding trust that I wanted to say I was a part of building. From my pastoral background, I witnessed first-hand all of the barriers students can have before even stepping foot in the classroom and I believe that TSLA removes the majority of them so that the students can access the level of education that all children deserve”.

As an NQT, Tom has fully thrown himself into the academy and is eager to learn all he can in respect of both his curriculum area and the wider support on offer. Tom is a year 10 form tutor and is their key adult, meeting with them for an extended form period each morning, directing those that require extra support to our extended services. Tom teaches PE as a core subject to all year groups as well as the planning and delivery of NCFE Health and Fitness to our KS4 cohort. The academy extra-curricular and after school offer is also supported by Tom, with responsibility for the organisation and running of the academies Football and Rugby provision in partnership with the Leeds Rhinos Foundation.

Looking ahead to September 2018, Tom said “I feel honoured to work with some amazing colleagues and fantastic pupils. I am excited about how The Stephen Longfellow Academy will progress on our new home at Phoenix House, especially the world class sporting facilities that all pupils will have access to before, during and after school”.

The pastoral team would like to take a moment to help you understand a little bit about who we are and what we do within the school. The word pastor comes from the Latin which means “shepherd” and that pretty much sums up our team quite nicely. Just as a shepherd looks after the health and wellbeing of their flock, we look after the emotional health and wellbeing of your child as this an important part of the Stephen Longfellow approach.

Your son or daughter is treated and respected as an individual, and to help us tailor our support for them we offer a range of services. The Green Room is used to give students the opportunity to reflect on and discuss any issues that may be affecting them and Mentoring Support provides personal one to one time which can be used to help a student experiencing difficulties with areas of the school curriculum. Another very important part of our role is to make contact with you as parent’s, so that we can work together to help our students realise their full potential. Student welfare is critical to us and we are actively involved in both Safeguarding and Child Protection matters.

As you can see, we are able to offer students assistance in many ways, we use Provision Mapping to gather relevant information from all support services including our Careers Advisor, the SENCO team, Director of Physical and Mental Wellbeing, Wellbeing Coaches and the Pastoral Team itself – this gives an overall picture of how each student has made use of our services and helps us in identifying areas which need further development.

The pastoral team would like to take a moment to help you understand a little bit about who we are and what we do within the school. The word pastor comes from the Latin which means “shepherd” and that pretty much sums up our team quite nicely. Just as a shepherd looks after the health and wellbeing of their flock, we look after the emotional health and wellbeing of your child as this an important part of the Stephen Longfellow approach.

Your son or daughter is treated and respected as an individual, and to help us tailor our support for them we offer a range of services. The Green Room is used to give students the opportunity to reflect on and discuss any issues that may be affecting them and Mentoring Support provides personal one to one time which can be used to help a student experiencing difficulties with areas of the school curriculum. Another very important part of our role is to make contact with you as parent’s, so that we can work together to help our students realise their full potential. Student welfare is critical to us and we are actively involved in both Safeguarding and Child Protection matters.

As you can see, we are able to offer students assistance in many ways, we use Provision Mapping to gather relevant information from all support services including our Careers Advisor, the SENCO team, Director of Physical and Mental Wellbeing, Wellbeing Coaches and the Pastoral Team itself – this gives an overall picture of how each student has made use of our services and helps us in identifying areas which need further development.

Paul has come to TSLA to offer his extensive knowledge and understanding around a number of social and emotional barriers faced by many of our pupils. Paul has significant experience in dealing with some of society’s most vulnerable children and adults having delivered counselling and mentoring in a number of areas including the armed forces, probation, children’s services and the justice system.

Paul has begun working with 6 key stage 3 pupils to offer 1-hour mentoring sessions to explore sensitive individual concerns such as bereavement, poor self-efficacy, difficult family environments and negative perceptions of education. Initial sessions have proven to be of great significance to our young people with every child showing a real desire to continue working with Paul. Given time, the outlet offered by Paul will remove significant barriers to learning for some of our most vulnerable pupils.

Raj’s role at The Stephen Longfellow Academy as a Targeted Careers Adviser is to provide information, advice and guidance to help students make realistic choices about their education, training and work options. It is also to offer advice and support the school to help them develop an effective careers programme working alongside the Careers Leader, Wayne Little.

Work undertaken this year has included but is not exclusive to:

• 1:1 Careers advice and guidance meetings with students across the school as required, with a focus on Year 11, SEND and PP students.
• Group sessions with students exploring post 16 opportunities.
• Group sessions- how to use UCAS Progress (how to apply for post 16 options online).
• 1:1 and group sessions on CV’s and Skills working with wider PSHCE and Year team to link careers within school, accessing support from specialist such as the Job centre.
• Making students aware of labour market information, locally and nationally and informing of current trends.
• Working with Local Enterprise Partnership and with Enterprise advisers to Increase links with and engagement of employers- working with Job Centre, Wates Construction to allow our students to visit real work environments to inform learning and future decision making.
• Arranged University visits to inspire students across Y8 to Y10 to consider Higher Education.
• Arranged be-spoke visits for students to see post 16 colleges and training providers which links with interests.
• Supporting the school to access a Careers fair to raise awareness of options and future progression.

Targeted work this year has included 1:1 meetings with every Year 11 student to make sure they have been supported to complete an application to a post 16 provider. To prepare each student for the interview process through role play and question and answer sessions. For those students who have needed additional support, Raj has accompanied our most vulnerable on the bus to college and provided travel training skills to increase their independence and confidence to attend interviews.

Working in partnership with organisations such as Leeds City Council, Leeds City College and Apprenticeship Hub to deliver assemblies and sessions within the school. Apprenticeship sessions have been led by apprenticeship hub to help students help students search and apply. Raj has also supported parents, carers, specialists at TSLA and the wider support services (social services, leaving care, and youth offending) involved with students to support them in overcoming barriers to employment education and training. Raj, alongside Assistant Principal Wayne Little, will ensure that all year 11 students have a positive post 16 destination through rigorous tracking and monitoring of applications and through personally handling the offers and destinations of all our school leavers. This support will continue over the Summer, following up on year 11 students after they leave the academy over the final 2 weeks of the Summer holidays to offer support to enrol, start at college and if any become NEET, to offer alternative options as required.