A dedication to pastoral care and positive relationships across the school and with families, complemented by the careful monitoring of progress ensures that every student's needs are met, and that they are supported at every stage of their Deptford Green journey.

Our approach to pastoral care and teams are experienced and long-standing, with an understanding of our community and established relationships with our families. These positive relationships promote cohesion, keeping our students safe and supporting our community culture.

Place2Be is a recognised mental health charity, with whom we work very closely with. They are based on the school site and provide emotional and therapeutic services for those who are referred and assessed. Counsellors provide support for students with wide-ranging and often complex issues and our level of on-site support has been crucial in addressing the number of mental health needs that students have, especially as a result of the pandemic. For information, visit our dedicated Place2Be page [insert link].

The Mental Health Support Team (MHST) within our school focus on early intervention. They work in partnership with the school and other wellbeing services to develop a whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing, building on what is being done already. They offer a range of services including:

• Improving access to mental health support and services.
• Delivering training and workshops for schools and parents
• Providing consultation to schools on mental health and wellbeing
• Individual and group interventions for children and young people experiencing difficulties with managing emotions.

Behaviour mentors work with students who lack engagement this is impacting on their progress and learning. They meet with students twice a week, review their data, set targets, discuss strategies to support them to improve and when improvements are made, students are rewarded and celebrated. As a result of this targeted support, we have seen major improvements in engagement, and this has led to an improvement in student outcomes.

In addition, we also have full time non-teaching pastoral staff attached to each year group and our Sanctuary, a safe space for our most vulnerable students who may be struggling in lessons, where they can benefit from mentoring, support and time outs.