Personal Support Groups (PSGs)

Personal Support Groups meet for 30 minutes on a Friday for time with their Personal Support Tutor. The role of the Personal Support tutor is:

“Central to the entitlement to support is the opportunity for every learner to have regular and frequent discussions with an adult. This adult will know the learner well and be able to guide a review of learning to help identify and plan next steps, using access to information about the learner from across the curriculum, as well as out-of-class learning and achievements.” (Building the Curriculum 3)

In the context of BHS, learners will have a Personal Support Tutor who provides first line pastoral support through out Personal Support Time system. The Tutor will remain with the same pupils from S1 through to the end of S4 and, where possible, into S5/6.

Over the course of a school term, each Tutor will have:

• Spoken 1:1 with each learner at least twice. These conversations are likely to include discussion of attendance, late-coming and truancy (SEEMiS); negative behaviour points (Satchel:one); positive badges (Satchel:one); and general Tutor observations. They may also include target setting, discussion of future goals and ambitions and conversations around extra-curricular/personal achievement opportunities.
  • Tutors should keep a record of these 1:1 interactions in a form of their choosing.
• Communicated any concerns to the relevant Guidance Teacher.
• Had the opportunity to facilitate key personal support work in line with current identified school gaps (e.g. personal finance, disciplinary literacy) with a view to young people improving their skills or knowledge within these identified areas.
• Discussed any key emerging themes with their PSG identified either by the Tutor themselves or identified at a whole-school level, e.g. anti-bullying, behaviour standards.

In addition to the above:

With the exception of S4 PSGs, Tutors will have the opportunity to work with learners to identify a personalised theme for 1 of the terms in the year. This allows the Tutor to further build a relationship with their group as well as meeting the needs of the PSG. Ideas mooted in the working group included S5/6 pupils preparing for driving theory tests, S1 pupils completing an enterprise project to improve their presentation skills, S3 pupils taking brain break walks to improve fitness and mental wellbeing, S2s creating and then running online quizzes on S2 classes to improve knowledge retention but with a competitive edge. This work will not be directed but should be underpinned by either unmet personal support needs, teacher area of interest or pupil area of interest.