Pastoral and Family Support

At St Chad's, we recognise the vital role that parents and carers play in their child's education. They influence their children’s attitudes about learning, support learning at home and when they become involved in the life of the school, they make our schools better places to learn, grow and thrive. This is why we are fully committed to forging home-school partnerships.
 
Members of our school's pastoral team play a key link between home and school. Mrs Kay, our school's Welfare Officer and Mrs Sohanpal's, our school's Family Support Worker, provide both pastoral and family support to our whole school. Their roles are multi-functional and designed to meet the wide and varied needs of children and families beyond the curriculum.
 
Part of their role is to work closely with families to support the needs of the children experiencing difficulties which are stopping them learning as effectively as they could both inside and outside of school. These could be in relation to a child's education, behaviour and/or wellbeing) and can be short-term or ongoing. Some examples of these could be:
  • low attendance/punctuality 
  • family difficulties/changes 
  • school readiness
  • behaviour difficulties 
  • low self esteem
  • friendship difficulties 
  • communication and language difficulties 
  • moving to a new school
  • bereavement 
We are very proud of our school's diverse community but recognise the cultural differences that sit within our whole school family. Parenting values across cultures vary in terms of values, norms, goals and outcomes for children. Cultural differences that we regularly see in school can include, but are not limited to:
  • limited or no family experience of formal education in the home country
  • accessing medical treatment for an unwell child e.g. visiting a GP for symptoms of a cold
  • allowing children to play out on the street
  • bedtime routines
  • food and diet
  • cultural perspectives on childcare arrangements  
  • cultural perspectives on SEND
  • cultural perspectives on education and home schooling 
We aim to provide non-judgemental support and to be a 'first stop' contact for all children and families in our care by providing a listening ear, advice and information. Support for families can include, but is not limited to:
  • providing information and signposting to other services in the local area
  • liaising with a range of external services such as housing and Social Care
  • attendance and support at school and other agency meeting
  • advice and support in promoting positive behaviour at home
  • assistance in completing paperwork and forms e.g. special educational needs, school places
  • guidance with career and personal development and access to training and workshops in school
  • providing school uniform 
We are very fortunate to have many dual-language staff and also fund additional translation support through Derby City Council's New Communities Achievement Team (NCAT). Currently, Miss Alena works in school to support our Eastern European families, including Roma families from Eastern Europe. 
 
Advice and support is confidential although concerns relating to the safeguarding of children will always be dealt with in accordance with our school's Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy and procedures. We may not have all the answers, but hopefully we can help parents/carers to work out how to find them. The Derby Direction website provides a directory of additional support services families can be signposted to, referred to, or engaged with on behalf of the families we support. 
 
If it is felt that additional support is required beyond what the school can offer then Early Help services may be considered.