Aylburton C of E employs a SEND and Inclusion Lead, Lucy Nelmes, who has a level 4 mental health diploma, the NASENCo award and fully qualified teaching status. She has been SENDCo within the schools in the trust for over 10 years and is employed by Aylburton C of E School 1/2 a day a week. If you have any concerns for your child/ren please contact her via the office.

The school employs an ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant), also known as The Listening Post, who can support children on a 1-1 basis (with parental consent) or as part of a group. Her name is Poppy Turpin West. Poppy can be contacted via the office if you have any concerns regarding your child/ren and would like to discuss this directly with Poppy. Poppy is extremely experienced in working with children, having previously worked with the outreach team and alternative provision. She has received ELSA training via the Educational Psychology team and has ongoing supervision with this team. She is trained in Lego Therapy and Drawing and Talking therapy. 

Aylburton School is a Young Minds Matter School. Young Minds Matter is a safe and confidential mental health support service developed for children and young people up to 18 years of age in schools currently in the Trailblazer project across Gloucestershire. The team can offer you support if children are struggling with things like anxiety, low mood, poor sleep or similar. This can be either face-to-face in school or via a virtual online platform. To meet with someone from Young Minds Matter you can ask a teacher/member of staff in your school to make a referral for you. Please see the privacy notice below for details.

Trailblazer Programme | Mental Health Support Teams in Schools

We are delighted that our school has been given the opportunity to take part in a new, national programme to help make mental health support for children and young people more available when they need it.

We are one of 72 schools from Cheltenham, Gloucester and the Forest of Dean to work with the NHS in Gloucestershire to introduce Mental Health Support Teams into schools. 

We hope that these teams will provide valuable support to our pupils to help them with life’s ups and down, for example, with issues such as anxiety, friendship concerns, exam stress and challenging behaviour.

This may involve group work and/or individual, one-to-one support, either at school or elsewhere. Where appropriate, the Mental Health Support Team will also link up with the specialist mental health services in Gloucestershire. They will also support parents and teachers to help children and young people who are experiencing difficulties.

If you have any questions or concerns or would like to make a referral to the service, please contact the school office.

Forest of Dean Foodbank

We have staff who are authorised to issue foodbank vouchers. If you need help of this kind, please speak to either Emma Isaac, the Executive Head Teacher or Lucy Nelmes, the SEND and Inclusion Lead. You can speak to any member of staff you feel comfortable talking to and they will alert the relevant staff member. When you request a voucher, an authorised member of staff will contact you to ask for some details. If you do not feel comfortable answering any of the questions, just let them know. The form is generic and a preference not to disclose can be stated. You will need to be able to collect the food from a centre, listed on the website below. If you do not drive or are unable to collect for any reason, we can alert them of this fact and they will do their best to get food to you. We will help in any way we can.