Wellbeing and Pastoral Support
The School Nurse
Should you require any information or guidance regarding your child and their health, the School Nurse team can be contacted on 0116 2153239. Advice can be given by telephone or alternatively, it can be arranged for a meeting to take place at school with the Nurse. There are monthly drop in clinic sessions which take place at Thythorn Field, please contact the school office for dates and times.
Healthy Together is a universal service from Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust for children and their families from 0-11 in Leicestershire and Rutland.
Public Health (School) Nurses from Healthy Together are available to help you and your child in many different ways. You can find help and support with:
- Behaviour
- Continence
- Physical health
- Emotional health
- Parenting
- Healthy lifestyles
- Diet and nutrition
- Plus much more
Your Public Health (School) Nursing team can be contacted via your child’s school, or alternatively you can find the contact details by selecting Thythorn from the drop down list here:
Administration of Medicines
The school can only administer medicines to your child, if the medication has been prescribed by the doctor. The school office must see the prescription label/box and receive a completed medication form in order to administer the medication as required. If there are changes to medication, a new form needs to be completed. All medications will be sent home during the summer holidays, for checking (expiry date etc.), please ensure they are returned on the first day back. Please ensure medication is handed into the school office and not sent in with your child. It is your responsibility to collect the medication at the end of the school day (if required) from the school office. Please see below the medication form to be completed, if needed.
Asthma
If your child suffers from asthma, please speak to the school office and complete the medication form required. It is the parents/carers responsibility to ensure inhalers kept on site are in date and comply with the child's current prescription. It is school policy that an inhaler is kept in school at all times if it has been prescribed by a Doctor. Children can access their inhaler at all times. Assistance will be given as required.
Allergies
We do have children in school with severe allergies. We ask that parents/carers are mindful of allergies when bringing food in to the school. Please remember we are a nut free school. Please do not send your child into school with any items containing nuts of any kind. If your child requires medication for allergies, please contact our SENDCO or Head Teacher to complete the necessary paperwork.
Please ensure that any medication is in date and in the containers it was prescribed in.
Sickness and Diarrhoea
If your child has had an incident of sickness and/or diarrhoea, please note that there is a 48 hour clearance period. This must be 48 hours after the last incident.
Injuries
If your child has an injury within school hours, a notification of injury form will be completed and sent home in your child's bag. If your child has had a significant bump to the head, staff will contact you at the time of incident to discuss the next steps of treatment.
Head Lice
If your child has a case of head lice, please ensure necessary treatment is administered prior to coming into school. If we discover a case of head lice within class, we will send out an information sheet or text to warn parents to check their child's hair.
Please see document below for NHS advice on childhood illnesses. If you are ever unsure about your child's well being we recommend you contact your pharmacy or doctor (GP) to check.
Family support and attendance support
Mrs Muddimer works closely with our families and children to support where needed and to improve well-being and attendance.
Pastoral Support
ELSA - Emotional Literacy Support Assistants
Two of our Support Staff have trained with Leicestershire Psychology Services to become ELSA trained: Mrs Podgers and Mrs Muddimer.
What is ELSA?
There will always be children and young people in schools facing life challenges that detract from their ability to engage with learning. Some will require greater support to increase their emotional literacy than others. ELSA is an initiative developed and supported by educational psychologists. It recognises that children learn better and are happier in school if their emotional needs are also addressed.
We are very lucky to have two qualified Emotional Literacy Support Assistants at Thythorn Field Primary. They have been trained by Educational Psychologists to plan and deliver programmes of support to pupils who are experiencing temporary or longer term additional emotional needs. The majority of ELSA work is delivered on an individual basis, but sometimes small group work is more appropriate, especially in the areas of social and friendship skills. Sessions are fun, we use a range of activities such as: games, role-play with puppets or arts and craft. ELSA sessions take place in our very own 'ELSA room' which provides a calm, safe space for the child to feel supported and nurtured.
In ELSA we aim to provide support for a wide range of emotional needs:
- Recognising emotions
- Self-esteem
- Social skills
- Friendship skills
- Anger management
- Loss and bereavement
- Anxiety
How does ELSA work?
Children are usually referred for ELSA support by their class teacher, Senior Leaders or on occasion the SENDCo. We meet to discuss the referral forms and to identify and prioritise which children require a weekly programme for the next 6-8 weeks. With the programme aims in mind we then plan support sessions to facilitate the pupil in developing new skills and coping strategies that allow them to manage social and emotional demands more effectively.
Supporting - not fixing
Remember, ELSAs are not there to fix children's problems. What we can do is provide emotional support. We aim to establish a warm, respectful relationship with a pupil and to provide a reflective space where they are able to share honestly their thoughts and feelings.
It needs to be appreciated that change cannot necessarily be achieved rapidly and is dependent upon the context and complexity of the presenting issues. For children with complex or long-term needs it is unrealistic to expect ELSA intervention to resolve all their difficulties, however support will be designed to target specific aspects of a child's need. Training and development of ELSAs is an ongoing process and wisdom is required to recognise when issues are beyond the level of expertise that could reasonably be expected of an ELSA. The Educational Psychologist that works with our school would be able to offer advice on suitability or nature of ELSA involvement in complex cases.
Drawing and Talking is a gentle, non-intrusive method of working with children who need a little more help and support to deal with their emotional and learning needs. A trained adult (Mrs Hall) from the school staff will work with your child for one 30 minute session every week for twelve weeks.
Drawing enables a child to express, in a visual form, worries and pre-occupations from deep in the mind that they would not be able to (cannot find the words to be able to) talk about. Drawing enables a symbolic and SAFE expression of worries and feelings that may seem to be difficult for a child to express purely verbally.
Expressing emotions in the form of drawings activates a powerful healing mechanism in the psyche, possibly through interaction between the “right” and “left” brain. Through the combination of drawing and talking combined the different sides of the brain can interact with each other to “solve” or process the emotions.
Over time with, with an empathetic adult giving the child the attention and talking to them in a gentle, thoughtful and supportive way, the child can create a story through pictures that ‘sorts things out’ in a symbolic resolution (i.e. You can’t change what has happened, but you can change how you feel about it) This heals old hurts, and helps with the understanding and resolution of negative emotions.
This process gives the child a feeling of control over their events and emotions; through drawing they can make a different end to their story.
When a child has been overwhelmed by an event or their feelings and feels totally powerless, it’s important for them to get back a sense of power in their lives.
This therapy is offered to children whom the SENDCO and Class Teacher feel would benefit, based on their view of the child’s needs.
