Name: Shaughn Lewis

Title: Assistant Headteacher- Pastoral

It is vital to ensure that the emotional needs of pupils are being met and that is what this role is about. I provide a support network for pupils to problem solve how best we can support their needs in the school. I am involved in dealing with the emotional support interventions/therapy programmes and providing pupils with opportunities to achieve self actualisation. The emphasis is on encouraging an empathic and accepting ethos where pupils can build positive relationships resulting in them feeling safe. On this page you will find key information on our ethos and key approaches that we adopt as a school.

School Ethos

Mount Tamar School recognises that all behaviour is meaningful communication and related to stress responses. As a school which supports those identified as having communication and interaction difficulties, Autism and Social, Emotional and Mental Health difficulties, the pupils at Mount Tamar have or do use challenging behaviour. It is therefore crucial that our aims as a school are to help pupils understand and recognise what behaviour is in order to effectively support and enable them to develop communication strategies. We aim to empower them and remove self -esteem and behaviour as barriers to their learning.

School Rules:

Mount Tamar has five school rules: 

 Follow staff instructions.

Speak politely and calmly.

Look after our school and our equipment.

Keep your hands and feet to yourself.

Try your best, and ask for support if you are stuck.

Our Aims are: 

• To inspire our young people to become successful, adaptable and passionate learners with high expectations for their futures.  
• To provide an adventure as they progress through our school, offering a safe, caring, friendly environment in which students are happy and confident and feel valued and supported.
• To give each student the skills they need to achieve a happy and successful life and develop into positive members of the community.   

Extended Support / Therapy Programmes

All pupils are unique and learn in different ways. All pupils have a right to learn in a way that maximises their learning potential. 

Every pupil at Mount Tamar will receive a curriculum that is pupil centred and helps them to learn the skills, knowledge and attitudes that are necessary for them to live as rich a life as possible. At times, throughout their school life, they may need some additional assistance and extended support is considered. These will be delivered using a variety of approaches such as in 1:1 situations or in a small group. They are tailored to help close the gap between where the pupil is and where the team feels the pupil should be. 

The school provides alternative packages to students who require therapeutic based learning to reintegrate into class-based learning. Through using therapy and skill-based learning to integrate social and wellbeing education, this allows the pupil to develop their understanding of positive engagement with others and a safe environment for the individual to form a greater knowledge of strategies and methods of processing their emotions while still linked to an education framework.

Once the pupil has begun to show mastery of necessary skills, the focus turns to the transferral of the learning into a variety of different situations, ranging from supported to fully independent, in familiar through to unfamiliar contexts.