How we care

When your child comes into our Senior School at Year 7 or 9, they will be assigned a ‘buddy’. This buddy will help your child to settle in, showing them around school and our campus.

Your child’s buddy will be a student who has been through the same experience themselves, and can help to support your child as they settle into life at Habs. Your child may also feel able to talk to their buddy about any worries they have

Your child will also be invited to attend buddy socials during form time or lunchtime. This is a great ways to meet others in their houses and year group.

In addition to this this, each Year 7 form is allocated a Sixth Form prefect, who will support the form in their first year at Senior School.

The PSHE Curriculum at Habs is designed to help each student to maintain an informed, healthy and socially responsible lifestyle, with an awareness of the responsibilities, risks and challenges faced by young people and adults in the global society of the 21st century. The school is constantly evolving the programme with new resources, tailored to the specific needs of our students, to ensure that every child is taught the knowledge and skills needed to look after their own mental and physical health and wellbeing.

We care deeply about educating our pupils to understand and respect the fundamental British values and protected characteristics that are integral to our community. Our form tutors deliver the Jigsaw Secondary online resource to teach the weekly PSHE lessons across Years 7 to Year 11. In the Sixth Form, PSHE is taught vertically to promote healthy discussion, and we use a selection of lessons from the PSHE Association, Unifrog, ‘Your Journey of Life’ and relevant organisations.  Workshops with specialist speakers are organised for all year groups at different times through the year, focusing on age-appropriate issues such as digital wellbeing, physical health, mental health and relationships. Talks and/or workshops are also delivered to parents.

As per the statutory guidance, parents will continue to have a right to request to withdraw their child from Sex Education delivered as part of RSHE in secondary schools which, unless there are exceptional circumstances, should be granted, up to three terms before their child turns 16. At this point, if the child wishes to receive Sex Education rather than be withdrawn, the school should plan for this to happen in one of the three terms before the child turns 16 – the legal age of sexual consent.

Please read our PSHE and RSE for further information.

If you have any questions or feedback about any aspect of the PSHE Education curriculum, please do not hesitate to contact The Head of PSHE, Mr Chris Bass, via the Habs App.

We do our very best to make sure every child enjoys personal and academic success. This means working closely with parents and guardians to provide any support each child needs. In fact, all our staff are expected to familiarise themselves with each student’s needs, on a need-to-know basis.

Support can occur at various levels during school life. This might be through your child’s Form Tutor, House Team, Section Team, a subject teacher, study support sessions or an individual needs teacher.

Students with known medical conditions are on a special medical register and the school nurse holds individual medical plans.

To best help your child, please let us know if any specific learning needs have been identified, whether they be sensory or physical, related to cognition or learning, social, emotional or mental health or communication and interaction needs.

If your child has an assessment report, it is really helpful if you can share this with our Individual Needs team, so we can put in place any recommendations and provide the most appropriate support for your child.

Find our individual needs policy via our policies page

Spirituality is important in many families. Habs Boys welcomes a rich diversity of faiths within its community.

We are fortunate that our pupils come from a diverse range of faith backgrounds and students have the opportunity to learn about other faiths through our student-run Faith Assemblies. This enables us to celebrate our diversity and enriches our students’ understanding of the wider world.

We make special provision for children who need to fast, or be absent from school for religious reasons. We also have a multi-faith room which all our children can use.

Our Head of Diversity and Inclusion, Mrs M Zahid, will be very happy to speak to you or your child about any questions you may have.

It can take a lot of courage for a young person to reach out and talk to somebody about their concerns. Keeping our students safe is our most important priority. All of our staff undergo regular safeguarding training to ensure they have the knowledge and expertise to respond appropriately to any concerns in line with our safeguarding policy.
You can find out more about our safeguarding policy here.

Please make sure your child knows that if something is bothering them, they can talk to us. No one should struggle in silence.

At Habs we recognise students are on journey in their time here. The journey is both academic and also one of growth, development and change. Taking care of our students wellbeing and mental health is a key part of our day to day role and we recognise the link between student health, wellbeing, academic achievement and attainment. When students feel happy and cared for, they are more able to engage in their learning and reach their full potential. Additionally, we recognise the critical role parents play and the need to work together to support families as part of our Habs community.

Through a pastoral system of holistic care, lived values and the delivery of a comprehensive PSHE curriculum, we aim to ensure our students develop into well rounded individuals with strong core values who are recognised as such within the community, support others in the school community and go on to live successful and happy lives beyond their time at school.

Strong Pastoral Care is at the heart of everything we do, supporting our community and ensuring that pastoral care reaches every corner of our school – whether in the classroom, on the sports field or within the wider community. Every student is known as an individual and we celebrate their personal journey.
Mental health and wellbeing are priorities for the entire school community. We have a dedicated Mental Health Director within our Student Council and have specialist staff and students who have received Mental Health First Aid training, helping them to support the needs of our students. We actively promote a positive mental health message through assemblies, external speakers and it is an integral area within our PSHE curriculum. We also offer a House Mentoring Programme, where Sixth Form students support Middle School students through talks and one-to-one sessions. Additionally, we hold Parent Information Evenings each half term with external guests and our own Pastoral Leaders, offering guidance on a range of pastoral care topics.
For any safeguarding concerns our Designated Safeguarding Lead is Mr Adam Lawrence, Acting Deputy Head Safeguarding.

Please read our PSHE and RSE for further information.

Our school counsellors are available to support students through any difficulties they may experience, both in and outside of school. Counselling is person-centred, non-judgmental and non-directive and can be accessed through any member of the pastoral support team or by student self-referral. Our dedicated counselling spaces are designed to create a comfortable and supportive environment for positive change.

The health and well-being of our pupils is a priority and students are cared for by professionally registered and experienced nursing staff.

In addition to school support, we recognise that some students may require additional external support. The school signposts students and parents to external supports and services and works closely with community agencies to ensure they access the right services.