How we care | Habs Boys

Habs Boys is a place where you can feel safe and happy. Yet for whatever reason, sometimes our students need a little extra support.

At Habs, we are always here to help. After all, life is not always plain sailing and Sixth Form can feel more pressured than your previous school years.

What is going on?

Whatever you may be feeling or experiencing, we want you to know that you can talk to us and we will do our best to help. The world in which young people are growing up can be challenging, upsetting and exhausting, but we are here to listen to you and help to work through your struggles.

Your digital wellbeing is extremely important to us and as the online landscape evolves with AI, we are committed to educating and empowering you to flourish in an ever-changing world.

Our vision is for our students be engaged and impactful global citizens. Young people who understand their moral responsibility. This starts with our school community, where we promote positive relationships and support to help you develop empathy for others beyond our Sixth Form.

To that end, we encourage all students to find their voice and constructively challenge the injustices they see in the world.

Wellbeing at Habs

You can talk to us

A good first step if you are struggling, is to recognise you do not have to face any challenges alone.

Our pastoral team, which includes your Form Tutor, offers flexible support to help you in a variety of ways. This might be managing a difficult situation or easing any pressure you may feel under.

Our Form Tutors get to know our students really well in the first few weeks of the Sixth Form, so you can build a strong professional relationship with them. Also, the Deputy Head Pastoral, Assistant Head Pastoral, Head of Sixth Form and Deputy Head of Sixth Form are all available to provide a network of care, each closely supported by our Health Centre Team and Counsellors.

Our buddy system

Before you even start at Habs Boys’ Sixth Form, you will be paired with a ‘buddy’. This will be someone in the same form and house as you, who has studied at Habs in earlier years.

Your buddy will get in touch with you over the summer holidays before you start, so you can get to know each other before you meet. Being a familiar face when you arrive, your buddy will help you to settle in as soon as you join the Sixth Form.

If you feel it is appropriate, you could also talk to your buddy about any worries you have. They might be able to help, or point you in the direction of someone who can.

Individual needs

We do our very best to make sure every student enjoys personal and academic success. This means working closely with parents and guardians to provide the support each young person needs. Meanwhile, all our staff are expected to familiarise themselves with your unique needs, on a need-to-know basis.

At Habs, support can occur at various levels in school life. This might be through your Form Tutor, Head of Year, a subject teacher, study support sessions or learning skills programmes.

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

To help us to best help you, 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 you have 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.

Individual Needs policy

Spirituality

Spirituality is important in many families, especially at Habs Girls. We are fortunate our students come from such a diverse range of faith backgrounds.

We are fortunate that our pupils come from a diverse range of faith backgrounds. So whatever yours may be, please feel free to seek our support.

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

Assemblies take place two or three times a week. Each week, a group of students from one of the many different faith groups represented at Habs presents an assembly to the whole school. This way, we can all learn more about, and share in, each other’s beliefs and traditions.

Confidentiality

It can take a lot of courage to reach out and talk to somebody about whatever is worrying you.

Keeping you 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.

So if something is bothering you, please talk to us. No one needs to struggle in silence.