Home

Safeguarding Support

Police

Holte has a very positive relationship with West Midlands Police. Holte’s Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL – Mr Oliver) Chairs the City-Wide steering group for the Police-School Panels across Birmingham while also being the chairperson of the Police-School Panel in the Ladywood District. Holte has always been at the forefront of combined Police-School initiatives in the past such as the SHARP system and the use of metal detecting wands in schools. We work proactively with our Link Police Officer who is extremely helpful when called upon and has assisted us in a variety of cases. He is in school once a week to update us on local issues and to advise pupils who have been involved in problems in and out of school. He has met many parents and runs mediation sessions between pupils and parents. We utilise a ‘knife arch’ provided by the Police once every half-term to raise the profile of that issue and to ensure the safety of our pupils.

Student Social Worker

In 2014-2015, Holte took part in a new initiative placing student social workers from local universities in schools as part of their course. We had two students during that year (one Masters student and one first Degree student) and the partnership has continued to this day. Holte is continuing to take social work students on placements of varying lengths to help them in their development. While they are with us they are able to contribute to our work by working with pupils and their families, completing necessary referrals and conducting home visits to enhance the home-school relationship while all the time gaining excellent experience in a range of safeguarding cases. We envisage this partnership continuing into the future.

Counselling Service

Holte engages with the ‘Wellbeing Crew’ who provide us with a counselling service for two days a week (Wednesday and Thursday). The Deputy DSL manages the referrals into the Wellbeing Crew and sets up appointments across both days. This has helped us address the rise in the number of mental health cases that we have seen recently in our young people. They talk very positively of the service and many of our pupils have been assisted via the counselling service that we provide.

School Nurse

Holte buys into the School Nurse service for two days a week (Monday and Tuesday). We have the same nurse working with us on both days and she has built up a good knowledge of our school, pupils and families. The nurse meets with a range of pupils who have a range of needs from checking up on those with medical needs such as asthma and diabetes, ensuring our pupils with disabilities are all catered for, meeting those displaying an emotional issue or working with pupils and parents who have been discharged from hospital or following up referrals from a GP. The nurse has excellent links with a range of outside agencies which helps us massively in getting the right help to the right people. The school nurse is an excellent resource who also works in conjunction with the school’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) team looking at care plans. She also works with the DSL, ensuring that all pupils on the Child Protection radar are checked regularly.

Walsall Education Welfare Service

Cuts to funding meant that no Educational Social Worker (ESW) was available to us in Birmingham, so we sought assistance from elsewhere and established a relationship with Walsall Education Welfare Service. We purchase the services of an ESW for one day a week, which ensures that our hard to reach attendance cases are dealt with effectively and efficiently. Pre-Covid, this was a big factor in our Persistent Absence data remaining consistently below national averages and our attendance above national average. Through communication with our ESW (whether it is through phone call, letter, home visit or school meeting), we are confident that where attendance issues exist, they will be addressed and solved quickly. Holte’s attendance remains above the national average currently and our relationship with our ESW plays a big role in this.

Year 7 Health/Wellbeing Mentor

Through our partnership with West Midlands Police we were offered the opportunity to operate a scheme which would be part funded by them and match funded by the school. This has provided a mentor exclusively for Year 7 who has come through a company called Evolve. The mentor is full time and constantly on hand for Year 7 pupils ensuring her case load of approximately 30 pupils (who have all faced some difficulty in the past) have the very best start to life at secondary school.

Learning Support Centre

Our Learning Support Centre houses 5 Learning Mentors who provide a large number of pupils with one-to-one mentoring and in lesson support plus group support where necessary. The mentors have a different caseload of pupils each term and also operate Thrive sessions, proactive behaviour sessions, restorative sessions and sessions that address issues such as racism, vaping, misogyny etc. Pupils who require input post-suspension also get input through our LSC. The mentors provide a service for other local schools in taking pupils who have demonstrated behaviour issues and working with them to try and turn that around. Feedback on the success of these pupils upon their return has been positive. The LSC thus provides us with a safety blanket when pupils have had an adverse experience or are facing difficulties out of school. It is a place where such pupils can be supported.