Early Help Offer | Felixstowe School

At Felixstowe School, we recognise the importance of early help to offer support to meet the needs of students.

Early Help is everybody’s responsibility – together we will make sure that children, young people and their families are safe, happy and ready for school, work and life’s challenges.

Early Help means better outcomes for children and families. Effective Early Help will resolve problems before they become overwhelming and require high cost, reactive services. Early Help enables children to be ready for school and more likely to achieve their full potential.

We recognise the importance of working with families in supporting young people. We welcome the input from families when students face challenges, so that together we can achieve a positive outcome for the young person, and for their family.

Early Help Intervention	Year Group/Target Group	Summary of Intervention
Student Support Manager	All	Student Support Manager to work on a one-to-one basis with students who have an identified need, whether that be social, emotional, behavioural or academic.
Form Tutor	All	All students have an allocated form tutor who they see on a daily basis. This is their first point of contact for any issues, and parents also have email access to their child’s tutor, In addition, there are scheduled parental meetings, 3 times per year, but parents are encouraged to liaise more regularly as required. Tutors are responsible for overseeing the academic and pastoral wellbeing of their group, and liaising with other staff within the school as required to ensure that the appropriate support is in place as soon as a need is identified.
Head of House	All	All students have an allocated HoH who can work with students on prioritising academic subjects, working on mapping revision and ensuring that provision is in place to make the best academic progress, including supporting the student to access other help if needed. Parents have access to the contact details for their Head of House and meetings are scheduled to support academic progress and concerns as students approach public examinations, so that students and parents are offered robust support.
School Chaplain	All	The FXS Chaplain is available to talk to students about any issues they may have, whether related to religion or just general wellbeing. They will offer support such as talking to students who are grieving, suffering from worries or struggling with friendship issues. They will signpost to other help systems within the school where appropriate.
School Nursing Team	All	School nurses available on a referral basis to see students with medical or wellbeing needs who either self-refer or are referred by the student support team.
Specialist Education Service	Years 7-11	This core service offer replaces the previous CISS offer. It encompasses specialist services across the 4 broad areas of SEND need, along with Whole School Inclusion and the Alternative Tuition Service. This takes the form of a centralised referral process, and forms part of all school’s graduated response to need.
Personalised Timetable	All	Students who have particular medical needs, whether this is linked to physical or mental health, may be offered a bespoke timetable in conjunction with advice from their hospital consultant. In addition, some students are offered a bespoke timetable to meet their particular needs, whether on a temporary basis, or a permanent basis, on a case-by-case basis. This is coordinated by the Deputy Headteacher for Student Support, and involves fortnightly reviews with the student and family.
Access Nurture Provision	7-11	Access is a nurture provision which allows students who have academic, social, emotional or behavioural needs to be supported effectively in a small class provision to develop both academically, but also to develop skills to support the student with personal skills and life skills.
Kooth Online Wellbeing Support	All	www.kooth.com is an online wellbeing service, run in partnership with the NHS and recognised by the BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy), and students can be referred to access support here after assessment by a learning mentor.
Level Two	All	Level Two offers an extensive mentoring programme within the community, offering a range of one to one and group sessions for students experiencing challenges.
Bereavement Group	Years 7-13, identified by a SSM following a bereavement	Bereavement Support: Students experiencing a bereavement are identified and one-to-one support is then offered through the School Chaplain, as well as contact home. Students needed further support are referred for counselling through the School or Cruse Bereavement Support.
Felixstowe Scholars	Highest attaining students in Years 10 and 11	Programme of sessions run by a variety of members of staff looking at developing study skills and motivation in the most able learners. The programme aims to equip the students with the skills to tackle learning at a higher level by providing transferable skills and looks at topics such as metacognition, exam question analysis, research skills, self regulation and essay writing.
Literacy Intervention	Years 7-9	Targeting the students with the lowest literacy attainment, students work to focus on reading confidence, comprehension, spelling, grammar and punctuation. The aim of this is to remove barriers to them being able to access learning throughout the school.
Oracy Workshops	Year 7	The FXS6 leaders complete an external Oracy workshop – ‘Find your voice, find your inner confidence’. They then lead oracy workshops to all of the Year 7 students. There are then progressive opportunities to put the oracy skills into practice via tutor – house – school – trust competitions.
Chromebook use	All	Individual support for students to remove barriers to learning and to support evidence for a normal way of working when considering access arrangements for exams.
Handwriting and Spelling Club	Key students in Years 7-9	Students do not always attend every week, but they are working through a booklet to help practice writing styles, and then write or copy small passages for practice. Spellings are set as homework on an individual basis and students complete mini-tests working through the various spelling rules and students’ areas of specific weakness
