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Student Wellbeing

At Nower Hill High School, we are committed to develop and maintain positive mental health and wellbeing for our students, where they develop the resilience to overcome any challenges they may face at school and once they leave us. We believe that happy and secure students are able to improve their outcomes and will be prepared to face challenges later in life.

We emphasise to our students that we are not always going to feel happy and secure, which is perfectly normal. We provide them with the tools and strategies to ensure they can overcome these moments, whilst also promoting a culture where all students feel valued and supported and are able to share any concerns.

We promote “Academic Resilience” with our students, where we work together to ensure they can achieve good educational outcomes despite any adversity they may face. Where possible, we provide early intervention to support learning and educational attainment of our students, but more importantly to provide them with the tools to maintain better physical and mental health.

Key Staff Members

Student Wellbeing is part of every staff member’s role at Nower Hill. The entire staff body is well trained to recognise signs or concerns in students and listen to students if they share concerns. These are reported as appropriate to the relevant Year Co-ordinator or if an immediate safeguarding risk, to one of the Level 3 trained Safeguarding Team.

Janine Sabbagh	Deputy Headteacher Student Support, Designated Safeguarding Lead and Senior Mental Health Lead
Joel Suthesh	Assistant Headteacher KS3 and Student Wellbeing Co-ordinator
Sarah Standish	School Counsellor

Counselling Services

Nower Hill High School has a student counselling service run by our full-time School Counsellor. The service is available to students who require professional support with social, developmental, emotional and/or mental health issues. Students may request an appointment directly through the School Counsellor or may be referred by their Assistant Headteacher. As a school, we believe that offering our students a confidential space can limit barriers to participation, prevent more serious issues from developing and encourage students to advocate for their needs.

Daffon Wellbeing Hub

The Daffon Wellbeing Hub provides 1:1 and group support to students. Conversations in the Wellbeing Hub are designed to support students in understanding their lived experiences and to gain a deeper sense of self awareness. Through enabling this, students are more able to begin making positive changes, feel more confident, and be more fully immersed in their learning and school experience.

Daffon workshops include but are not limited to; anxiety, anger/behaviour, bullying, dealing with emotions, diversity/discriminatory language, online safety, emotional resilience, mentoring, organisation, self-esteem, social Skills, ASD - Social Stories.

The Daffon Wellbeing Coordinator liaises with a number of external agencies, to enable further support for our students. This includes working alongside our parent mentors, Harrow Horizons, Young Carers, WISH self harm support team, Bereavement Care, CAMHS Early Mental Health Practitioners, and COMPASS substance abuse team.

Daffon Wellbeing Online Hub

Our Daffon Wellbeing Online Hub utilises our Google Platform and provides support for students online. We have tips, advice and resources aimed specifically at our students on a range of topics such as; Sleep Tips, Stress, Anxiety, LGBT+, Bereavement and more. Furthermore, students are provided with details to a range of external support. We wanted to provide our students with a resource that could be accessed at any time of the day and at any point in the year. Our students have greatly benefited from this online platform, which can be accessed via the students’ Google log in.

Wellbeing Ambassadors

Our Wellbeing Ambassador Team is led by our 6th Form Wellbeing representatives. Each Form Group from Year 7 to 11 nominates a student in the form who becomes part of our Ambassador Team. They meet half termly and share ideas on what we can do to further support our students’ wellbeing. Most recently, listening to student voice, we launched student-led drop in sessions. A team of 6th Form Ambassadors hosts drop-in sessions where younger students come to discuss various matters with them and our 6th Form students share their advice.

Reporting a Concern

We provide our students with a range of methods to report any concerns either about themselves or someone else. We take all concerns seriously and someone in our Student Support Team will deal with all concerns promptly.

The Helping Hands poster below appears in the Student Handbook regarding the various ways that students may choose to report a concern. With teenagers, we know that it is important that they have an element of choice to increase the likelihood that they will feel secure enough to speak to us if they need to.

If a parent or carer wishes to report a concern, please use the year group email address to get in touch with your child’s Year Co-ordinator.

Year 7	purple@nowerhill.harrow.sch.uk
Year 8	red@nowerhill.harrow.sch.uk
Year 9	green@nowerhill.harrow.sch.uk
Year 10	blue@nowerhill.harrow.sch.uk
Year 11	yellow@nowerhill.harrow.sch.uk
Year 12	Y12@nowerhill.harrow.sch.uk
Year 13	Y13@nowerhill.harrow.sch.uk

Parenting Support Discussion Groups

Each month "Brilliant Parents" offer free discussion groups on commonly encountered problems by parents. They are given tips and suggestions for dealing with their children’s challenging behaviour, looking at short video clips and sharing their thoughts with other parents. Parents and Carers are actively involved throughout the 2-hour small group format discussions. These happen virtually or in person each month. To sign up to these workshops please complete the registration form and survey.

May 2024 schedule c