Our role is to create a school community where each individual is nurtured and cared for, where the student voice is valued, where parents are embraced as partners and where the academic, emotional, cultural and social well-being of our youth is of paramount concern. Our aim is to care for the whole child. We are not just focused on academic outcomes, but on ensuring that our students are happy, celebrated, encouraged and inspired. Our Mentoring Programme encourages students to Develop an understanding and awareness of wellbeing, Ensuring a smooth transition into the school and between sections for students, Promoting emotional intelligence, resilience, and self-awareness. We recognise that students have a right to feel safe and secure; therefore Child Protection is at the heart of our work.

The vision of the Solás programme is to enrich and enhance the life outcomes and opportunities for school aged children and their families by providing a range of family support, interventions, and enrichment. 

• To ensure that leadership and life skills are embedded across all areas of life with children and their families.
• Maintain accurate records to measure impact and outcomes. 

Tasks and duties: Duties and Accountability: 

• Developing home school links to encourage good communication between the school and families.
• Provide time-limited, responsive, and flexible support to family members within the home and the community, including some evenings, to promote better outcomes for children and parents. 
• Work with pupils experiencing social, emotional and behaviour difficulties/or at risk of social exclusion/disaffection and their families so they can fully participate fully in home and school activities to achieve their full potential.
• Help to improve attendance by monitoring and helping prior to a need for referral to the EWO. 
• Design, co-ordinate and evaluate small groups of children and/or parents and address the problems which have created disaffection with school. 
• Be available to support groups of pupils to help them in resolving conflicts and developing personal, social, and emotional skills. 
• Assist in active outreach to the most vulnerable families.
• Alongside the Safeguarding Team, identify and engage with vulnerable families to create a bespoke package of support. 
• Act as a point of contact in school for families in need of support. 
• Build effective relationships with families. 
• When necessary, work with relevant agencies to ensure families are fully engaged and involved in setting achievable and realistic goals and deliver solution focussed interventions that address the families’ goals. 
• Work in partnership with key agencies and families to increase their confidence and resilience to encourage positive family relationships and promote children’s development and health and wellbeing. 
• Organise and run productive meetings between parent, pupils, and teachers which achieve positive ends.
• Report pupil achievement and progress as appropriate to the Head of Pastoral Care and Principal. 
• Assist in maintaining high standards throughout the school. 
• Record and report accurate and relevant information about pupil’s and/or families home situations, learning, attendance, and emotional wellbeing in confidential manner to help the Safeguarding Team. 

Referral Process:

• A referral form will have been completed and forwarded to the Triage Team.
• A Core Group will be established within each school to discuss referrals. During the meeting the children who have been referred will be triaged to ensure referral to the appropriate key agency that will best suit their needs.
• The referral form will include information such as PASS data, Boxall Assessment, Attendance percentage, and Achievement/ Behaviour points. It will also include any key information about the child that may support the decision regarding how best to assist the child.
• It is proposed that the Core Group within each school will meet monthly.

Periods of Intervention:

• It is proposed that the team will work with the children who have been referred for an initial period of 6-8 weeks. Following this there will be reassessment to determine how best to move forward. If progress is being made, then interventions can continue for a minimum of 1 term (this is due to Nurture intervention needing to last for a minimum of one term).
• Should further intervention be required the team will liaise with the staff within the individual schools who are responsible for referrals to counselling, Behaviour Support, EWO, Ed Psych etc.
• Should a safeguarding disclosure be made, it will be passed on to the DT within the child’s school.
• In case of emergency support being requested, the team will work with the schools to support children and their families, if appropriate.

Link to referral form:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf8cf-Ad6Ska8ewYmRs4V9G2qlTH2oMs9RZGwN6UMo_7T1OuA/viewform?usp=sf_link