Pastoral Care & Wellbeing

Manor House School has an active House system promoting inter-year group friendships, fun and camaraderie.  There are three houses; Discovery, Endeavour and Victory. Every pupil is assigned to a House for the duration of their school life and each House has an appointed staff member who acts as Head of House and a House Captain as part of our Senior Prefect Team.   Pupils are very loyal to their House and popular features of the school year include inter-house competitions such as Theme Week, House Arts and various sports galas.  Our house system underpins our close-knit family community of girls and helps develop lasting friendships.

Supportive Friends is a support group for every student in the school. It provides a listening ear and, after eight years, continues to thrive.  Girls organise events for Anti-Bullying Week and other relevant topics.  All new girls who join the school are assigned a buddy from the team for a year.  There are supportive friends on duty every break time to provide support and to chat to girls of any age.  Applicants have to apply for the position and receive training.  They are identifiable by a Friendship Badge.

Levels of behaviour at Manor House School are generally excellent. However, friendships amongst girls can occasionally run into difficulties so Manor House School has well proven strategies in place to help girls manage and resolve any differences in a mature, empathetic way.

The counsellor can support a young person to focus on their concerns and give them an opportunity to explore specific problems, make choices, cope with crises, work through feelings of conflict and improve relationships with others.

The counsellor can offer a young person a safe and supportive environment to talk over difficult issues in confidence and will listen to a young person’s views, experiences and feelings without judgment in an atmosphere of respect and empathy based on a secure and trusting working relationship. All counselling will be practised in accordance with the Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions, published by the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). This document can be found at the following web address: BACP Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions

ABOUT THE COUNSELLORS

The Counsellors will each:

• have an enhanced DBS police check for their work with YMCA East Surrey’s Heads Together Youth Counselling Service.
• have professional liability insurance in place.
• be a member of BACP and abide by their ethical guidelines as well as those of Heads Together Youth Counselling Service

Counselling sessions are confidential and will not be discussed with school staff. Pupils receiving counselling will be informed that on some occasions it might be necessary to inform the school and another professional body if the counsellor is concerned for the safety of the pupil or the safety of another person. If this is the case wherever possible the pupil will be informed of this and their consent sought. Pupils will not be offered levels of confidentiality that cannot be kept. Absolute confidentiality therefore cannot be guaranteed. The welfare of the young person will, at all times, take precedence over confidentiality. At the beginning of a counselling relationship, the counsellor will explain confidentiality and its limitations to the young person. Two of these limitations would include:

• When a young person is at risk of significant harm to self or others
• When the counsellor presents their cases anonymously in clinical supervision.

Should a Counsellor think that a young person is at risk of significant harm, this will be reported to the School’s DSL. The counsellor will at all times attempt to gain the young person’s permission to do so, and only disclose relevant information.

The Counsellor will treat in confidence all personal information about the young people, whether obtained directly, indirectly or by inference. Such information includes names, addresses, biographical details and other descriptions about the young person’s life and circumstances that might result in identification.

All information about the young person’s school will also be treated as confidential. Counsellors will not discuss case details outside of the service.

Pupils will be able to self-refer to the service if they feel they would like to receive counselling support. School staff may also refer pupils to the service if pupils want to have counselling but do not feel able to take the first step towards this. No pupil will have counselling against their will.

Heads Together and the Counsellors will adhere to and follow YMCA East Surrey’s GDPR policy  along with the organisation’s Privacy Policy.

The content of sessions will remain confidential unless the welfare and safety of the young person and/or another is considered to be at risk of significant harm.
Exception: If a student requests that information be shared with the School Link then the counsellor may do so.

The young person has a right to access counselling without their parents’ consent or against their parents’ wishes if they are considered to be ‘Gillick Competent’.

The Fraser guidelines set out the criteria that should be met before practitioners provide a service to under 16s without parental consent – the assessment of young people against these guidelines is often referred to as assessing whether the young person is Gillick competent. This means that for Senior School children parents’ permission does not have to be sought. Students can self-refer. Parents and Heads of Key Stages can also make referrals.

Young people under the age of 16 can consent to medical treatment if they have sufficient maturity and judgment to enable them to fully understand what is proposed.

There is no minimum age at which children can be regarded as competent to consent to medical treatment. However, it is unlikely that many children under the age of 13 would be deemed competent to consent without involving their parents. It is also unlikely that children misusing drugs or suffering from intermittent mental illness would be regarded as competent.

Any complaint about the counselling service can be made in accordance with the school complaints policy. The first point of contact should be to the Head of Key Stage.

Pupils at the School may attend for assessment and then have six 40 minute counselling sessions with the cost being met by the School. Further sessions can be offered and these will be charged to parents by the School. Any exception to this rule will be at the request of the School.

Our ELSA, Mrs Zaltsman is both trained and experienced. She helps individuals and small groups develop their emotional literacy, working on understanding and coping, self-esteem and positive interactions which all help pupils to focus better on their learning.

Mrs Zaltsman also runs Nurture groups covering topics such has friendship issues, anxiety and self-confidence.