PUPIL THERAPEUTIC BEHAVIOUR SUPPORT SERVICES

We provide customised support for pupils, groups or whole classes. Some of the areas we address are:

• Anxiety related issues – attachment disorders, low mood, poor self belief and self efficacy, low esteem and confidence as a learner
• Managing negative feelings and aggression
• Overcoming school phobias

Our short term casework based services provide bespoke programmes to suit the individual needs of the child or young person. They are always designed to work within the capabilities of the staff and include:

• Helping children and young people develop self-help skills through individual or small group therapeutic input including play and creative arts sessions
• Coaching staff in applying what has been learned in individual therapy sessions to avoid dependency being created in the young person or child, plus bridging activities into the classroom
• Parent and child sessions to address issues that have an impact on learning
• Tailored behaviour management solutions
• Feedback to school staff: observations of problem behaviour, strategies that work. Ideas for pupil targets, resources and practical solutions
• We always provide a written report within 24 hours

Our longer term solutions provide:

• Transition or nurture group projects. Tailored therapeutic LAC provision (often using pupil premium funding) with a different termly or half termly focus
• Cross age tutor or volunteer training for young people

Our parent support services work with children and parents within the family group.

We also provide courses that typically run for 2 hours per week over 6 weeks.

SHORT TERM

• Individual parent and child casework based sessions in school to address a range of learning and behaviour issues
• Improving parental involvement and engagement with the school

LONGER TERM

• Bespoke courses for groups of parents to develop parenting skills
• Behaviour and anxiety management
• Promoting learning u Providing ideas for creative low cost activities for holiday periods

WHOLE SCHOOL

• Engaging the difficult to reach parents
• Communicating with parents – delivering bad news and managing complaints

TEACHER AND SUPPORT STAFF TRAINING WORKSHOPS

At Gemstones we believe in building upon existing individual and whole school capability, expertise and skills by addressing specific issues.

Our support aims to build confidence in managing whole class and individual pupil needs. We also provide training in a range of self-help strategies for staff to address aspects of their own well-being.

Examples include:

INDIVIDUAL SESSIONS

• Our working lunch sessions are designed as part of our casework services for busy teachers. We provide feedback and discuss strategies and share resources that are designed with the teacher and other key staff
• 1:1 Coaching sessions involve discussion with the teacher, lesson observations; modelling of strategies; use of resources and self help strategies for supporting well-being needs
• Lesson Study sessions are a planned series offered in cases where 2 or 3 teachers want to work together

WORKSHOPS

• Staff support and development session: a solution focused session for staff. We base this around case studies brought to the session, we provide strategies and model skills and share resources
• Staff new to Teaching (NQTs): designed to promote and maintain positive states for learning and address emotional well-being of pupils and self
• Other workshop session examples include Managing Anxiety and Emotional Meltdowns, Communicating with parents when problems arise

SCHOOL LEADERSHIP GOVERNOR AND TRUSTEE SERVICES

We provide a range of training for governors and trustees.

All Gemstones Directors are ex Headteachers and have also acted as School Governors for both mainstream and special schools.

Our one-on-one policy and practice training is aimed to raise the awareness and knowledge of statutory duties and how to meet these requirements.

We have particular expertise regarding parental engagement and have contributed to many national organisation publications.

Our longer term solutions provide:

• Managing parental complaints
• Engaging difficult to reach parents
• Setting up a parent forum

We provide specialist training on the following subjects:

• SEND Statutory Requirements for Governors
• Meeting the Equalities Act Duties
• Looked After Children
• Managing Exclusions

MIDDAY SUPERVISOR TRAINING

Gemstones provide a range of services aligned to individual casework or the more strategic services that are designed to develop whole school policy and practice consultancy.

WHOLE SCHOOL POLICY AND PRACTICE CONSULTANCY

Including individual workshops:

• Observations of playtimes followed by workshops designed to address specific issues identified by staff themselves and arising from observations, build skills and provide specially designed resources
• Planned 6.5 hour course spread over 2 days tailored to the needs of the school, owned by the Midday Supervisor staff and endorsed by SLT

Including:

• Understanding why playtimes can be difficult for some children and their individual needs
• Learning how to communicate with them
• How to use resources and games to promote happy playtimes
• Developing an action plan

CASEWORK BASED CONSULTANCY

This is bespoke and will be tailored to the needs of individual children or young people experiencing difficulties managing unstructured playtimes.

Typically this will involve observations of the pupil or pupils experiencing difficulties, followed by coaching and mentoring of staff to develop skills and provision of specially designed resources to support positive playground behaviour.

LOOKED AFTER CHILDREN SERVICES

Gemstones has considerable experience and expertise in addressing a range of issues relating to children who have experience of being ‘Looked After’. This could be a result of attachment disorder, but also overcoming a range of other anxiety related issues such as; poor self belief and self efficacy, low self esteem and confidence as a learner, managing negative feelings, aggression and overcoming trauma.

