There is no single experience of having The Place2Be inside your school, but teachers do tell us – again and again – that it works. In fact, they report that 87% of children taking part in The Place2Be show positive change.
Here are first-person accounts from two of our schools.
Starting Up in Medway
By Bernadette Long, Head teacher, St Mary's Catholic Primary School in Medway
With a growing number of vulnerable children in our school community, we were aware of the positive impact that counselling could make to their lives.
Working together we have built on the support structures already in place e.g. In School Review and early identification from teachers, SENCO (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator) and myself. The children are so keen to access the lunchtime Place2Talk that it's always oversubscribed. They really appreciate the undivided attention they get from the counsellor. Teachers feel happier knowing that children's concerns are being addressed straight away. Parents too have been very supportive of the process and indeed with their consent the waiting list of pupils is growing.
After the first term our SPM Paul produced a report detailing the types of issues he encountered whilst working with the children. The report emphasised the level of need within the school and our Governors found it highly informative. The money to continue paying for the service was set aside immediately.
We look forward to continuing to work in partnership and seeing the effect it will have on the lives of the children and their families.
‘An essential part of life at our school – not a luxury’
By Lesley Lynn, Head teacher, Harlow
I'm so excited that at last The Place2Be is here and beginning to provide sound, professional health care. So many of the children at my school arrive with all kinds of negative attitudes due to a variety of reasons and the only way that these barriers to leaning can be addressed is through counselling. Yes, we have SEAL (Social, Emotional, Aspects of Learning) in place, yes we have good positive behaviour management, yes we have behaviour support, but unless the mental health of children with severe BESD ( behavioural, emotional and social difficulties) is addressed then all the intervention strategies we put in place will count for nothing.
The Place2Be is an essential part of life at our school - not a luxury. The challenge my school faces is to raise attainment. ISP (Intensifying Support Programme) , target setting, nor extra Learning Support Assistants have had the effect we want. Why? Because children are not ready to learn due to poor mental health. Without doubt we need this service in Harlow.
We’re all getting involved
By Sian Williams, Head teacher, St Thomas More Catholic Primary School in Medway
We have recently introduced The Place2Be to our school because as a staff we felt we were spending more and more time counselling children (and their parents), and we felt we had neither the time nor the expertise to carry this out successfully.
Tracie, our School Project Manager, has been extremely enthusiastic about introducing this service and although there have been some teething problems these have been very short lived and the majority of the time everything runs smoothly.
The children have been very interested to get involved, producing some artwork to publicise the service as well as accessing The Place2Talk. Parents have attended meetings and know they can contact Tracie by phone or by appointment. Staff have attended training sessions and we have some workshops coming up. Therapy has now started with several pupils and although it is early days they all seem to be responding well. I am sure we will find it invaluable as it becomes more embedded into our school life.