The provision for students at the Royal Grammar School is strong. The school have fifty trained mental health champions, three youth mental health first aiderrs, three papyrus trained suicide prevention specialists. All staff in pastoral roles, Heads of year, Boarding staff, LSAs are trained as mental health champions.

Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools, 2023

Pastoral Care

At RGS, we believe that a strong foundation in mental health and wellbeing is essential for students to reach their full potential. Our comprehensive approach, recognised with the Carnegie Award for Mental Health in Schools, equips students with the knowledge, skills, and support to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.

The Royal Grammar School seeks to be a well ordered and caring community providing educational excellence for all pupils and which is underpinned by a pastoral care system that meets the changing needs of pupils as they grow and develop. This also ensures that every boy will have a smooth passage throughout his education, and will feel very much part of his form, the year group, and the whole school.

We seek to encourage the highest standards of behaviour and courtesy, with self-discipline and an awareness of the positive contribution that a boy can make to school life and to the community in general.

All pupils are in form groups with a form tutor who looks after their welfare. They take particular interest in the day to day matters that affect the boys, check their pupil planners, register their attendance, listen to their problems etc.

Each year group has a Head of Year who is also a teacher in the school and they support their team of form tutors as well as leading and managing the year group. They will help with issues of wellbeing as well as issues of overall academic performance, & behaviour and they liaise with parents on a regular basis.

The Deputy Headmaster has overall responsibility for welfare and discipline, supporting the work of the Heads of Year.

Additional support for the pupils comes from the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator as we seek to support those on the SEN Register. Outside agencies are used as necessary to help in specific areas

Safeguarding 

At The Royal Grammar School the health, safety and well-being of every child are our paramount concern. We want to work in partnership with parents to help all our students achieve their full potential and flourish both in and out of school.

To promote a safe environment for students, our selection and recruitment policy includes checks on staff and volunteers’ suitability, including DBS checks as recommended by Buckinghamshire County Council in accordance with current legislation.

In accordance with our responsibilities under section 175/157 of the Education Act 2002, and in line with Keeping Children Safe in Education, we have a Designated Safeguarding Lead for Child Protection (Mr David Durning) who is a member of the Senior Leadership Team, and has received appropriate training for this role. It is their responsibility to ensure all staff in contact with students receive child protection awareness training on a regular basis. We believe safeguarding and promoting our students' welfare is everyone’s responsibility and we work together as a team to achieve this. We listen to our students and take seriously what they tell us. A number of other staff are trained as additional Designated Safeguarding Leads to ensure there are sufficient staff to undertake this work. They are Stefanie Herath (Student Development Officer), Jon Scourfield (Head of Boarding & Assistant Head), & Gina Barry (School Matron).

There are occasions that our concern about a child may mean that we have to consult other agencies. Whilst we would always aim to work in partnership with parents, there may be exceptions to this when concerns are raised for the protection of a child.

On very rare occasions Social Care, whilst undertaking an investigation under S47 of the Children Act 1989, may want to speak to the child without the knowledge of the parent(s). This would be a decision made in collaboration with partner agencies and would only be done in situations where a child might be at immediate risk of harm. To gain consent at this point may increase the level of risk to the child or cause evidence of a crime to be lost.

The procedures which we follow have been laid down by Statutory Guidance and the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board, and the school has adopted a Child Protection Policy in line with this for the safety of all. If you want to know more about our procedures, please speak to the Headteacher or the Designated Safeguarding Lead. Our Child Protection Policy can be found on our school website.

If you have a Safeguarding concern and want to speak to the school, please contact Mr Durning: 01494 551 479 or email dpd@rgshw.com.

You can also call the Buckinghamshire Social Care First Response Team on 08454 600001 or if a child is at immediate risk of significant harm call 999.