Providing early help to our pupils and families at Stourport High School & VIth Form College means we are more effective in promoting support as soon as we can. Early help means providing support as soon as a problem emerges, at any point in a child’s life, from the foundation years through to teenage years.

Early Help is a pathway to supporting you and your child as they grow up when you or they may need further support or guidance.

Early Help can support children and their families who may be struggling with:

• Routines and family rules.
• Keeping to a healthy lifestyle.
• Children who are caring for a family member.
• Children who may not want to go to school for different reasons.
• Disability within the family including children being a young carer.
• Children in the family have special educational needs (SEND).
• Children who may becoming involved in antisocial or criminal behaviour.
• Children who go missing from home.
• Children or parents / carers misusing drugs or alcohol.
• Children at risk of being tricked, forced, or made to work in the criminal world.
• Children who may need support because they may live in a home and see drug or alcohol abuse or adult mental health problems.
• Children who have parents who argue a lot (and sometimes might hurt each other) whether the parents live together or apart.
• Children at risk of being groomed to join groups which support illegal views.
• A privately fostered child (a child from another family living within your family home).

Early help relies upon local groups and people in the community, sometimes we work together to help children, young people, and their families.

At Stourport High School & VI Form College we meet the needs of our children through a variety of ways:

Pupil Voice – pupils are actively encouraged to speak about any concerns they have to a member of staff or to our pastoral team. In lessons children are taught to speak openly about their emotions.

Pupils know the staff take all their concerns very seriously.

• Children’s questionnaires ascertain if they feel happy and safe
• E-safety assembly delivered to all pupils
• E-safety guidance offered to Parents
• Support from Local Police in the delivery of Key Safeguarding messages to our students.
• Ongoing staff CPD with a specific focus on key elements of the Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance 2022
• Senior Leadership Team presence during unstructured times.

SAFEGUARDING

• The DSL (Mrs E Hale) ensures rigorous and robust systems are in place within the school to ensure the safety of all of our children. 
• All teachers and staff know precisely how to identify and report concerns, via CPOMS
• Attendance team follow missing from education guidance.
• All new staff complete safeguarding inductions.
• We have a designated teacher for Looked after Children

Annually, we record that all staff have read Keeping Children Safe in Education.

ATTENDANCE

Mrs Brick is the lead on attendance. Mrs Brick monitors this weekly and follows our attendance policy to support pupils and families with attendance below 90%. The aim is to offer help and solutions to any problems.

Mrs Brick is also trained to support students showing signs of Emotionally based School avoidance. 

The school operates a first day response system, this means we will always text and call on the first and subsequent days to establish a reason for your Child’s absence. If your Child is unable to attend, please call, email or log the absence through Arbor.

PASTORAL SUPPORT

Our Pastoral team  work with pupils and families to support their needs whilst also signposting them to relevant agencies. With family consent, we can refer families for further support.

Stourport High School & VI Form College work closely with many partner agencies, you can discuss this anytime with Mrs K. Brick. 

SENCO

Mrs C. Haile works with children and families with additional needs and can signpost parents to many different agencies.

In Keeping Children Safe in Education 2022 it makes it clear that ALL staff should be aware of their local early help process and understand their role in it. In addition, this statutory document makes it clear that any child may benefit from early help, but all school and college staff should be particularly alert to the potential need for early help for a child who:

• Is disabled and has specific additional needs;
• Has special educational needs (whether or not they have a statutory education, health care plan);
• Is a young carer;
• Is showing signs of being drawn in to antisocial or criminal behaviour, including
• Gang involvement and association with organised crime groups;
• Is frequently missing/goes missing from care or from home;
• Is misusing drugs or alcohol themselves;
• Is at risk of modern slavery, trafficking or exploitation;
• Is in a family circumstance present challenges for the child; such as substance
• abuse, adult mental health problems or domestic abuse;
• Has returned home to their family from care;
• Is showing early signs of abuse and/or neglect;
• Is at risk of being radicalised or exploited;
• Is a privately fostered child.

Everyone needs help at some time in their lives and therefore an ethos of early help is important for any school.

Our offer of Early Help is outlined in the table below. We believe that early interventions for children or families, in many cases, will prevent children from experiencing harm. Stourport High School & VI Form College will refer to appropriate agencies when help is required to support children, young people or families or to prevent harm.

All Stourport High School & VI Form College staff are aware of our offer of Early Help. At all times all staff should consider if there is any offer of early help that we can make in order to help a child thrive.

• Worcestershire Early Help