Pastoral

Mental Health Support Pathway

The Bolsover School takes the mental health and wellbeing of all staff and students extremely seriously. We recognise that sometimes our young people will require additional support within their day-to-day lives to navigate the complexities they may face throughout their teenage years.

Your child may be experiencing mental health difficulties, they may recognise this themselves, or you yourself could be concerned about their mental health and wellbeing. It could be that a trauma has been experienced that has negatively impacted their mental health, or sometimes there isn’t an obvious reason to explain the difficulties. Either way, recognition, communication and the correct support are three important stages to promote and sustain positive mental health and wellbeing.

If you are concerned about your child’s mental health and wellbeing, the school can offer a range of support. We operate levels of support dependent on the needs of the student and we aim to follow a progressive pathway to ensure the correct support is implemented at the correct time.

How to get support:

Talk to us: If you require immediate support, please contact your child’s Form Tutor or Head of House to discuss your concern. This can be done either by phone or by email. If you do not have the correct contact details, the school reception team will be happy to pass on your details to the appropriate staff member who will get back to you as soon as possible.

Fundamental British Values

All schools have a duty to ‘actively promote’ the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. These values were first set out by the government in the ‘Prevent’ strategy in 2011.’

At The Bolsover School we have added in the idea of the need to be an active part of the community and therefore our British Values have six parts rather than five as detailed in the poster below.

What does this mean for my child?

Will my child still be able to express his/her faith at school? Absolutely. One of the fundamental values is respect and tolerance of people with different faiths, and we teach our children that British law protects their freedom to hold their own beliefs. Any prejudice or discrimination towards pupils on the basis of their faith goes against the fundamental British values and will not be tolerated by the school.

How will this affect my child’s lessons? The curriculum provides lots of opportunities to look at fundamental British values. Your child will already have some experience of this in lessons such as religious education (RE) and personal, social and health education (PSHE). In each subject, our teachers will look out for these opportunities and encourage children to think about how the values link into the topics they are studying.

Will there be major changes to the school’s ethos? Our school’s ethos already includes many aspects of the government’s fundamental British values. For example, we expect our children to follow the school rules and show kindness to one another. Promoting fundamental British values will reinforce, not change, our current ethos.

External sources

The following guidance and news article from the Department for Education (DfE) may be useful for further information:

• Guidance on promoting British values in schools published.

If you have any questions or concerns about the Prevent strategy and what it means for your child, please do not hesitate to contact the school.