Pastoral Care

Positive Play

Every child matters at Ambergate Primary School.  For this reason, over the last 10 years, we have been using the pioneering Positive Play Programme that was developed by our colleagues at Sharley Park Community Primary School. The programme offers extra help for children and young people in one-to-one sessions through structured activities in a sensory environment. The Positive Play support programme can help children feel special, help them to express and communicate their feelings, feel good about themselves, raise their self-esteem, and improve their social skills in a reliable, safe and supportive environment.

Positive Play aims to:

• allow young people a space to express and communicate feelings and difficulties in their lives, through a variety of media in constructive rather than aggressive ways and in a safe non-threatening environment
• help young people feel good about themselves, and raise self-esteem by providing activities that look at their strengths and by valuing what they do and making it special
• provide a non-authoritarian, supportive, reliable, safe, unconditional relationship within the school and other settings
• provide some of the early experiences that might (may) have been missed but which are necessary for formal education and social interaction
• help young people acquire the complex range of life skills needed to achieve their full potential.

The programme has been evaluated by Sheffield Hallam University and found to be an effective early intervention tool in supporting children, raising their self-esteem, enabling them to access the curriculum, and so achieve their potential.

Ofsted defined the Positive Play support programme as ‘An early intervention tool, reducing disaffection and encouraging inclusive education’.

Peer2Peer

As a result of some excellent positive play work, our HLTA has developed a group of children to help others that may be facing friendship or playtime difficulties.  We are in the early stages of this programme, but can confidently say that the number of playtime incidents has reduced and that pupils feel confident to ask the peer workers for help and advice.

School Council

We have an active school council, which is led by Mr Allen.  The council take a lead role in developing initiatives within the school.  Year 6 representatives are voted for by the whole school. Class representatives are voted in by their class.

Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE)

In order to equip the children for life beyond school, we are currently starting each new term with a week looking into one strand of PSHE.  This is often combined with Religious Education and aims to give the children a broader understanding of themselves, their community and the world around them.