LFC Lunch and Break Club	All	A safe space within the Learning Focus Centre where students can come at break and lunch time away from main areas on the ground floor. The Learning Focus Centre offers supervised social interaction and activities, reduced sensory stimulation and adult support with eating and communicating.
Breakfast Club	All	A safe place within the Learning Focus Centre for students who may feel anxious coming into school or for those who may not receive breakfast at home. The breakfast club offers students the opportunity to talk through any worries or concerns with a member of staff. Furthermore, the breakfast club offers a safe space away from the main areas in use at the beginning of the day, students are able to access this facility from 8a.m onwards. The club offers supervised social interaction, reduced sensory stimulation and adult support with eating and communicating.
Young Carer Support	All	Working in partnership with Suffolk Young Carers, we offer regular meetings with our schools’ worker. This is joined up with the SSM team as often the students are already supported by a member of the team.
Homework Club	All	Homework support takes place Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in the LFC until 4pm. Staff are on hand to support with guidance and resources.
OM Wellbeing – Exam Anxiety	Year 11, identified by SSMs	Aimed at supporting students in Year 11 who are especially worried and stressed, to equip them with the tools to manage their own wellbeing.
External Agency Support	All	The school work closely with external agencies to access additional support where appropriate, for example, behaviour support, CAF/TAC, family support workers, social workers, Triple P Parenting programme, local police and PCSO, and Diversion Programme.
4YP	All	External referrals for group work, counselling and other activities. Ipswich-based.
Careers Hub	All	Specialist careers practitioner available to discuss future career pathways, further or higher educational provision, work experience and employability skills. Bespoke advice and guidance on interview skills and employer/educational workshops targeting a wide variety of careers and labour market information. Regular group work lessons for students on personalised timetables. Extensive in house support to ensure identified students progress successfully, this includes personalised visits to college’s, group activity sessions and one to one support pre and post Year 11. Extra curricular Monday Careers Club. Lunchtime space for students to sit quietly in a safe and comfortable environment. Careers Practitioner has regular meetings with our allocated Young Person’s Worker at Health, Wellbeing and Children’s Services to support students at risk of becoming NEET in the future.
Suffolk Wellbeing Online Workshops – Anxiety and Feeling Down	Age 13+	Two separate webinars. Referrals need to be completed for students aged under 16. 1. Dealing with Feeling Anxious is for those who are feeling anxious/worried and are perhaps avoiding things because of this. 2. Dealing with Feeling Down is for those who are feeling down and have stopped enjoying things. Aimed at helping young people understand their feelings and ways in which to deal with them. Both webinars are live and interactive for 1 hour, giving the opportunity to ask questions throughout.
Enrichment Programme	All	An extensive enrichment programme is offered to support student wellbeing and development.
Theology Group	Key Stage 3	Run small group workshops to support student confidence and attendance to school.
Student Parliament Wellbeing Committee		The Felixstowe School Student Parliament includes committees focussed on Student Wellbeing- one for Key Stage 3 and another for Key Stage 4. These are student-led committees, and they collect ideas and perspectives from students on how to improve wellbeing. The committee chairs report back to Parliament regularly.
Peer Mentors – Transition, Resilience and Academic	All	Students put themselves forward to become a peer mentor. They then complete training by the student support, and are allocated students to support for varying reasons. These are identified via LABS meetings.
OM Wellbeing – Health Focus		School nurses come in to deliver bespoke sessions on a variety of topics from schedule health, to sexually-related abuse.
Psychology in School Team		A team of qualified psychologists work with the school completing an audit and working together to improve: * Staff wellbeing * School feeling safe and welcoming * Every learner feeling heard and valued * Parents and carers engagement with the school * Everyone feeling they can seek help when needed
Transforming Hate in Youths Programme		The school chaplain leads bespoke sessions for those that have received a sanction for a hateful act towards others.
It’s Not Okay Group		It’s Not OK is a series of intervention sessions aimed at educating children who have engaged in harmful sexual behaviour. It’s Not OK reinforces the importance of building and maintaining positive relationships and recognising and responding to behaviour relating to: * Online safety * Grooming * Sexting * Harmful sexual behaviour * Child sexual abuse * Child sexual exploitation
OM Wellbeing – Barriers to Learning Group	All	Selected students invited to participate in a 6 week programme aimed to identify and overcome barriers to learning by building a ‘wellness toolbox’. Students are selected by the Student Support Team, under the guidance of the AHT for Vulnerable Learners. The programme works through an initial assessment, identifying what anxiety and stress are, come basic CBT techniques, positive self-talk, avoidance, creating a wellbeing action plan, and a final assessment. It is delivered by qualified school nurses.
‘Dora’, our school dog	All years and staff	Opportunity to walk the school dog as a need to support well being. Dora also does visits to the Access provision to help aid students with learning and understanding responsibilities.