At Sir Graham Balfour we understand that from time to time some young people require additional support other than that which can be offered inside of the classroom.  Our Student support services assist students across Key Stages 3, 4 and 5 in facing a range of barriers to learning to achieve their educational and developmental potential by providing a range of strategies and specialised support at the individual, group, school and local area level. The Personal Development and Welfare faculty is therefore available to offer this help for a range of issues.  These may include support addressing some of the following:

• Low self-esteem;
• Exam pressure;
• Friendship-building;
• Bereavement;
• Anxiety;
• Anger management;
• Positive behaviour;
• Attendance.

The Personal Development and Welfare faculty is made up by Year Heads; the Student Welfare Officer; Senior Learning mentor; staff within the School Inclusion Unit; Attendance Officer; Educational Welfare Officer and is headed up by our Deputy Headteacher responsible for student support.  We also call on the expertise of outside agencies whenever we feel it would be beneficial for our young people and we have established and maintained positive links with many of these.

To receive this support, we welcome self-referrals from the students themselves, requests from families, from external agencies and from our own staff.  We do our best to act on these referrals within a week – and in many cases immediately – so that our students receive the very best support possible. Please contact Mrs Hedges, our Student Welfare Officer if you would like to discuss the facilities we have available to us.

Medical information

The Immunisation Programme is provided by the Primary Care Team in Staffordshire.  Letters from the PCT explaining the Immunisation Programme are sent home to parents/carers at the relevant time during the school year.

Parents/students wishing to discuss any medical concerns are asked to contact Mrs Hedges via her email address or by contacting the main reception.

If you have a Care Plan in place Mrs Hedges will ask parents/carers to update this on an annual basis. However, it is the parent/carers responsibility to inform the school of any changes to a medical condition that may occur at any other time.