Pastoral Care and Safeguarding - Uckfield College
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Pastoral Care and Safeguarding

Pastoral Care and Safeguarding

At Uckfield College, wellbeing is our number one priority, and we fully understand the duty of care that we have to support all of our students. As young people navigate secondary school, Sixth Form and their teenage years, life often presents challenges, be they with friendships, family situations, the online world, peer group influences or self-esteem. What we set out to do is support all of our young people as much as we can to build resilience, and support emotional and mental health, so that they can flourish.

We do this through what we teach all of our students in our exceptional personal development curriculum and also where individual students require, through bespoke social, emotional or mental health interventions. These can be with the child’s Form Mentor, Pastoral Leader or Director of Year or also with our Lead Practitioner, Resilience Coach or Counsellors.

In addition to our strong, caring Pastoral team in College, there are numerous links to external support, which can be available to help students and families with any issues they may be facing. Please contact your child’s form mentor, pastoral leader, or Director of Year if you require any help or advice regarding student welfare. You can also find additional support for mental health and emotional wellbeing here.

At Uckfield, we also know that safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility, and our policies, procedures and regular staff training underpin this. Our highly experienced Safeguarding team will take the steps to do whatever we can to ensure that young people are not at risk, either from themselves or others. These steps might include:

  • Meeting with the young person to explore the issue
  • Meeting with parents or carers to explore the issue
  • Liaising and meeting with other agencies or professionals you are involved with the young person or family (for example, CAMHS)
  • Making a referral to Social Services and liaising with them

Social Services are first and foremost a preventative agency - they seek to support families to get back on track and make changes in their lives to ensure that young people are kept safe. It is with this in mind that the College might refer to Social Services: to seek support for the family and young person. Unless the risk is presented by the parents or careers, we consult with them about the referral or inform them that a referral is taking place.

If you think anyone in the College community is at risk of harm, you should speak to a member of the safeguarding team shown below:

 

The Safeguarding Team
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Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL)

Martin Bradley
Deputy Principal

 

Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads (DDSL)
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Gemma Fassam
Assistant Principal

Spencer Prichard
Assistant Headteacher

 

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Safeguarding Manager

Di Ricketts

 

You can speak to the team in person or via email

 

Year Group Name Office Location Email
7 Jo Ogden First floor in A block
8 Tracey Cheal Ground floor in A block
9 Laura Burton Second floor in A block
10 Richard Stonebanks Second floor in A block
11 Nicola Bennett Ground floor in A block
12 Jessie Palmer Sixth Form Study Area
13 Jessie Palmer Sixth Form Study Area
Any Di Ricketts First floor in A block
Any Gemma Fassam First floor in B block (6th Form)
Any Spencer Prichard Second floor in A block

 

We encourage our students to ask for help when they need it and to not be afraid to let their pastoral teams know if they are worried about a friend. An ideal way to do this is by emailing help@uckfield.college which is checked daily.