In St. Ninians there are a number of partner agencies that support young people allowing them to be successful and thrive.
- Pastoral Support – Your child’s pastoral support teacher is normally your first point of contact if you experience a problem or difficulty.
- Depute Head Teacher – Is in charge of a year group and who works closely with each class’s Pastoral Support teacher.
- Class teacher – Who have contact with pupils on a regular basis throughout the week and who again work closely with both pastoral support and the year group head.
- Campus Cop – Ensures that everyone has a safe and secure place to work and learn. Deals with any crimes or offences which occur within the school environment and talks to classes or groups regarding current issues.
- Social Worker – Forms relationships with people and assists pupils to live more successfully within their local communities by helping them find solutions to their problems.
- Career Advisor (Robert Young and Katrina Shephard)– Advises young people on what options they have available to them when they leave school. (Employment, College, University.)
- School Chaplain (Father Stephen and Father Jonathan) – Leads the liturgical and faith life of the school, celebrates mass on feast days and important religious occasions and has a pastoral role supporting the young people in the school.
- Youth Counsellor – Supports young people in school if anything is worrying or upsetting them. For example a death, family relationship difficulties, friendship issues, feeling sad/down, low self esteem, not coping well.
- Pupil Support Officer (Frances McGeehan) – Visit homes of pupils where timekeeping or attendance gives cause for concern. She will accompany pupils to school promoting positive attendance and where necessary work with Social Work department.
- School Nurse – The main health care advisor who coordinates the vaccination service in school. She is not based in the school but pastoral support staff can contact her on your the pupils behalf.
- Educational psychologists (Jennifer Hunter & Gillian Thorburn) – Meet and talk to young people about many different problems. They are there to listen and can help in different ways. When problems don’t seem to be going away even with the help of teachers or family members it may be helpful for a child to meet with the educational psychologist.
Central to our delivery of support for young people is joint working with the partners mentioned above to focus on individual needs and provide planning for the future. The forum for joint work and planning is called the Joint Support Team (JST).
The JST is integral to the East Renfrewshire policy on Staged Intervention or STINT which defines 5 levels of support for pupils who have “additional needs”. The following is the school newsletter describing the workings of the Joint Support Team and Staged Intervention in St. Ninian’s.