Our Tailored Services

We customise our support to suit the individual needs of the LAC or young person. We provide training and a range of practical support to build the knowledge base and capabilities of the staff about LAC needs.

We support parents and carers of LAC and young people or those recently adopted. Services routinely involve sharing and demonstration of the therapeutic strategies taught to their children to identify:

• Underlying needs and develop strategies for the child/young person, staff and parents/carers
• Managing anxiety relating to trauma and other experiences that LAC have routinely experienced in their early life

We also provide consultancy for the statutory requirements of governors and leaders relating to LAC and engagement of parents/carers including those who may be difficult to engage.

GEMSTONES EDUCATION CURRICULUM

Pupil Support Services Curriculum

As part of Gemstones pupil support services we supplement the broad and balanced curriculum being offered by schools that commission our services. To that end Gemstones have a framework and approach, which members of our team adopt in planningthe organisation of the learning environment for individual pupil interventions which includes key common processes, routines and structures that promote feelings of psychological safety, positive learning attitudes and sense of belonging to the school community.

Curriculum content contains the integration of a range of therapeutic self help techniques taken from neuro-linguistic programming and emotional freedom technique alongside play and creative activities used as vehicles to facilitate the reflection on and communication of social and emotional anxieties.

Whole School Curriculum Design Consultancy Service

We also have considerable expertise in specialist curriculum design and as such we provide a bespoke service, to support schools in developing your own curriculum tailored to the needs of your unique school community.

Additionally we ensure that the curriculum designed will meet various statutory requirements, to provide a broad and balanced curriculum in line with current National Curriculum programmes of study objectives, whilst at the same time meeting the requirements of the Equalities Act for those children and young people with social, emotional and mental health difficulties.

SPECIALIST ASSESSMENT TOOLS

At Gemstones we routinely use a range of specialised assessment tools as part of our day to day casework practice. Examples include the Self Concept, Readiness for Re-integration and the QCA behaviour scales. In addition we can provide a more in-depth assessment to help schools plan specific and more indepth interventions.

Boxall

The Boxall profile is a well-recognised diagnostic tool for assessing the needs of children with social, emotional and mental health difficulties. It provides a means of assessing the areas of difficulty of severely disadvantaged and deprived children, in order to plan specific and structured intervention and to help monitor progress in those areas. It is very useful in diagnosing a range of attachment disorders caused by disruption to early nurturing care, but can also indicate a range of other problems, such as learning difficulties or other social communication disorders.

Framework for Assessment of Children in Need – FACN

FACN is used as standard practice by social care, health and education professionals to identify a range of skills and other family or community factors, which are essential to the healthy growth and development of all children. The Common Assessment Framework – CAF and safeguarding processes use this framework to assess any unmet needs within the family system. Where the tools are used in a connected, integrated way, multiagency and interdisciplinary working is enhanced.

Current expertise within GEMSTONES has drawn together the interlinking aspects of the Boxall profile’s developmental and diagnostic strands with the child’s developmental needs part of the FACN.

CLASSIC NURTURE GROUP PROVISION PACKAGE

There is often confusion between nurture provision and social skills groups, hence the reference to ‘classic’ nurture group provision. This includes a curriculum that contains the nurture group common processes combined with the expectations of the EYFS or national curriculum (NC). Lesson objectives are aligned to age appropriate learning outcomes.

The classic nurture group (CNG) has delivery input from a trained teacher as well as support staff.

This service comprises:

• Assessment of up to 8 pupils using Boxall profile or similar tool and modelling of this for staff
• Support from a CNG trained teacher on the development of an innovative curriculum combining the nurture group common processes
• Specialist Guidance for assessment for learning strategies for the PSHE/PSD strands from the Early Years Foundation Stage and current NC programmes of study
• Training and guidance of effective use of NLP and EFT practice including, influential and persuasive language patterns, therapeutic stories and metaphors for healing trauma and overcoming limiting self beliefs
• A whole school consultation session for planning for the reintegration of pupils into class and ensuring practice is shared and embedded across the school
• Guidance and support on the development of policies and practices to support whole school nurturing learning environments in line with the Quality Mark Standard for NGs

INTERVENTION SERVICES

We provide solution focussed telephone and email support services for schools through our Annual Subscription service. This will give all teachers in your school, access to our helpline for support and advice. Teaching staff can arrange a telephone consultation. Please email your enquiry to us and we will contact you.

When you do make contact we will help you to:

• Identify the key issues, behaviours and behaviour patterns
• Recognise the solutions you may have already found
• Identify a plan that you believe will be workable in your own classroom
• Find a suitable resource on our website which may include an adapted example

Our Outcomes are to provide resources and ideas to support you:

• Arrive at a tailor-made action plan based on the issues raised to include your existing best practice
• Improve staff well-being

We offer a 10% discount on all contracts in excess of a £10,000.00 spend.